The workshop on discussion of news items focused on sexual violence within the scope of Media Watch on Hate Speech project was held on October 28, 2019, with facilitation of Şehlem Kaçar from “Association for Struggle against Sexual Violence”.

Workshop was held with the contributions of Friedrich Naumann Foundation and with the participation of individuals from different segments of the society, at Hrant Dink at Hrant Dink Foundation Anarad Hığutyun Building. The participants of the workshop were chosen among the applicants of the open call by the Foundation.

In addition to the project team and the moderators, workshop was participated by fifteen people including students from departments of Sociology, International Relations, Political Science, Law, English Language and Literature and individuals from different professions such as journalist, translator and teacher. In the workshop, the conceptual discussions in defining sexual and gender-based violence were made and the discriminatory terminology largely produced and re-produced in the everyday life was examined. In combating discriminatory discourse, utilized in the news reporting on sexual violence, the significance of the use of the right words was underlined. In the workshop, the ways by which the framework of a news’ story produce and reproduce discrimination with its headline, lead sentence, image and content were discussed. One of the main topics of the discussion was the headlines and visuals selected in the news, which justified the violence or accused the person who comes under sexual violence instead of keeping the perpetrator responsible. Another focus of the discussion were the ways the news marginalizing and/or victimizing women, LGBTI people and children. Additionally, which statements reinforce discriminatory discourse against certain individuals/groups in the media and everyday language and how it is possible to produce news with an alternative discourse were discussed. News stories reinforcing discrimination against disadvantaged groups while reporting on sexual violence were discussed in the workshop through examples of news stories and social media posts which were selected for the workshop by the project team and the facilitator.