Chile. Within the framework of the joint work plan developed by the National Television Council, CNTV, and the Victim Assistance Network, RAV, of the Undersecretariat for Crime Prevention, the cities of Copiapó, Rancagua and Temuco were the scene of seminars that address the complex relationship between victimization and the media in contemporary society.
The television representation of victims of disasters, catastrophes and crimes on television, constitutes a central element in the shaping of the news agenda, and the care in the approach of this link represents an area of intense debate, so these seminars seek to sensitize the media and society in general, with regard to a rights-based approach in the news coverage of this type of situation, in which there are victims, especially children, women victims of violence; older adults and people with disabilities.
The National Television Council, through the Department of Studies, has carried out various studies on the treatment of victims of crime and disaster by the media; and where victimization refers to the psychological aggressions that the victim receives in his relationship with professionals of the health, police, or judicial services (interrogations, reconstruction of the facts, attendance at trials, identification of accused, etc.), as well as the effects of the informative treatment of the event by the media.
In the city of Temuco, the deputy director of the Department of Studies of the CNTV, Alejandra Phillippi, addressed the topic of secondary victimization and the media: "The State must adopt an active role to create a favorable environment so that the rights of children are respected by the media, and for this, there is a need for general awareness of children's rights and the role that the media can and should play to ensure their respect," he said.
Claudio Garvizo, analyst of the Department of Studies of the CNTV, in the meeting held in Copiapó, referred to the legal framework that should govern the reflection on victimization: "The Convention on the Rights of the Child is a complete legal framework for children, which not only homologates their rights to those of adults, it also establishes special measures and protections for children. The latter is based on the notion that they have not yet reached full physical and mental development. It guarantees that they should be treated and represented by television as subjects of law," Garvizo said.
