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Responsible journalism to combat human trafficking |27 June 2016

Better and responsible reporting is crucial for a better understanding of human trafficking and journalists need to be trained to be able to do this.

Two Seychellois media practitioners -- Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) radio producer Rajelle Barbé and Gerard Govinden of the Seychelles NATION newspaper were among colleagues of the southern Africa who attended a three-day training at the Phakalane Golf Estate Hotel in Gaborone, Botswana on how to report about trafficking in persons or human trafficking.

Other than Seychelles, the journalists working in print and broadcast media were drawn from Mauritius, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique, Lesotho, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania.

Some of the issues examined at the training organised by the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) were: understanding trafficking in persons, global and regional trends and responses, ethical principles/responsible journalism, and the role of the media in preventing trafficking in persons.

Journalists were told that it is important for them to understand a topic very well before writing about it, thus reporting human trafficking matters requires interest, technical knowledge and empathy.

As human trafficking is a complex crime that involves human relationships, journalists should keep a check on their emotion and seek all the facts besides developing technical competency on the issue, should also truthfully represent the particular situation both in its immediate and wider context as it is very important to get the full picture before reporting a trafficking situation.

As one needs to have the highest level of professionalism and clarity of mission when reporting about human trafficking, stereotyping or sensationalising people, situations or places is therefore not good.

Journalists have also been urged not to intentionally or unintentionally further stigmatise and traumatise the trafficked person.

A human interest story, human trafficking is a gross violation of human rights and is also a growing phenomenon which affects both the individuals and society.

So journalists have to tell the truth, be accurate and objective and above all fair in their reports, use masking techniques to avoid revealing the identities of the victims.

Research have proven that women and girls are the most vulnerable gender groups with regard to human trafficking in southern Africa and most of them are subject to sexual exploitation, labour exploitation and forced labour.

Journalists also learned about the differences between human trafficking or trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants. While both involve taking advantage of vulnerabilities of persons to obtain profit and are both risky and potentially life threatening, the impact for victims of human trafficking are usually more overriding and the harm more difficult and complex to reverse or remedy.

Human trafficking is described as a modern-day form of slavery involving the illegal trade of people for exploitation or commercial gain.

According to reports, human trafficking generates many billions of dollars of profit per year, second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable form of transnational crime.

It is a hidden crime as victims rarely come forward to seek help because of language barriers, fear of the traffickers, and/or fear of law enforcement.

The traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to lure their victims and force them into labour or commercial sexual exploitation. They look for people who are susceptible for a variety of reasons, including psychological or emotional vulnerability, economic hardship, lack of a social safety net, natural disasters, or political instability. The trauma caused by the traffickers can be so great that many may not identify themselves as victims or ask for help, even in highly public settings.

As for smuggling of migrant, it is a crime involving the procurement for financial or other material benefit of illegal entry of a person into a state of which that person is not a national or resident.

The Smuggling of Migrants Protocol supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime defines the smuggling of migrants as the "procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident." (Article 3, Smuggling of Migrants Protocol).

Migrant smuggling affects almost every country in the world. It undermines the integrity of countries and communities, and costs thousands of people their lives every year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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