The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) has launched its Gender-Based Violence Reporting toolkit to commemorate the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. The guidebook and the dos and don’ts for GBV reporting were culled from the CJID Gender-Based Violence Reporting Handbook launched by the Centre in March 2022 to address the knowledge gap in gender reporting.

Following the launch of the CJID GBV Reporting Handbook, there were indications from media stakeholders on a need to compress the resource material to a toolkit to help journalists and facilitate better reportage of gender-based violence in West Africa. The original handbook is now compressed to less than 30 pages, allowing for easy assimilation and comprehension by journalists, editors, and other media professionals who might want a quick guide.

Like other members of society, journalists have been socialised to view some forms of GBV as normal, which impacts how they frame stories and reports around the incident. It is critical to ensure that journalists and reporters accurately understand GBV and are equipped to report it in transformative ways. This is because the media can propagate gender stereotypes that perpetuate violence against women and other vulnerable groups if they are not enlightened. 

The GBV Toolkit simplifies gender and gender-based violence and the importance of reporting gender-based violence in ethical forms. It also highlights the legal instruments available to fight against GBV and how the media can report GBV in transformative ways that will not harm the victims, help survivors get justice, and motivate state actors to put policies and structures in place to protect women, children, and other vulnerable groups against GBV in the country. The guidebook for reporting GBV is available for free download here, while the dos and don’ts for reporting on GBV can be downloaded here.