Media told: Don’t glorify abusers
Published: Thursday, March 14, 2013
Geisha Kowlessar
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| Valerie Youseff |
Emphasising her point, Youseff used examples of reports in the print media, singling out headline and sub-headings. In some instances, she argued, they were all that people read in a report and the media, therefore, had a responsibility to paint a true picture of what really happened without exaggeration or twisting the facts.
“When we write what we write, we have to think how it is going to be publicly received. In instances of child abuse we really need to be conscious of what we put into the paper and how that will affect the victim later on,” Youseff added. One detrimental effect of reporting specific details in child abuse cases was running the risk of “enticing and titillating” the wrong people.
She said: “I have not researched that but this is what I was told when I commented to someone I had not expected to find this level of detail in these reports. “Someone who actually worked in the media did say to me they understand that quite a few people do read these reports, particularly for these details.” Saying enticing the wrong people, including would-be-paedophiles, was not intentional by media houses Youseff appealed for media managers to think beyond selling newspapers.
She added: “It is fine to say it sells but I honestly don’t think that we necessarily are told to think beyond that. The very fact that we have competition among the newspapers is going to create a culture that you want to sell. “But if even one newspaper stood up and said ‘we are not going to represent things in this way,’ I really think it would make everyone else think about it.”
She said it sometimes took years for a court case to be completed and during that time the victim could be a young woman who could also be in a relationship. “She might be in a relationship she is struggling with because of all that has happened to her and that might be ruined by what is being said in the media,” she said.
The way forward, Youseff recommended, was to recognise and ensure that the victim had a voice and it was one which people were interested to hear. She said: “It’s not everybody who wants to hear about violence or the level of abuse...quite a lot of people are really concerned about the position of the victim. “So we can look at the whole angle we take these stories from. There are many different angles as there are many people in the total scenario.”
Youseff said in cases where someone had died as a result of abuse or had gone through a series of abuse, sometimes the perpetrator was represented by the media almost as a “kind of anti-hero.” “There is that in women who are attracted, in a peculiar, self-destructive kind of way, to the man who is violent and abusive and it’s as if that is seen to be at work in little relationships reporters pick up on in a court scenario and they represent it as they are seeing it,” Youseff said.
She gave the example of the case of four-year-old Amy Emily Annamunthodo, who was repeatedly raped, sodomised and beaten to death by her stepfather, Marlon King. Youseff recalled one daily newspaper reported one instance of two women vying for King’s attention while the court case was going on. She said: “For some reason the report chose to report the way in which these two women were talking to him and almost jostling for his attention.
“Why should he get so much attention from the press of that kind? Shouldn’t we be condemning him?” Youseff questioned. King was sentenced to hang for the child’s murder.
...Mahabir-Wyatt cautions about use of language
Chair of the Coalition Against Domestic & Gender-Based Violence Diana Mahabir-Wyatt also urged the media to be careful in the use of language, saying one word could make a huge difference and relay the wrong meaning. She gave an example of a 15-year-old girl from south Trinidad who committed suicide on a beach with a 26-year-old man. The girl was reported to “having an affair” with the man.
“A 15-year-old cannot have ‘an affair,’ because it is statutory rape. He was referred to as her lover, not somebody who had seduced her, which is what he had done. He was sneaking around her home and luring her away. He was a predator.” Mahabir-Wyatt appealed for care in the language used in relation to child abuse, because children were being raped and were not capable of consenting to sexual relations.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2013-03-14/media-told-don%E2%80%99t-glorify-abusers
Mahabir-Wyatt hits out at lack of proper Children’s Authority
Published:
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Chairman
of the Coalition Against Domestic Violence Diana Mahabir-Wyatt has
promised to start a revolution if the Children’s Authority is not
properly constituted. An emotional Mahabir-Wyatt made the disclosure
during the afternoon segment of a three-day seminar, titled “Violence
Against Children—Breaking the Cycle V.” The seminar is being held at the
Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, and ends today.
In attendance were representatives of the Rape Crisis Association, the T&T Police Service and several non-governmental organisations tasked with ensuring the protection of children. Mahabir-Wyatt said every year various governments talked about children and the crimes perpetuated against them, yet the authority was lacking in many ways. She added: “They still don’t have funding. They still don’t have staffing and the act is yet to be proclaimed.
“There are nine people to do the work within the authority. These include investigations, research and other aspects of the authority. “With only nine people it’s humanly impossible to achieve anything.” Mahabir-Wyatt said when one looked around the country, it was obvious children needed help. She said children were sleeping on the streets and were also victims of abuse, yet the authority was not getting financial assistance from Government to deal with its mandate.
“We need to start a revolution to ensure we get the authority properly set up,” she said to applause. Also speaking during the afternoon session was chairman of the Children’s Authority Stephanie Daly, SC. She outlined the roles and functions of the authority and said it faced various challenges. She said so far there was no centralised system for reporting abuse or neglect against children.
However, what was in existence was a system which “makes it more traumatic for children,” she added. Outlining that statistics have revealed that there are 330,000 children living in T&T, Daly said the mandate of the Children's Authority was vast, yet it was understaffed.—Denyse Renne
In attendance were representatives of the Rape Crisis Association, the T&T Police Service and several non-governmental organisations tasked with ensuring the protection of children. Mahabir-Wyatt said every year various governments talked about children and the crimes perpetuated against them, yet the authority was lacking in many ways. She added: “They still don’t have funding. They still don’t have staffing and the act is yet to be proclaimed.
“There are nine people to do the work within the authority. These include investigations, research and other aspects of the authority. “With only nine people it’s humanly impossible to achieve anything.” Mahabir-Wyatt said when one looked around the country, it was obvious children needed help. She said children were sleeping on the streets and were also victims of abuse, yet the authority was not getting financial assistance from Government to deal with its mandate.
“We need to start a revolution to ensure we get the authority properly set up,” she said to applause. Also speaking during the afternoon session was chairman of the Children’s Authority Stephanie Daly, SC. She outlined the roles and functions of the authority and said it faced various challenges. She said so far there was no centralised system for reporting abuse or neglect against children.
However, what was in existence was a system which “makes it more traumatic for children,” she added. Outlining that statistics have revealed that there are 330,000 children living in T&T, Daly said the mandate of the Children's Authority was vast, yet it was understaffed.—Denyse Renne
Source: http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2013-03-13/mahabir-wyatt-hits-out-lack-proper-children%E2%80%99s-authority
A
burst of laughter from women watching a video presentation at
yesterday’s Violence Against Children Conference prompted a male
participant to harshly criticise the womens’ behaviour, saying every day
men were being financially, emotionally and psychologically abused by
women. Today is the last day of the three-day conference at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain.
The tongue-lashing by Brian Bradshaw happened during a presentation by behaviour change consultant Frank Dolly on the topic of bullying. The presentation showed a staged incident where a young man was bullied into surrendering a box of chicken and chips to another youth. That youth in turn was bullied and slapped by another man who snatched the meal.
Bradshaw, a member of Men Against Violence Against Women, said the laughter was a “first class example” of how men’s pain was trivialised. “Had it been a reversal of the role in the video people would have been cringing. Some would have been crying and choking... we don’t have safe spaces for men and boys to talk about the bullying, the abuse, the incest,” Bradshaw said.
He also branded society as hypocritical because it was only when certain things happened to people or the children of people of a certain ilk did issues like bullying come to the national agenda. Saying many men are also sexually violated by women whom they trust, Bradshaw said those were not gender problems but rather “human problems.”
Bradshaw, who said he was also abused “to some degree” by a woman, added there were women who emotionally abused men in the worst way particularily by insulting their anatomy. “Women are the number one perpetrators of emotional abuse... the amount of things a woman can tell you to emasculate you, to destroy you... it’s painful.
“They tell you, ‘you like a pennacool in hot sun. What make you sure those children are yours? I have faked my orgasms all these years.’ Women are experts at emotional abuse and this is more dangerous than the physical abuse. It’s not about defending men it’s about human rights.” Some women, he added, were also responsible for financially abusing men when they demanded, “my money is my money and your money is my money.”
And there were those women, Bradshaw charged, who knew how to control men, using sex. “Women also played deadly sexual politics... vaginal politics in the bedroom as a way to control their men,” Bradshaw said. Asked to explain what he meant Bradshaw said that was using sex as a weapon of “power and control big time” in the bedroom.
Creating more non-governmental organisations was not the way forward to assist men but rather creating “spaces” for them to talk about their problem. “We have to encourage critical thinking. Nobody deals with the issue of people growing up in different demographic environment and having different experiences. We are under this myth that we are all one,” he said.
A woman in the conference then apologised for the laughter, saying she understood the message in the video was very serious but the manner in which the scene was played out sparked humour.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2013-03-13/violence-against-children-conference-hear-women-also-violating-men
The tongue-lashing by Brian Bradshaw happened during a presentation by behaviour change consultant Frank Dolly on the topic of bullying. The presentation showed a staged incident where a young man was bullied into surrendering a box of chicken and chips to another youth. That youth in turn was bullied and slapped by another man who snatched the meal.
Bradshaw, a member of Men Against Violence Against Women, said the laughter was a “first class example” of how men’s pain was trivialised. “Had it been a reversal of the role in the video people would have been cringing. Some would have been crying and choking... we don’t have safe spaces for men and boys to talk about the bullying, the abuse, the incest,” Bradshaw said.
He also branded society as hypocritical because it was only when certain things happened to people or the children of people of a certain ilk did issues like bullying come to the national agenda. Saying many men are also sexually violated by women whom they trust, Bradshaw said those were not gender problems but rather “human problems.”
Bradshaw, who said he was also abused “to some degree” by a woman, added there were women who emotionally abused men in the worst way particularily by insulting their anatomy. “Women are the number one perpetrators of emotional abuse... the amount of things a woman can tell you to emasculate you, to destroy you... it’s painful.
“They tell you, ‘you like a pennacool in hot sun. What make you sure those children are yours? I have faked my orgasms all these years.’ Women are experts at emotional abuse and this is more dangerous than the physical abuse. It’s not about defending men it’s about human rights.” Some women, he added, were also responsible for financially abusing men when they demanded, “my money is my money and your money is my money.”
And there were those women, Bradshaw charged, who knew how to control men, using sex. “Women also played deadly sexual politics... vaginal politics in the bedroom as a way to control their men,” Bradshaw said. Asked to explain what he meant Bradshaw said that was using sex as a weapon of “power and control big time” in the bedroom.
Creating more non-governmental organisations was not the way forward to assist men but rather creating “spaces” for them to talk about their problem. “We have to encourage critical thinking. Nobody deals with the issue of people growing up in different demographic environment and having different experiences. We are under this myth that we are all one,” he said.
A woman in the conference then apologised for the laughter, saying she understood the message in the video was very serious but the manner in which the scene was played out sparked humour.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2013-03-13/violence-against-children-conference-hear-women-also-violating-men
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