Jakarta – The National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) has criticized the nation's media for failing to exercise sensitivity in reporting on sexual abuse cases, saying that callous coverage often exacerbated the suffering of abuse victims.
The criticism accompanied the release of the results of Komnas Perempuan's recent monitoring of media coverage of sexual abuse cases. From January to June, the commission monitored nine print publications: Pos Kota, Koran Tempo, The Jakarta Post, Indopos, Jakarta Globe (now defunct), Koran Sindo, Media Indonesia, Kompas and Republika.
Komnas Perempuan commissioner Mariana Amiruddin said on Thursday that all nine publications had repeatedly published the identities of female victims of abuse. "That includes publishing victims' initials, which is a breach of the journalistic code of ethics," she told The Jakarta Post by phone.
The commission found that as well as revealing victims' identities, the publications also tended to focus on the victim in cases, rather than on the perpetrator. "The nine media also often mixed facts and opinions with news. This can lead to the stigmatization of a victim," Mariana warned.
Striking a similar tone, Chrismanto Purba, a Komnas Perempuan official who participated in the monitoring, said the commission had recorded 225 articles covering sexual abuses printed by the nine publications over the period.
Forty percent of the 225 news articles blended factual reporting with opinion, he said, while 38 percent contained information that revealed the identity of a victim and 21 percent contained inappropriate terms. "It is against the journalistic code of ethics to use inappropriate terms in news," he noted.
Such insensitive reporting could have a negative affect on victims of sexual abuse, Chrismanto went on. "When the media mix facts and opinion, for example, it is not impossible that their readers will be led to believe that the victim was the one who triggered the abuse," he said.
When asked to rank the nine publications in terms of numbers of violations, Chrismanto said that it was difficult to rank them because they published articles on sexual abuse with differing frequency.
"For example, it is unfair to compare Pos Kota and Media Indonesia because the former reported sexual abuse cases more frequently than Media Indonesia did," he explained.
Mariana further criticized media for their coverage of a recent prostitution case implicating two female celebrities. According to Mariana, coverage has been overly focused on the two women, rather than on their clients or pimps.
"As I understand it, the media are supposed to be balanced in their reporting. They should not have focused solely on the two celebrities," she said.
The National Police recently arrested two celebrities in a room at an upscale hotel in Central Jakarta. The undercover police also nabbed two men alleged to be acting as pimps for the two women.
The police later released the two women, arguing that they should be considered as victims of trafficking. However, despite their status as victims, they received ubiquitous media coverage, making them the center of public attention in the case.
According to a media observer from the University of Indonesia, Ade Armando, sexual abuse cases require greater delicacy than crimes such as theft.
"News media should be extra careful. They should never reveal the identity of the victims, because sexual abuse victims, on top of the trauma of the abuse itself, are also vulnerable to public stigmatization if the media are not sensitive in publishing the news. Publications only need to reveal the basic information, like where the crime took place, for example. They shouldn't mention anything that could allow easy identification of the victims," he said. (saf)