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Overview
Survivors play a critical role in the change needed to end violence against women and their children.
Some survivors, as well as their family and friends, want to share their stories in the media so their lived experience and expertise can contribute to the public conversation. Others do not.
When reporting on violence, remember that the survivors have been through trauma. The way you treat them and share their story may impact on their healing. Not all those impacted by violence want to speak to the media, and safety is an issue. Ensure they have access to support throughout the process of sharing their story.
Consider if your case study reinforces narratives about ‘ideal victims’. Ensure you select survivors who reflect the diversity of the Australian population, in order to broaden public understanding of the society-wide impacts of men’s use of violence against women.
Interview survivors who have undergone media advocacy training where possible.
When obtaining informed consent, be aware of the inherent power imbalance between media organisations and survivors which may impact on the voluntary nature of the consent process.
Find key statistics on violence against women in Australia.
Taking a trauma-informed approach to interviewing survivors
When interviewing survivors, it is important to focus on the process as well as the outcome. Your interview and reporting may re-traumatise them or put their safety at risk. Talking to children who are survivors of or witnesses to violence can be particularly risky.
A best-practice reporting checklist for protecting survivors
Before an incident happens
- Ensure you understand the drivers of violence and how they impact women from different groups.
- Be aware that violence against women can take many forms and change over the period of a lifetime, for example, older women experiencing abuse by their adult children.
- Build relationships and trust with specialist services and survivor advocacy groups.
- Understand that services working with women and their children are under-resourced and may not have lived experience advocates available to speak at short notice. They may encourage survivors not to speak to media for safety reasons.
When a story breaks
- Avoid approaching survivors or their families in the immediate aftermath of an incident. At that time, they are still in shock and may be unable to fully comprehend what they are consenting to by speaking to you.
- Be respectful and transparent in all interactions with survivors and their families.
- Respect their right not to talk.
Before the interview
Be transparent and explain the risks
- Acknowledge current and emerging safety and ethical issues for survivors when they choose to tell their stories.
- Explain the risks, including identification, retribution, public backlash and online abuse.
- Discuss how sharing their story may affect legal proceedings.
- Explain the implications of being named or not named in public.
- Survivors of workplace sexual harassment who are identified in media coverage may face significant negative impacts on their personal and professional life, well past the life cycle of the story. Ensure you understand why they are going public and discuss potential impacts with them. Respect their agency if they do choose to be identified.
- Allow survivors to choose the interview location and bring a support person.
- Be aware of the power imbalance between you and the survivor, and seek to provide them with as much control over things as possible,
- Suggest they have a plan for the day the story comes out.
Consider safety
- Safety looks different for everyone.
- Let them determine if and how they would like to be identified: will they remain anonymous; use a pseudonym; would they like a voice actor to be used; would they like their face blurred in images or video?
- Check if the survivor has legal and emotional supports in place throughout the process of sharing their story, and have a list of trusted accessible services on hand. If they do not have access to support services, see if your organisation’s EAP and legal advisors can cover them.
- Consider individual circumstances for accessing support, such as disability or employment status, living and/or working in a rural or remote location.
- Confirm they can access support on the day the story comes out and in the following period.
During the interview
- Give survivors as much time as possible to tell their story.
- Recognise and respect the survivor’s objective in telling their story and seek to reflect this in your reporting. Ask: ‘Why are you telling your story?’
- Ask open ended questions, such as: ‘What are you able to tell me about what happened?’
- Avoid assumptions about names, gender, pronouns, cultural connections or background. Ask your interviewee how they want to be referred to and only use those details, for example, as a ‘victim’ or ‘survivor’, ‘woman with a disability’, as ‘gender diverse’ and so on.
After the interview
- Ensure you have informed consent to disclose elements of their story.
- Offer the opportunity to review the way they are referred to or quoted.
- Be transparent about how you will use their story.
- Explain what will happen after the interview, including fact-checking and the right to reply so that these are not interpreted as you ‘not believing’ their story.
- Assist survivors in preparing for media attention, including by providing advice on protecting their social media profiles.
- Keep survivors informed of when their story will go live, including any hold ups or changes.
- Check to see if there are any family or friends they need to tell before the story goes live.
- Stay in communication, particularly if there are changes to content or editorial approaches.
- Turn off comments on the published piece or warn the survivor if this is not possible.
- Confirm they know where to refer other survivors for professional support if they are contacted following publication.
For more information, see resources from the DART Centre Asia Pacific including Getting it Right: Ethical reporting on traumatised people.
Contacting a survivor for comment
Our Watch does not provide contact information for survivors.
If you’re a journalist looking for a survivor to provide comment on a story, contact local organisations directly to build relationships. See below for information on specialist sources.
Other sources for reporting
Specialist sources
Specialist sources include domestic, family and sexual violence organisations, services and academics. Violence against women specialists and survivors can add an important dimension to your reporting.
Violence against women specialists can talk about the nature of violence, why it happens, power and control, impacts on victims, accountability for perpetrators and systemic issues.
Community sector services have relatively few resources and may be unable to provide comment at short notice. Building relationships with these services in advance may help to facilitate more urgent requests for comment.
Specialist sources may also not have significant media experience. Research shows journalists can increase gender parity in news and improve the interview experience for women sources through clear, respectful and informed requests and demonstrated fair reporting.
National domestic, family and sexual violence peak bodies and key organisations:
Our Watch (direct media contact: 0448 844 930 / media@ourwatch.org.au)
1800RESPECT – visit the 1800RESPECT service directory for more specialist organisations and services throughout Australia.
Australian Human Rights Commission
Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS)
National Association of Services Against Sexual Violence
Brisbane Domestic Violence Service (Brisbane)
Domestic Violence NSW (Sydney)
Safe Steps (Victoria)
Safe+Equal (Victoria)
Embolden (Adelaide)
Ruah Community Services (Perth)
Engender Equality (Hobart)
National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO)
Women with Disabilities Australia
Police as sources
Police are important sources, but they are not the only sources. Police can describe ‘incidents’ of crime. While this can be useful, some problems with this include that:
- domestic violence is not a single ‘incident’ – it is a pattern of abuse
- most violence against women goes unreported
- coercive control is not recognised as a crime in all states and territories
- police may misrepresent victims as perpetrators, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.
Find more information to accurately report on crime statistics and understand the scope of police expertise here.
Community members as sources
Neighbours, friends, family and colleagues can tell you about their perceptions of the relationship, the perpetrator and the victim. This can be problematic because violence against women in the family context is often hidden – community members cannot know what happens ‘behind closed doors’.
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