A good day to call out News Agencies & Co.

It was a Sunday in May (2nd of May,2021 I think), after church service I was on Instagram trying to catch up happenings round the world. That was when my eyes suddenly caught a post made by Punch Newspaper. Lo and behold, it was the CCTV evidence tendered against Baba Ijesha confirming the sexual abuse of a minor.

I could not even play the video due to the tremor in my fingers. I was extremely shocked and devastated that the heartbreakingly disgusting video was released and there was no attempt to ease the trauma that young girl may have faced. Minutes later, the video was deleted but the video had been circulated to other platforms already.

Apart from the legal issues surrounding this incident, the lack of sensitivity towards the survivor who was a little girl genuinely crippled me and since then I watched Punch Newspaper and other media houses closely. I began to study the pattern of newspaper headlines especially towards gender based violence and was not surprised to observe 0% language sensitivity in some media platforms. Moving on to blogs and vlogs, the story is much worse and it will interest you to know that some of these platforms are run by women.

Media plays a strategic role in either curbing or promoting gender based violence. The Media, as subtle as it may be, has great influence on the way people think and how they respond to issues. We also have a role to play in adjusting the approach the media takes, after all, we are the audience. This has been the concern of UN Women and many other international bodies who have noticed the way gender based violence is being presented all over the world.

If you don't agree with this article, ask yourself why blogs casually threw the words 'rape and 'rapist' in the clash between Burna Boy and Shatte Wale. Some even added jokey emojis. Imagine if the accusation was murder, oh maybe that would have been taken more serious?