Alleged double murderer Dausab in court today-New Era

Description:

This story is about an upcoming court appearance of an alleged murderer, Julius Dausab charged for alleged killing his former girl friend and her mother. Dausab is reported to have acquired the services of a top Windhoek based lawyer in preparation for the upcoming court case.

Analysis

This article highlighted:
– An example of events-based coverage on gender based violence stories
– Shows how stories on gender based violence can be balanced even if the matter is sub judice and reports based on official sources and not by people directly affected.
– Gender aware reporting

Headline
The writer uses the term ‘alleged …murderer’ to refer to the accused because the case is before the courts and has not yet been concluded. The accused therefore deserved to be given the benefit of doubt at this stage.

Sourcing
Court records are used to map the story and a public prosecutor Felicita Sikerete is sourced.

Perspective
The story is gleaned from court records. It is a story in which a mother and daughter are killed, allegedly by the daughter’s boyfriend. The matter is before the court and hence, most of the information is sub judice.

This kind of reporting may deny the public an opportunity to get in-depth analytical pieces on gender-based violence. However, the reporter attempts to build the events leading to the alleged murder and in this way provides context. A positive follow-up by the reporter would be to pattern such stories and narrate them in a feature story. This would provide context and analysis common to such cases. It would even provide comparative data and insight into the prevalence of GBV incidences in Namibia.

To its credit, this article, unlike other GBV articles, does not blame the victim for what happened to her. It maps the circumstances leading to the murder. The language in the story is not judgmental.

Download : This story is about an upcoming court appearance of an alleged murderer, Julius Dausab charged for alleged killing his former girl friend and her mother. Dausab is reported to have acquired the services of a top Windhoek based lawyer in preparation for the upcoming court case.