Webinar: Dignity for Abused Women in the News by Against Violence and Abuse

WEBINAR ENDED

About This Webinar

AVA, Level Up and Women in Journalism join forces to host a panel event as part of the 16 days of action against gender-based violence.

AVA & Level Up will introduce their new project that aims to train journalists to sensitively report on domestic abuse & domestic homicide, as well as support survivors to produce content as citizen journalists. This will be followed by a panel discussion hosted by Women in Journalism's chair, Alison Phillips, featuring AVA Director Donna Covey, Domestic Abuse Commissioner Nicole Jacobs, BBC Gender & Identity Correspondent Megha Mohan, Investigations Editor of the Sunda Mirro Geraldine McKelvie, author and domestic abuse survivor Luke Hart, Level Up co-director and author of the Dignity for Dead Women media guidelines Janey Starling.

The panelists will be exploring the role that journalists play in influencing the way gender-based violence is understood across society, and how to produce stories that hold power to account for and improve public understanding of domestic abuse.

This event is aimed at anyone who works in journalism, advocates for domestic abuse survivors or has an interest in improving how survivors’ stories are reported in our media and public discourse.

This project is funded by The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, for more information about the project please email maria.carvalho@avaproject.org.uk.

Presenters

AVA Project

AVA is an expert, groundbreaking and independent charity working across the UK.

Our vision
A world without gender based violence and abuse.

Our mission
Working with survivors to end gender-based violence by championing evidence-based change.

Our guiding principles
Survivors are at the heart of everything we do.
As a feminist organisation, we understand that ending violence and abuse means challenging societal attitudes in order to change the behaviour of individual perpetrators.
AVA is a fiercely independent organisation. We are informed by the lived experience of survivors, robust evidence and a passion for equality.
We can make more of a difference in partnership than alone. We all have a responsibility to work together to end violence against women and girls.
We strive to take an intersectional approach to all that we do.

The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

Funder

The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust is a Quaker trust which supports people who address the root causes of conflict and injustice. This support is provided, primarily, through funding applied for by applicants.

Women in Journalism - Alison Phillips

Chair of event

The UK’s leading networking, training and campaigning organisation for journalists.Founded by Eve Pollard 28 years ago, Women in Journalism is a not for profit organisation that provides guidance and support for our members. They are from diverse social and ethnic backgrounds, at every stage of their careers, and work across all platforms around the UK and overseas.

Alison Phillips is the current chair of WIJ and editor of the Daily Mirror.

Nicole Jacobs

Domestic Abuse Commissioner

Nicole Jacobs was appointed in 2019 as the first designate Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales. Nicole has dedicated her career to supporting victims and survivors and has more than 20 years’ experience as a frontline worker and in domestic abuse policy and intervention.

The Domestic Abuse Commissioner is an independent voice that speaks on behalf of victims and survivors. The Commissioner will use her statutory powers, which are set out in the Domestic Abuse Bill, to raise public awareness and hold both agencies and government to account in tackling domestic abuse.

Janey Starling

Level Up's Co-Director and author of the Dignity for Dead Women media guidelines

Level Up is a feminist organisation based in the UK. Their mission is to build a community of people who can work together to interrupt all forms of gender injustice.

Their vision is a world where people of all genders are loved and liberated from the systems of oppression that lead to bodily and systemic violence.

Ryan Hart

Author and domestic abuse survivor

Ryan Hart, and his brother Luke Hart, share their family’s story of coercive control and domestic homicide. In 2017 they released their book, Remembered Forever, and set up their organisation, CoCoAwareness, to increase the awareness of coercive control. So far, their work has taken them to over 13 countries and they have trained tens of thousands of professionals in identifying, understanding, and ending domestic abuse.

They are White Ribbon Ambassadors and Refuge Champions speaking out against male violence towards women and children. They have also worked with the charity Level Up to produce and advocate for the acceptance of domestic homicide reporting guidelines and have received a number ofawards for their work in raising awareness – including the Lincolnshire Police Outstanding Contribution to Public Service 2018/2019, BBC Inspirations 2020 award and the Big Issue’s Top 100 Changemakers of 2020.

Megha Mohan

Gender and Identity Correspondent for the BBC

Prior to her current role, which began in September 2018m Megha was a senior multimedia staff reporter at the BBC’s Digital Current Affairs department. There, she told stories on subcultures across Asia, Africa, the US and Europe, with a focus on gender.

Her original reports include the influence of the Alt-Right in global politics, the War on Drugs in the Philippines, the billion dollar livestreaming industry in China, meme culture in India, women in North Korea’s army, political instability in DR Congo, and the spread of propaganda and misinformation in Burundi.

She regularly appears on BBC News TV, the World Service and Radio 4.

Prior to joining the BBC, she spent extensive time working in the Great Lakes in Africa.

Donna Covey CBE

AVA's Chief Executive

Donna has been Chief Executive of AVA since December 2014. She started her career in the Trade Union movement, specialising in equality and diversity issues, and spent 10 years as a member of the TUC General Council. She has run a number of third sector organisations, including Asthma UK and the Refugee Council. She has written extensively on health, equality and human rights issues. In 2013 Donna was awarded the CBE for services to equality and human rights. She is the executive chair of IRISi, the social enterprise delivering IRIS, the gold standard Domestic Violence intervention for General Practice.

Geraldine McKelvie

Investigations Editor of the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People

Reporting on violence against women and girls has always been a key focus of Geraldine's work. She has led investigations into child sexual exploitation and exposed how the justice system fails women who are driven to kill violent partners and those fighting to overturn convictions obtained as a result of abuse. Recently, she has been part of a focus group comprised of female Mirror journalists, analysing reporting of violence against women and girls.