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BBC’s vocabulary letting women down

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BBC, petition, vocabulary, violence against women and girlsFailures contributing to victim-blaming attitudes and the erasure of women’s experiences.

The media affects the way we view the world around us, making it crucial that journalists report issues responsibly.

Particularly journalists at the BBC, given that it is paid for by us – the licence-fee payer.

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is endemic on our society, and so it is really important that the BBC – and other media – report on issues relating to violence against women and girls in a way that draws attention to the seriousness of the issue and makes clear who is the perpetrator and who is the victim/survivor.

But in October, for example, the BBC published a news story with the headline ‘…Care girl had sex with member of staff’. This put the responsibility on a 16 year-old girl being looked after by the state, rather than on the adult who abused their position of authority. And it was abuse, not ‘sex’.

The next day, one headline was ‘Man dies after woman stabbed to death…‘. A woman was violently murdered but framed in the headline as an afterthought. After all, a man had died. A man who, police believed, had murdered the woman in question.

So language matters.

It is such an important issue that the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) saw fit to issue its own guidelines relating to reporting violence against women and girls, which include points such as:

Name violence against women as violence against women (e.g. domestic violence is not a “volatile relationship”);

Do not use the word ‘sex’ when you mean ‘rape’;

“Honour” crime should appear in quotes or with “so-called” before it.

“Crime of passion” is not an appropriate way to describe murder;

Take care not to imply that a survivor of gender-based violence might be somehow, even partially, to blame for the violence she has experienced, nor assume or imply that any of her behaviour might have triggered the abuse or that “she asked for it”; and

Avoid treating homicides resulting from domestic violence as inexplicable or unpredictable tragedies simply because the factors which led to the homicide are unknown.

Despite these very clear guidelines, the BBC continues to publish news headlines and articles which go against these core messages and contribute to victim-blaming attitudes and the erasure of women’s experiences.

Melanie Jeffs has set up a petition calling on the BBC to properly adhere to the NUJ’s guidelines and to properly engage with organisations such as Ending Victimisation and Blame to develop a better understanding of these issues.

You can sign the petition by clicking here.

For everyday sexism you can complain to the BBC.

If that fails, try Ofcom.

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