The call was made on Thursday during the workshop held in Abeokuta the Ogun state capital.
In his presentation at the training Barr. Damola Lapite, who spoke on legal framework for GBV response: reporting, persecution and survivors' rights, emphasised the need for confidentiality and consent to avoid traumatising survivors.
He noted that we must always have in mind the importance of maintaining confidentiality and obtaining consent from survivors before reporting on GBV cases.
Lapite declared that the law clearly states that children below 18 are incapable of giving consent to sexual activities, making it improbable for a child to consent to such acts.
According to him "the Federal Government is working hard towards eradicating GBV, more needs to be done to address the issue effectively. The government’s efforts are commendable, but the enormity of the problem demands more comprehensive solutions" he said.
Also in her submission, a gender specialist for the Ogun State Economic Transformation Project, Ewajesu Fashina, disclosed that 28% of Nigerian women aged 25-29 have experienced some form of physical violence at age 15, quoting from the Ministry of Women's Affairs and Social Development.
She posited that many of the Survivors refused to register themselves due to stigmatisation and name-calling by law enforcers, noting that GBV is more complex than it has been reported by the media.
Fasina pointed out that Journalists have the power to see all angles of GBV, hence they must cover all angles, the health, the security, and the legal aspects of every story. "With journalists, we can not win it, and only this group of people have a better view".
She recommends that journalists should be more focused on the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act and the Child Rights Act to back up reports.
According to her, " 28% of Nigerian women age 25-29 have experienced some form of physical violence at age 15 quoting from the Ministry of Women's Affairs and Social Development.
"Journalists have the power to over turn court cases with the power of the pen or the power of the keyboard journalists have the opportunity to the cover all angles, the health, the security, the legal aspects of every story and that’s why we’ve taken out against gender based violence without media with journalists we can not win it and only this group of people have the better view".
"We have 86 participants and 86 journalists here today are covering all forms of media team Eg radio, newspapers, bloggers, vox popers social media influencers and what we have done today is mix the old and the new media together such that we can then have learning across broad across the table and then up and down".
