The Uks Research Centre has held an urgent press conference on Thursday here at the Karachi Press Club to highlight the media reporting on the tragic murder of Noor Muqaddum.
Uks director Tasneem Ahmar, while addressing the press conference, said, “Being a media monitoring and advocacy organisation, Uks, for the past two decades has been engaged with the media on how to report women issues in general, and cases of VAW in particular.”
She said most of the time, there is more negative than positive content. “Every day there is news or two about children and women’s sexual abuse, rape, gang rape, harassment at work and in public places, abduction, kidnapping, trafficking and flesh trade, young girls dropping out of schools, and yet when women come out to ask for their rights, they are named and shamed,” she lamented.
Speaking on the occasion, renowned journalist and analyst, Centre for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ) director Kamal Siddiqi said the role of media has been changed towards society in the past decade.
He said, “I have observed a lot of sensationalism and poor reporting without any analyses, wrong choice of words and images while journalists report the incidents of violence against women.”
Kamal said journalists don’t take the violence against women seriously, with political issues and news dominating mainstream media. He urged journalists and media persons to have discussions and brainstorming among themselves and think if they are fulfilling the role of media in society.
