i journalist wins award for tackling issues around violence against women
i news reporter Connie Dimsdale has been awarded for her reporting on the challenging subject of online child grooming at the Write to End Violence Against Women Awards.
Her winning article, ‘I was groomed on Facebook’, featured a sensitive interview with a child sexual abuse survivor, Frida (name changed to protect identity), who along with other grooming survivors was urging Rishi Sunak to bolster protection for women and girls in the Online Safety Bill.
Frida was groomed by a 30-year-old man over a period of five years, beginning when she was just 13 after he privately messaged her on Facebook. “My abuser knew just what I wanted and needed and then he used that against me to keep me in a manipulative situation for a prolonged period of time,” she told i.
Since publication, campaigners have secured changes in the Bill to better protect women and girls online.
i‘s senior reporter Serina Sandhu was shortlisted in the same Best News category after exposing advice that was leaving rape victims facing a choice between jailing their attacker and seeking therapy.
Victims were privately advised against pre-trial therapy by police and legal teams due to fears their counselling notes would be used as evidence, she reported.
The Government later announced an amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill, setting out that police should only request third-party materials such as survivors’ counselling notes if they are absolutely necessary and proportionate – though campaigners have called for the changes to go further.
Sophie Gallagher, i’s deputy head of features and lifestyle, was shortlisted in the Best Feature category for This is what it’s actually like to report a rape in England in 2023, which explored the accounts of survivors struggling to get justice in a bureaucratic system that frequently traumatises them.
Rape survivor Kayleigh, who spent 1,278 days awaiting justice for her attacker, recalled bumping into him in Tesco after he was arrested and released, before facing lengthy court delays.
The awards – run by the End Violence Against Women Coalition made up of organisations and individuals from across the UK – recognise “journalists, writers and content creators who report on violence against women responsibly, sensitively and accurately”.
The End Violence Against Women Coalition said: “The media’s reporting of violence against women and girls can play a vital role in ending it. It can increase our understanding of this abuse and challenge its place in society. But as we see all too often, it can also reinforce victim-blaming attitudes and beliefs that violence against women and girls is a normal part of life.
“We know that violence against women is not inevitable, and that by shifting our collective attitudes and beliefs and addressing the inequality that underpins them, we can create a world without this abuse.”
