Special broadcast for family violence

THE National Broadcasting Corporation’s country-wide drive to prevent violence against women saw it hosting a live open-air broadcast from Kokopo market last Thursday.
NBC partnered with wo­men’s advocates, health offi­cials and the police in East New
Britain in a week-long workshop to use the mass media to prevent what many health officials call a crisis in PNG.
Statistics show that in coastal areas, nearly 50% of wo­men face violence in the home.
In the Highlands region, that number jumps to nearly 100%.
Family violence is considered a driving force for sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS. It has been linked to decreased economic productivity and poor health among women and children.
The outside broadcast was sponsored by the Media for Development Initiative, which is a partnership between the NBC and ABC funded by the Australian government.
AusAID has provided increasing support to media efforts to reduce violence against women and promote development.
“Australia is supporting this training because journalists have a responsibility to accurately and sensitively report on this issue and to widely distribute information about treatment and support services for victims of violence,” Stuart Schaeffer, head of the AusAID programme in PNG, said.
One of the services profiled on the radio programme was the Kokopo police station’s new family sexual violence unit.
Since 2009, the constabulary has been instituting such units in police stations around the country.
The unit in Kokopo opened in January and already, hundreds of women have come in to file cases.
Women’s advocate Ruby Matane of the Grace Counselling Centre and Pr Henry Toliman also spoke to the crowd.
Both work with police to counsel survivors of violence.
Since last September,
the NBC has used its
airwaves to tackle attitudes
and behaviours that lead to family violence.
“This is one of the key focus areas of our corporate
plan 2011-15,” NBC mana­ging director Memafu Kapera said.
The week-long workshop on health and gender in Rabaul is the fourth regional training sponsored by MDI and NBC.
Next month, the NBC will train its staff in the Momase region.