UN Gives Media "C" for Human Trafficking Coverage

Well, it looks like the world media has joined the illustrious ranks of George W. Bush and officially become a C student. At least, when it comes to human trafficking coverage. This week, the UN declared world media coverage of modern-day slavery "woeful," gave it a grade of "C or less," and they called for an increased focus on action.

The media has not utterly failed in their task, and (sometimes seemingly despite themselves) has managed to get quite a few things right. They've done a great job, overall, of drawing attention to the existence of human trafficking in the world and the suffering of victims. Journalists, some of whom are very high profile, have written about human trafficking have and raised the issue from completely hidden to part of global consciousness in just a few years. And that is no small feat.

But according to the UN, much of the coverage of trafficking has also been naive and simplistic. It has often forced journalists to become advocates, a role they have neither sought nor been prepared for, sometimes with sticky results. And some victim advocates have complained too many journalists are just looking to shove a camera in the face the the most abused victims, exploiting their pain for a story. These issues of when a journalist should be an advocate and how to include the stories of victims in an empowering way make human trafficking is a really challenging topic to write about.

I think there have been a number of other gaps in human trafficking reporting up until this point, which the UN didn't mention. The media hasn't done a good enough job of focusing on trafficking as an economic issue as well as a human rights issue. We haven't held corporations as accountable as we should for their connections to slavery. We haven't done a good enough job of directing the potential of an energized public into concrete action. And we haven't come up with a common language, a common message, or even a common goal in our reporting and coverage of human trafficking. If we were being graded, we would certainly show room for improvement.

But we in the media can improve on this grade, and we will. And everyone here at the End Human Trafficking community will strive to be a major part of that improvement. So if you have suggestions for what you'd like to see us write about, let us know. Because I, for one, don't want to be in the same class of student as George Bush for anything.

Photo credit: pedrosimos7