Support After TV campaign needs you!
After several months of campaigning, we are pleased to say that our Support-After-TV campaign is taking a huge step forward and we are currently drafting guidelines to submit to Ofcom in response to their consultation.
Background
We have been petitioning TV broadcasters asking them to provide adequate support information, consistently and across all their platforms, after programmes that detail sexual violence. This is important because seeing accounts of sexual violence can cause survivors to seek support, with calls to Rape Crisis increasing by 132% following the screening of Broadchurch. Often though, the support information cards are not listed and they never appear following programmes viewable through apps and online, meaning people can be triggered and then left unable to access support.
Using the website 38 Degrees, over 10,000 supporters have written directly to broadcasters about this issue and over 80,000 people have signed the petition. To date TV broadcasters have not changed the way they signpost survivors to support and have not really connected with us on this issue. In response to this, we have opened out the petition to also include Ofcom and the DCMS Minister Nicky Morgan.
Taking a step forward
Supporters of the petition over 38 Degrees have enabled us to start working with another organisation ‘Survivors Voices’ to write a robust set of guidelines that broadcasters will find hard to ignore. Survivors Voices have experience in this area, having previously draft guidance for media on how they interact with survivors.
This piece of work is timely because Ofcom are currently consulting on how they can work to ensure the safety of viewers accessing digital information. The Ofcom consultation closes on 24th February and we are working to ensure that our final guidelines are submitted to them by then and echoed by the many supporters of our petition.
How you can help
The window is tight but if you would like to view the draft guidelines and provide any feedback, you can do so by this Thursday 6 February. Feedback can be sent to Karen, Campaigns and Administration Officer at Notts SVSS via email.
If you are not able to provide feedback in time, don’t worry as there are lots of other things you can do. If you are a member of an organisation, we can send you a bulk number of postcards for you to post to Ofcom in one go, alerting them to the campaign. We can also supply you with copies of fliers highlighting the campaign.
You can also help by signing and promoting the petition through your website, emails and social media. We are looking to pass the 100k signature mark to help show the strength of feeling behind this petition. This will also help when we launch further calls to action through 38 Degrees, including the submitting of the guidelines to Ofcom.
Links:
Petition: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/support-after-tv
Draft Guidelines: Download Draft Guidance
For more information about this campaign and to order resources, please contact Karen, Campaigns and Administration Officer, directly by email.
