Fier, 19 April 2022 – Reports of cases of violence and sexual exploitation against children in Albania, for a long time seem to have become the headlines of the media, due to the increase in their number. But the large prevalence of media platforms and the small geographical space in which a significant number of sexual violence against children occur, create a problem in revealing the identity of victims of sexual violence.
Journalists must tell the truth about the event they report by protecting the child at all times, but they must also avoid revealing the identity of the child in all its forms so as not to further harm him or her and his or her family.
This situation has long required an urgent response, for which CRCA / ECPAT Albania, one of the leading organizations in the protection of the rights of children and youth in the country, thanks to the support of the Regional Resilience Program supported by the European Union and implemented in Albania by the Media Institute, to work on the preparation of a basic guide for journalists. A guide that seeks to assist journalists and the media in Albania in meeting day-to-day challenges to serve the interest of public information without compromising the privacy, pain and suffering of victims and their families. The guide will be accompanied by the organization of training courses in five regions of Albania to talk closely with journalists about the basic standards for reporting cases of sexual violence in the media. These courses will be organized in cooperation with the Minister of State for Children and Youth and the State Agency for the Rights and Protection of Children, the Municipalities of the cities, as well as the Media Institute.
The trainings started in Fier, with the participation of all local journalists in the area from Fier, Lushnja and Berat. They discussed the role of the media in reporting cases of violence against children and the role of the State Agency for the Rights and Protection of Children in promoting the rights of children in and through the media. The focus of this training was all the problems that journalists often encounter in reporting cases of violence against children. Later in this training, the presentation of the Guide for Media and Journalists on reporting cases of violence against children was made public. This manual greatly increased the interest of local journalists in Fier as they often seek to resolve issues that arise between interacting institutions in reporting cases.
Albania has been suffering from an increase in the number of violence and sexual exploitation against children for years. The alarming figures of recent years speak of a galloping increase in violence against children. The BECAN report conducted in nine Balkan countries showed that at least 1 and 10 children in Albania are victims of sexual violence. While according to INSTAT in our country during 2020, about 2000 crimes were registered against children, of which about 150 of them are related to sexual violence against them.
For more information, please contact:
CRCA/ECPAT Albania
crca@crca.al