Female Journalists against Violence against Women is an informal group of over 80 journalists and editors from national and local media that fight against violence against women in an organized, public and vocal manner. In 2017. UNDP Serbia and B92 Fund initiated the establishment of the group intending to enhance media reporting about violence against women in Serbia, encourage ethical and educational informing and contribute to building a society that doesn’t tolerate violence against women.
Media rarely tackle gender-based violence from the educational point of view without a tangible case as a cause. Misunderstanding of the phenomenon of violence, its prevalence, causes and consequences leads to the normalization of violence from media instead of prevention. For this reason, the group Female Journalist against Violence is preparing a chain of educational programs for female and male journalists.
Training for Trainers for the group Female Journalist against Violence is organized to prepare a certain number of the group members to lead the workshops about media reporting on violence against women. It was held in Belgrade, lasted for four days (last two weekends in November). Representing Portal o invalidnosti, the public newsletter of the Organization ...IZ KRUGA – VOJVODINA, Marijana Canak participated in the training.
Jovana Gligorijevic, assistant editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Vreme and Sanja Pavlovic, a volunteer at the Autonomous Women’s Center, led the first part of the training. On the first day, the participants summarized their knowledge about gender-based violence, dilemmas and prejudice about the phenomenon, legal framework, femicide as the worst outcome and risk factors. In addition to theoretical knowledge about violence against women, the participants simultaneously acquired the necessary skills for educational work with adults. The second day was dedicated to sexual violence and the principles of the journalist’s work with the survivors that wish to share their stories.
During the second part of the training, the participants practiced in group work the knowledge they acquired, preparing their workshops on a given topic (work on a coaching matrix, planning the time frame/agenda, setting the goals of the workshop, creating interactive exercises for participants, selecting appropriate materials for media analyses, ways of channeling a discussion and comments, evaluation of work). The final part of the training was dedicated to the safety of female journalists (in the editorial office, on the field, in the family) and the existing mechanisms of protection. Jovana Gligorijevic led all the sessions. At the end of an educational part, Lepa Mladenovic, a psychologist and an activist, joined the participants. She led a group session about self-care and managing stress.
