Ethics and journalism: Reporting human trafficking responsibly

This webinar discussed ethical guidelines for journalists when reporting on victims and survivors of human trafficking, sexual exploitation, and labor abuse. It also explored the possibilities to collaborate with civil society organizations that share the goal of ending modern slavery. Speakers included Aidan White, Charles Autheman, and Wahyu Dhyatmika. 

Register here. 

Human trafficking is one of the three most profitable criminal activities. In this framework, making assumptions about victims of exploitation could be discriminatory. For that reason, journalists need to search, dig and examine these cases being careful about the victims' and survivors’ testimonies.

In order to give journalists the tools to do so, we prepared this training focused on ethics in journalism that will be useful, especially when building rapport with victims and survivors of modern slavery. As a plus of this webinar, we also counted on the participation of Civil Society Organizations who are the ones setting the agenda to prevent and end modern slavery. With their participation, added to the work of journalists, the expected impact is that the prevalence and scope of modern slavery in Asia and Europe would be reduced.

Addressing modern slavery through media coverage could provide a stronger foundation for de-normalizing the conditions which allow human trafficking to occur and greater confidence for those wishing to report abuses.

This webinar was produced by Journalismfund.eu’s Modern Slavery Unveiled programme. 

Ethics and journalism: Reporting human trafficking responsibly featured three speakers with experience investigating this topic:

• Aidan White is a journalist. He is Director of the Ethical Journalism Network a global campaign promoting good governance and ethical conduct in media. He was the General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists from 1987 until April 2011. He previously worked for several newspapers in the United Kingdom. He was with The Guardian in London prior to joining the IFJ. The fight for ethical and free journalism has always been at the center of White’s work.
• Charles Autheman is a French independent consultant. He has been organizing and facilitating training workshops for journalists, trade unionists and communication professionnals for the past 10 years in over 20 different countries, mostly in the Middle-East, Africa and  South Asia. More recently he coordinated the production of the first media-friendly glossary on migration and the ILO media toolkit on forced labour and fair recruitment 
• Wahyu Dhyatmika is an investigative reporter and an editor for Tempo Media Group, an independent news organization based in Jakarta. He is a member of International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Wahyu is also a board member of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and secretary-general of the Indonesian Cyber Media Association (AMSI).

Watch it here.  

Date: Wednesday 9 February 2022

Time:
09:00 AM (Washington, DC, Toronto)
14:00 (London, Tunis)
15:00 (Berlin, Cairo, Paris, Johannesburg)
17:00 (Amman, Moscow, Kampala, Nairobi, Istanbul)
19:00 (Islamabad)
19:30 (Delhi)
20:00 (Dhaka)
21:00 (Bangkok, Jakarta, Hanoi)
22:00 (Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Manila)
23:00 (Tokyo, Seoul)