Three days in ”anti-trafficking” zone

Interview with training expert Gegham Vardanyan, producer of Media.am website, media trainer. Working at Media Initiatives Center (former Internews).

– Who do you consider as an experienced journalist in covering trafficking related issues, how would you rate the awareness of Armenian journalists in the dissemination of trafficking?

– Actually, it is a very complicated question, taking into account presence of a constant turnover of journalists in the area: their number increases and decreases periodically. So, it would be more proper to discuss the traditions used in the editorials, meaning which traditions the editorials apply while disseminating human destinies. A journalist who covers trafficking, disseminates a history of somebody’s misfortune and if the editorial does not have customs of respective methodology of dealing with such stories, ofproper dissemination, protecting the privacy and personal info, not harming the victim of trafficking, the problems would always occur. The dissemination of trafficking has been very impulsive for many years. Main disseminations havebeen conducted once there was an information occasion for instance a whistle-blowing case. In fact this specific genre implies a long-term job, consistent attention to hearings and so on. To cut it short, there has not yet been established a global regulated approach to trafficking in Armenian media.

This problem also comes from the fact, that the general Armenian media field has a problem in disseminating human stories. Almost every day you face it. For instance, just recently most of the Armenian media referred to the subject of a fifteen years old girl’s suicide mentioning both her name, surname, name of the village, where she lived- all the personal details were obviously written. A story, like stories of trafficking victims, is a story of misfortune, in the writing process of which the journalist has to adhere the simple rules of journalistic ethics. My point is that these are entirely the problems of our media field, but given that trafficking is a crime, and lots of various organizations addressing it write about how to disseminate trafficking, how to work with the victim, the job of journalists becomes relatively easier. I think nowadays there are all the preconditions in Armenia for writing good articles while covering trafficking. Therefore, if a journalist wants to do a good job, he will do it; the matter is only in their wish and traditions.

– There were many discussion on the journalistic ethics During the training:how important is it to adhere to it not to harm a victim of trafficking?

– While covering trafficking caes, journalistic ethic is one of the most essential components. When we were discussing such details during the training that a victim’s face should be covered, private details should not be mentioned in the material, the main question of journalists was: “How could people trust us, wouldn’t they(a reader or a viewer) question whether the history is real or not?”.

These questions are natural. But we shall go on with the statement that journalistic ethic should always exist in journalist’s work. Besides, very often the editorial considers the matters connected with ethics his own deal: he makes voluntary restraints on his activities, in order to prove to the society that even though he is not ready to follow the rules, he does it to gain the trust of the society . It means, ethics is a matter of trust. And while disseminating such difficult subjects as trafficking is, following the norms of trafficking is more than important for not harming a victim, for not destroying a human destiny. In Armenia, now, we face such situation when not all media representatives accept those restrains for themselves. There is a group of journalists who have signed ethics regulation, there are also separate media representatives, who have their own regulations, there is also media ethics observatory institution; however given all above mentioned there is a need of so called “self-regulation” with which we have problems in Armenia. One of the most important things about ethics is not harming a victim, his or her feelings, social position, keeping private details in secrecy- trafficking refers only to one’s private life, isn’t it? And without adhering the ethical norms, we may destroy human destinies.

– Which are the main mistakes the journalists most often make while covering trafficking?

– During the training we have presented the investigation of the Armenian media, all the materials published in 2013, which have had any referral to trafficking. We have divided the articles that we have examined into several groups. First of all “trafficking” term itself is often interpreted in a wrong way. In other words trafficking is associated with abuse, in some cases family violence, and in many other cases-prostitution. So, to some extents this word has become like a “mem” in the society. That is one of the most common mistakes. In some cases this word is used as a characterization and is not understood quite well. As a result of such improper use, any case of violence of a working contract, for example, may be characterized as trafficking, which is obviously wrong. So, here we have a problem of using the word in a wrong context. There are mistakes when a journalist preparesa material where the victim becomes known to everyone, in other words it becomes easier to understand where the victim is from, who he/she is; that is also a very common mistake. There are articles where the information is not presented entirely right. Here I mainly mean the dissemination of court hearings. Coverage of a Trial case is not a momentary activity, the trials may take several months, years and even more. If the journalist wants to cover a trial, he or she should attend all court hearings, follow to the development of the case, combine everything that happens during all that period, and finally sum them up in one material, when the whole picture of the trial is clear, or as another option-examine the material and further write series of articles. But here iswhat we have in the reality: there is Datalex system, where all the trials are included sorted by articles, names, judges and the system also provides all the judicial conclusions. There is an approach in journalism known as “armchair journalism”, when ajournalist sources information about court hearings by Datalex without going to court and by changing only several words he has the material. And since such terms as «trafficking», <sexual abuse>, <sexual relations> are present in the material, interest of the audience in the material is guaranteed. Unfortunately, the jounalist harms his <hero>, making her private life misfortune public. Work with one’s private matters is another common mistake. Of course, we can understand that those details are obviously put in datalex, but hardly ever a simple person may look up for information in a judicial website. Whereas, if the same information the journalist retypes, making it available for large audiences, not mentioning the violation of journalistic ethics and used definitions, it already turns into a bad journalism.

– You have been in active communication with the journalists who were participating in «How to disseminate trafficking by media» training for three days. What impressions do you have from the training?

– The group that has been gathered,is a good one, it involve people who are really engaged in the dissemination of trafficking. I saw people who were planning to make a TV program on trafficking, there were poeple who have already made the program and they wanted to find out what could be corrected, there were people who had already written articles and wanted to write again. In other words most of the participants have a great interest in the dissemination of the subject. There were also young journalists who have been actively participating in the training.

I also want to mention that the training has been organized in a very interesting way in terms of contact making. Usually, a journalist is not so closely working to the police, NGO representatives who deal with trafficking- journalists are not always able to be in direct contact with the experts of the field,in addition in such a friendly atmosphere. The training was also successful in terms of exchange of contacts and networking.. And to conclude the expert team of the training was properly selected: specialists,who have shared their knowledge with thejournalists during the three days forhow to work with human stories in properlymanners.