Reporters often violate ethical rules when reporting cases of trafficking and violence, monitoring

Journalists make several mistakes when reporting cases of human trafficking, or when writing about victims of domestic violence. They don’t investigate the cases, don’t seek for a second source or the opinion of a specialist, and commit violations of deontological principles. These mistakes were presented in a monitoring report – on 18 newspapers with local and national coverage – that was undertaken by the Investigative Journalism Center, and lasted two years, reports Info-Prim Neo. Natalia Porubin, editor coordinator at the Investigative Journalism Center, told a press club that newspapers focus too much on the topics of migration, human trafficking, and domestic violence, but don’t always follow the rules of journalistic ethics and correctness. She noted that the main sources of information for journalists are press releases from law enforcement bodies. As a rule, the reporters don’t verify the pieces of information provided by the police and prosecutors. The journalistic genre, which most frequently approaches the topics of human trafficking and domestic violence, is the news. The newspapers that were monitored for 2 years published a total of 107 investigative features, half of them being taken from the reporters of the Investigative Journalism Center. Natalia Porubin stated that some journalists violate the victim’s right for non-disclosure of identity, and often offer information such as the victim’s native locality, age, and in rape cases – the blood relation to the abuser. Additionally, journalists tend to violate the presumption of innocence and often call the suspects rapists, criminals, traffickers, etc. Another problem mentioned in the report from the Investigative Journalism Center is the fact that some journalists inter-changeably use the terms of trafficker and pimp, and call the trafficked woman a prostitute. Based on the reports, the journalists are recommended to write clear titles, not sensationalistic ones that are misleading; be equidistant and offer the right to reply to all parties involved. Also, the journalists are urged to conduct own investigations and solve all cases they start.