Several journalists expressed their limitations in telling every story about human rights at the recently concluded two-day human rights media training by East Africa Visual Arts, a local NGO that advocates for human rights through art and media.
At the event, held at the Fairway Hotel in Kampala, journalists stated that while every human story is important and deserves a fair presentation in media, not every story is considered deserving of space in mainstream media by the editors or the media house policies for which they work.
This was especially evident when telling LGBTQI stories, where public opinion based on culture and religious beliefs influenced organizational policies, which also extended to personal platforms.
“It would be difficult to post a story that had been declined by my editor on my social media because what I post could be interpreted by the public as a representation of the media house I work for,” said one participant.
Participants, who included social media influencers, were asked to explain their understanding of what human rights meant to them. They were all fairly knowledgeable about human rights and the importance of being fair in reporting stories in order to avoid hurting others. one of the key issues raised was source consent. One participant mentioned how several times some reporters have secretly recorded a source (when not covering an investigative story), gotten information without the source knowing, and then aired or published the information.
One of the strategies introduced to participants by the facilitators was opening heart massages. It was stressed when writing human rights stories because it made those being reported on feel respected. This was emphasized because it fostered trust among reporters, their media organizations, and those interviewed. It was emphasized that in complex cases such as domestic violence and sexual assault, where survivors are unwilling to talk about their experiences in the media or even publicly, it was critical to find creative ways to tell the stories without interviewing the survivors. A local popular musician’s wife was discussed, whose photos of a bruised and battered face went viral on social media, and her unwillingness to assert that her husband was physically abusing her. Many people asked how such a story could be reported, and many different approaches were proposed.
In journalism, representation has been identified as an essential aspect of human rights. To avoid misgendering in reporting about LGBTIQ stories, ask people about their identity, how they want to be referred to, and their names. It was mentioned that in a conservative and religious community like Uganda, many of the beliefs people hold dear are inherited, most of the time passed down by parents, religious leaders, schools, and other people, but they are not values, Human rights hold values for humanity, journalists and social media influencers should always aim to present anyone to the public as a person, a human first and foremost when writing about them.
A short video titled “Out in the Cold”https://youtu.be/NydI3bsYpWM was shown to prompt journalists to consider the reality of LGBTI people in contrast to what they read and see in the news. The video depicted homeless LGBTI people in Uganda telling their stories. Journalists were asked, Investigate every story and always tell the truth.
A TED talk video by the famous Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, was played, in which she emphasized the danger of a single story. Her experience as a storyteller was meant to encourage journalists and social media influencers to eliminate the danger of telling any story from one point of view as that would lack balance and hence fairness. It was highlighted that single stories affect how people are perceived, they become that story which is very much lacking because it’s covered from only one side of the outlook and people are never that. In covering people as one story, their dignity is taken away and the truth is always lacking and their rights are violated in that way.
When it came to telling LGBTQI stories, participants also mentioned the need for a larger network of sources. They claimed that because few people in the LGBTQI community were free to come out openly and share their stories, they became tired of reusing the same sources every time they had a space to tell a sexual minority story. Participants wished for a broader understanding of rural-sexual minority voices in Uganda because much emphasis is placed on urban voices, leaving out rural sources whose stories are equally important.
Participants also expressed a desire to hear from human rights experts in order to deepen their understanding of human rights, particularly laws pertaining to minority groups in Uganda. In closing remarks, Vincent the Director of EAVA Artists emphasised research, he advised Journalists in attendance to conduct more research when reporting human rights stories for better reporting. He advised journalists to run away from Gatekeepers in the newsroom and to always look for liberal sources, websites or other publication outlets that are open to publishing their stories that have been rejected by the media organizations for which they work.
At the end of the training, journalists and social media influencers promised to do better in their roles as information gatherers and to always recognize the importance of fair Represataion of everyone in media with context.
