AQW 31604/22-27

Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry

Tabled Date: 19/09/2025
Answered On Date: 03/10/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister to outline the consideration they will give to incorporating responsible media reporting of domestic abuse into future iterations of the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Delivery Plan.

Answer:

Responsible media reporting is an important issue for all violence against women and girls’ incidents, including those of domestic abuse.

There is already a focus on improving standards of reporting in the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Strategic Framework. The intention is to progress this work in future iterations of the delivery plan.

We are supportive of the work Women’s Aid Federation NI has done with local journalists to develop ‘Responsible Reporting Matters’ guidelines for media outlets here, and these have recently been updated.

This has been enabled through support from the Department of Justice (DoJ) and Department of Health (DoH) who have funded the update of these resources, as well as funding workshops and training sessions for journalists.

We will continue to collaborate with our Community and Voluntary Sector partners and stakeholders across departments to improve responsible media reporting.