THE Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) has again raised concerns about what it says is the under-reporting of gender-based violence by the regional media.

Presenting its 2025 report on Wednesday GMMP claimed that fewer than two per cent of news stories covered regionally focus on the issue of gender-based violence.

The study covered 617 media outlets in 12 Caribbean countries, with 1,204 stories published through print, radio, television, and online news sites.

“There is a high rate of gender-based violence in the Caribbean — we almost are at epidemic levels. We [Jamaica] have one of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world, and across the Caribbean…but despite the region’s high rates, less than two per cent of all news stories are on gender-based violence,” said co-regional and national coordinator for Jamaica of the GMMP Hilary Nicholson at the virtual media launch of the report on Wednesday.

Nicholson pointed out that the high prevalence of gender-based violence, and the under-representation of its occurrence in news media, is not just a Caribbean flaw.

“It is similar to the global data where less than two per cent of news stories are on gender-based violence. This is a strange finding, but it’s across the world and it gives rise to a major question: Why it is that such a critical issue like gender-based violence is not being covered?” added Nicholson.

She further highlighted the fact that in the region’s news, approximately one in 20 news subjects is depicted by reporters as a victim.

According to Nicholson, this reflects a nearly 50 per cent decrease when compared to 10 years ago.

She argued that this finding is important, as the previous high rates of “victim portrayal” in news stories, for women in particular, contributed to a stereotype of women as victims instead of citizens with agency.

But even as she welcomes that change, Nicholson charged that it also resulted in the under-representation of certain issues, as well as creating significant differences in how men and women were portrayed in the news.

Nicholson added that the report shows women are two times more likely to be depicted as victims than men, mainly represented as succumbing to disaster, accidents, and domestic or sexual violence.

She told the media launch that she found those figures to be troublesome, underscoring that the report also found that of the stories collected, the presence of women in traditional news media was just 25 per cent.

“What is worrying here is that a quarter of the people appearing in the news are women, and of those few women they are twice as likely as men to be depicted as victims. However, this is progress because the news is therefore contributing less to a stereotype of women as a victim,” said Nicholson.

She pointed out that the report shows only three per cent of Caribbean news stories challenged gender stereotypes, with one in 12 making reference to gender equality, human rights, or related legislation.

While she acknowledged that this is also an issue globally, with the international index lagging behind at two per cent, Nicholson challenged Caribbean media houses to make use of their knowledge of citizens’ rights and aim to report when they are infringed.

“This is important, because when we use a human rights framework it means that the news can hold power to account and also journalists can educate and inform audiences. That’s not editorialising. That’s simply following journalistic practice, which is to inform,” declared Nicholson..

The GMMP is a study on gender in the world’s media, collecting data over five-year periods since 1995, with research focused on indicators of gender in news media, studying women’s presence in relation to men, and gender bias and stereotyping in news media content.

NICHOLSON…despite the region’s high rates, less than two per cent of all news stories are on gender-based violence