Change how the media reports domestic abuse murders

Donate to change the way the media reports domestic abuse murders

My name is David Challen and I am a child bereaved of fatal domestic abuse. After experiencing a lifetime of coercive control, in 2010, my mother Sally Challen, killed my father in the family home. She was jailed for 22 years for his murder. A decade later, and after years of fighting and campaigning, her murder conviction was quashed in a landmark appeal – her story gave voice to the insidious nature of coercive control to countless victims and survivors. When coercive control became an offence in 2015, it in turn gave me a voice to speak out about what I witnessed in the family home.

The Impact of Media Reporting on Domestic Abuse Murders

My father’s killing impacted me deeply as a young man. Yet, what traumatised me the most was how the media reported these events at the time. Images of my parents pilfered from their social media accounts and composited together, as if sat together, felt violating. Personal family images of my father were obtained without consent from our family and made me feel like they were ripping my life and memories up in front of me, in my darkest moments.

The words of people who hadn’t met or barely knew my father were plastered across headlines, calling him a ‘gentle man’ and a ‘really nice chap’. This denied the controlling reality that I, and many family members, witnessed. Sensationalist headlines retraumatised me all over again.

This week, I have seen similar headlines used to refer to the man who has killed Louise, Carol and Hannah Hunt. He’s been called ‘pretty normal’ and a ‘nice guy’. I’ve seen images of one of the victims sat next to the perpetrator. It must stop. I know how much damage this reporting causes – both to victims’ families, and to public understandings of how coercive control truly operates.

The Need for Change in Media Reporting

There is a desperate need for dignity in reporting fatal domestic abuse. Families bereaved of these events are retraumatised time after time. That’s why we need to ensure every single newsroom is trained in how to report domestic abuse deaths, and to lobby the regulator for stronger rules.

Fatal domestic abuse is a predictable public health problem that the media plays a key role in preventing with accurate, sensitive reporting. These deaths never come out of the blue – they are always an endpoint to a sustained period of coercive control. We need a media industry that recognises this and reports it as such.

About Level Up

Level Up is a feminist campaigns organisation in the UK. Working with victims’ families and criminologists, Level Up created the UK’s first media guidelines on reporting domestic abuse: ‘Dignity for Dead Women’. Level Up calls for accountability for perpetrators, and dignity for victims and their families. These guidelines are endorsed by both UK press regulators, but we need to make sure every newsroom in the country is fully trained – and we need to keep lobbying the regulator for stronger rules.

The media’s framing of domestic abuse murders has a direct impact on public attitudes. Research has shown that articles that romanticise domestic abuse murders lead to more empathy for perpetrators than victims. This affects everything from women’s access to support when experiencing violence, to sentencing of perpetrators. This has to stop.

Our Mission: Training Journalists for Better Reporting

Responsible reporting improves public understanding of domestic abuse, avoids causing harm to victims' families and helps women at risk access support.

Level Up works with expert journalists to deliver newsroom trainings to ensure the media use their role to prevent, not perpetuate, domestic abuse myths.

How You Can Help

So far Level Up has trained 500 journalists over the last five years. £10,000 will will allow them to team up with expert journalists to deliver training for every newsroom in the UK in one year.

Level Up's training programme has been developed by victims’ families, criminologists and journalists. Media reporting on suicide has drastically improved as a result of newsroom trainings – we need to create the same cultural change for domestic abuse.

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