Mass media plays a crucial role in influencing public opinion and stakeholders, particularly in broadly promoting public health rights to enhance the quality of public policy, including policies for fulfilling Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR). However, in reality, mass media is not always interested in or adequately trained to cover these issues.
The IPAS Indonesia Foundation, in collaboration with Rutgers Indonesia, organized media training to enhance understanding and sensitivity regarding SRHR issues. This three-day event, held from August 20-22, also served as a pre-event for the International Conference on Family Planning of Indonesia and Reproductive Health (ICIFPRH) 2022. A total of 15 participants from national, local, and community media attended the activity, which took place at the Sahid Raya Hotel and Convention Yogyakarta.
Issues of SRHR and Gender-Based and Sexual Violence (GBSV) remain taboo in society and are often associated with negative perceptions, leading to their neglect. Yet, education on these issues is crucial for public understanding. This situation is exacerbated by mass media coverage that is often inaccurately reported and misinterprets norms and values. In some reports, mass media frequently uses discriminatory language, victim-blaming, and lacks a gender justice perspective, which ultimately reinforces societal taboos. These challenges prompted the IPAS Foundation and Rutgers Indonesia to organize media training on SRHR and GBSV issues.
The training activities commenced with a dinner on August 19, 2022, at Kejawa Resto Yogyakarta. This event aimed to foster networking among participants and organizers, participants themselves, and the ICIFPRH 2022 committee. On this occasion, the ICIFPRH committee, represented by Prof. Siswanto Agus Wilopo, provided an overview of the conference, the concepts of family planning, contraception, and reproductive health.
This media training offered participants the opportunity to gain a comprehensive understanding of SRHR issues. Various resource persons from academia, researchers, empowerment practitioners, and violence case counselors presented information on SRHR and GBSV according to their respective fields. Furthermore, participants also received capacity building in victim-friendly reporting and ethical reporting codes from media practitioners.
After attending the three-day training, participants had the opportunity to attend the ICIFPRH 2022 conference. During the conference, participants could gather extensive information and meet trusted resource persons in the field of SRHR. The committee facilitated daily press conferences for the participants.
Additionally, participants were free to delve into specific SRHR issues by attending plenary forums or satellite sessions at the conference. The outcome of this training and conference was the publication of over 50 articles written by participants in their respective media outlets. Key issues covered in the reports included family planning, access to contraception, the dangers of disseminating information on violence cases for victims, adolescent sexual health education, sexual violence, child marriage, comprehensive service provision for rape victims, prevention of unwanted pregnancies resulting from rape, and the criminalization of victims.
Participants expressed hope for the continuation of such collaborations between media and civil society organizations. Furthermore, participants also expressed interest in undertaking in-depth collaborative reporting. The IPAS Foundation is committed to continuously supporting collaborative initiatives to ensure the fulfillment of SRHR for women and adolescent girls in Indonesia. (*)