Shirley Lavenia Susan (SLS) Legal partner Shirley Tivao says the media has so much informative power that they either inspire people to come out and tell their stories about human trafficking or they can destroy it.
“Information is power,” Ms Tivao told a USP seminar on Migrant Labour, Human Trafficking and the Media last Friday.
“And I think the media has the biggest reach of information.”
Citing the latest figures, Ms Tivao said the 2021 national survey undertaken by UNODC and the Fiji Bureau of Statistics showed there were 5000 victims of human trafficking.
“Now the question is, why are there no prosecutions? Why are the victims not speaking out and why are the police not investigating. And those questions are interrelated.
“There are no prosecutions because the police are not bringing the files to them.
“The police are not investigating because the victims are not speaking out and maybe the victims are not speaking out because they don’t see any prosecutions.”
Ms Tivao said there was a pressing need for more investigative and informative reporting.
“Questions like, where can these victims go if they’ve gone through this or what happens to a case after it’s gone through police needs to be asked and followed up.
“The media needs to create spaces where these victims feel comfortable to speak about what happened to them, bearing in mind that what happened to them is not the easiest thing to speak about.”
