NEW: Write to End Violence Against Women Awards

Zero Tolerance and the End Violence Against Women Coalition launch UK-wide Write To End Violence Against Women Awards for excellence in journalism.

The End Violence Against Women Coalition and Zero Tolerance have today (18th May 2022) teamed up to launch a national award recognising excellence in reporting on violence against women and girls.

Zero Tolerance has run the Write to End Violence Against Women (WEVAW) media awards in Scotland since 2013. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of these important awards, the organisation has partnered with the End Violence Against Women Coalition to extend the awards to journalists and writers across the UK.

About the awards

The WEVAW Awards recognise and celebrate journalists and writers who bring stories of gender inequality and violence against women and girls to light in a responsible, accurate, and sensitive way.

There are five separate award categories:

• News
• Feature
• Opinion and Comment
• Blog and Self Published
• Wooden Spoon.

Submissions can be made here for any piece published between 1st October 2021 – 30th September 2022 that meets the category criteria

Zero Tolerance and EVAW are particularly interested in pieces which represent voices that are often excluded from mainstream media narratives, for example Black, minoritised and migrant women; LGBT+ people; disabled women; those from working-class backgrounds.

Media guidelines

Zero Tolerance also today (18th May) launch updated media guidelines to support journalists to report violence against women responsibly and accurately. The new set of guidelines include best practice for reporting, a language guide, latest statistics, helpline numbers and useful contacts for the media.

Andrea Simon, Director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said:

‘Violence against women and girls has been firmly on the agenda over the last year. But we’re still seeing a worrying amount of misleading and harmful media narratives that trivialise and excuse men’s violence against women, as well as racist tropes about which victims are seen as credible and deserving of our attention.

The media has an undeniably critical role in shaping public attitudes, and we’re really pleased to launch these awards in partnership with Zero Tolerance, an organisation that makes a significant impact on reporting of violence against women.”

Rachel Adamson, Co-Director of Zero Tolerance, said:

“Many news agencies, journalists, and editors continue to perpetuate myths and misconceptions when reporting on the violence and abuse women experience . Stories often use problematic framing and inconsiderate language, which normalises and accepts violence against women and girls.

We are delighted to announce our new partnership with the End Violence Against Women Coalition. This will widen the reach of our work to improve media reporting on violence against women to the whole of the UK.”

Submissions can be made here

ENDS

Media contacts

EVAW: Sinead Geoghegan, Communications Manager, sinead.geoghegan@evaw.org.uk, 07960 744 502

Zero Tolerance: Lynne Wham, Communications Officer, info@zerotolerance.org.uk, 07826 558 090

Notes to editors 

• Zero Tolerance’s Write to End Violence Against Women Awards has been an annual event since 2013. Previous to 2022, our awards were only open to writers and journalists in Scotland.
• The nominated pieces are shortlisted by our steering group of activists and representatives from women’s organisations and will be published in November 2022. Shortlisted articles are judged by a panel of industry experts and the winners are awarded at an online ceremony during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence (25th November – 10th December).
• More information about the Awards can be found here: https://www.zerotolerance.org.uk/work-awards/ 
• The End Violence Against Women Coalition has long worked with the media to shape and improve reporting on violence against women and girls, having previously held annual media awards recognising those that have had a positive impact on public narratives. Information about our previous awards can be found here: https://www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/campaign/ending-violence-against-women-and-girls-media-awards/

About Zero Tolerance    

Zero Tolerance is a Scottish charity working to end men’s violence against women by tackling the root cause of this violence; gender inequality.   Zero Tolerance offers a range of resources for journalists including  free stock images to illustrate articles dealing with violence against women.  https://www.zerotolerance.org.uk/

About the End Violence Against Women Coalition 

The End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) is a leading UK-wide coalition of over 120 specialist women’s support services, researchers, activists, survivors and NGOs working to end violence against women and girls in all its forms. https://www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/