Belgrade, 16 November 2024 - In addition to educational texts, photographs and illustrations also play an important role in responsible media reporting on violence against women and firearms misuse. This is why the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), together with the group "Journalists Against Violence," held a workshop for women photographers and photojournalists to highlight the importance of ethical visual representation of the issue of violence.

How do photographs on this topic affect readers? How do women who have survived violence interpret the images that appear in media reports? What are the basic principles of educational and preventive reporting on violence against women? How can visual resources be used to convey the message of the unacceptability of violence and firearm misuse?

These questions were discussed by 15 female photographers and photojournalists from Belgrade with the workshop lecturers - activist Sanja Pavlović from the Autonomous Women's Center, journalist Jovana Gligorijević from the "Vreme" weekly newspaper and photographer Marija Janković from the same media. Special attention was paid to the problem of firearm misuse in the context of violence and how this topic is visually represented in media reports.

The workshop is part of the ongoing initiative by UNDP and the group "Journalists Against Violence" to contribute to ethical media reporting on the issue of violence against women, by creating high-quality photographs or illustrations that depict the phenomenon of violence against women in a gender-sensitive and non-stereotypical manner. As part of this effort, a database of photographs and illustrations has been prepared in the past period, serving as an important and completely free resource for media wishing to contribute to the prevention of violence against women.