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	Campaign for Transparency of Media Ownership by Access Info Europe, Open Society Media Program   4 March 2014   Who really owns the Media? You have a Right to Know.   In only 9 of the 20 countries studied in the European Union can the public find out who the actual owners of the broadcast media are from reporting to media regulators or to company registers.   Disclosure to media regulators of beneficial (ultimate) owners of media outlets is not currently required in most of the countries.   There is no unified or standard approach to collecting or requiring disclosure to the public of media ownership data, particularly with regard to print and online media.   Why do we want this information?   The public availability of accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date data on media ownership is an essential component of a democratic media system.   It is impossible to take steps to address excessive media concentrations and conflicts of interest without the tools to identify the owners; public knowledge of owners’ identities helps to ensure that abuses of media power can be assessed, publicised, openly debated and – even – prevented.   Both media regulators and the general public must have access to information about who owns – and influences – media outlets.   In only 2 out of 20 countries analysed is it possible to know who really owns the media. In 10 out of 20 countries not even the media regulators know who really owns the print media and for online media this figure drops to 6.   Today Access Info Europe is opening for signature the Ten Recommendations on Transparency of Media Ownership.   We are seeking endorsements from all civil society organisations, media freedom and journalists groups who wish to see greater availability of information about who really owns the media.   The Ten Recommendations on Transparency of Media Ownership were drafted after extensive research into law and practice across Europe, conducted by Access Info Europe and the Open Society Program on Independent Journalism across Europe.   The Recommendations have already been subject to a public consultation in which over 100 media experts participated. They have been widely welcomed and discussed at events held by the European Commission in Brussels and have been presented to international organisations such as the Council of Europe and the OSCE.   The Goal of the Signature Campaign   Access Info Europe is now calling for organisations and media to endorse the 10 Recommendations in a first step to demand governments for stronger legislation on this issue. You can endorse this campaign by clicking here.   The Research   Access Info Europe and the Open Society Media Program conducted research and analysis in 20 countries (19 European countries plus Morocco), which revealed that the legal framework in most countries is insufficient to guarantee transparency of media ownership.   http://www.access-info.org/media-ownership-transparency Visit the related web page
	Study reveals high levels of abuse and serious harm associated with human trafficking by Cathy Zimmerman, Dr Ligia Kiss IOM, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine   18 February 2015   First comprehensive study of trafficked men, women and children reveals severity of abuse and complex health issues.   The largest survey to date of the health of trafficking survivors has found high levels of abuse and serious harm associated with human trafficking.   For the first time, the findings reveal severe mental and physical health problems experienced by men, women and children trafficked for forced labour and sexual exploitation in Southeast Asia. The study, published in The Lancet Global Health, also highlights frequent physical and psychological abuse and extremely hazardous living and working conditions.   Recent estimates suggest that worldwide more than 18 million people are in forced labour as a result of trafficking, although the hidden nature of trafficking and the difficulties in defining it make estimates uncertain.   The new study was carried out by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the International Organization for Migration.   The researchers carried out face-to-face interviews with 1,015 people entering post-trafficking services in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. These participants had been trafficked to work in various sectors including sex work (32%), fishing (27%), and factories (13%).   Researchers asked participants about their living and working conditions, experiences of violence, and health outcomes. They also measured for symptoms of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.   Almost half of participants (48%) had been physically or sexually abused (or both) and many suffered violence such as knife and dog attacks, burning and choking. Almost two thirds (61.2%) reported symptoms of depression, and approximately two fifths reported symptoms of anxiety (42.8%) and/or post-traumatic stress disorder (38.9%).   Participants who experienced extremely excessive overtime at work, restricted freedom, bad living conditions, threats, or severe violence were more likely to report mental health issues.   Study lead author, Dr Ligia Kiss, Lecturer of Social Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:   “Our findings highlight that survivors of trafficking urgently need access to health care to address a range of needs, and that mental health care should be an essential component of this. Research is needed to identify effective forms of psychological support that can be easily implemented in low-resource settings and in multilingual, multicultural populations.”   Key findings on working and living conditions of participants:   48% experienced physical and/or sexual violence (481 of 1,015 participants); 35% of women and girls reported sexual violence (198 of 566 women and girls); 47% were threatened (478 of 1,015 participants) and 20% (198) were locked in a room; 70% of participants with data available worked seven days per week (685 of 985 participants); 30% of participants with data available worked at least 11 hours per day (296 out of 989)   Key findings on health outcomes among participants:   22% (222 of 983 participants with data available) had sustained a serious injury at work, such as deep cuts, back or neck injury, eye injury or even losing a body part; Only 28% of these reported receiving medical care for the injury (62 of 222); Headaches, dizzy spells and back pain were the most prevalent physical health problems; 61.2% of participants reported symptoms of depression; 42.8% reported symptoms of anxiety; 38.9% reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder; 5.2% had attempted suicide in the past month   Dr Cathy Zimmerman, study author from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “Our study shows there is no single profile of a trafficked person – we spoke to men, women and children of all different ages, from different countries, and with a range of experiences of exploitation.   “We believe the wide range of labour sectors in which abuse occurs points to the need for greater government regulation, stringent health and safety standards, and regular inspections of sectors that are susceptible to human trafficking.   “Exploitation of human beings is age-old. Although it is disheartening to see that human trafficking exists in such proportions in the 21st century, it is encouraging that various forms of these violations are increasingly recognised for what they are: modern-day slavery.”   Feb 2015 (Thomson Reuters Foundation)   From dog attacks, strangulation and rape, to injured fishermen being thrown overboard and left to drown, trafficked people can suffer extreme violence and severe health problems no matter where they end up working, researchers have found.   In the largest ever study into the health of trafficking victims, researchers interviewed more than 1,100 men, women and children in Southeast Asia who had been trafficked into at least 15 sectors - including factory work, domestic labour, sex work and fishing.   "While we all hear about the horrors of human trafficking, when you get the statistical findings like this, it tells you that these nightmares are not isolated cases or necessarily the worst of the stories that get told," Cathy Zimmerman, one of the researchers, said in an interview.   Most previous studies looked at the health of women trafficked into sex work.   What this study found was that women trafficked for other forms of labour, including factory work, domestic work and as brides, suffered worse mental health problems than those trafficked into sex work.   They were more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and high levels of anxiety, Zimmerman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.   Men trafficked as fishermen worked for the longest periods, about 19 hours a day seven days a week, spending on average 16 months at sea with no means of escape, Zimmerman said. One man reported being at sea for about 10 years.   Some told researchers they saw captains pushing injured fishermen overboard. "Murders were definitely witnessed," Zimmerman said.   Domestic workers were some of the worst affected, because they were extremely isolated, often did not speak the language of the family, and were kept indoors working long hours for months or years at a time, she said.   The worst violence was reported by women trafficked as brides.   "It makes it very clear that trafficking is not just about sex work, but is about exploitation in a huge range of sectors from which a lot of us probably benefit," Zimmerman said.   "We don''t want workers to be out of a job, we just want them to have good working conditions," she added.   About half those interviewed had been physically or sexually abused. Many had experienced extreme violence - they had been attacked with knives or dogs, burnt or strangled.   Most of the victims had worked long hours in appalling conditions, which meant injuries were common and usually went untreated. A few had lost limbs.   About 70 percent of men and women, and 35 percent of children, said they had never had any freedom.   The researchers found a lot of physical health problems, but the most common and severe symptoms were related to mental health. Depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder were prevalent. Five percent said they had tried to commit suicide in the four weeks before the interview.   Study lead author Ligia Kiss, at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said survivors of trafficking urgently need access to healthcare, including mental health care.   Zimmerman said: "Health is one of those things that everybody always thinks somebody else is going to do because there''s a ''health sector'', and it''s not the case with people who end up in a shelter."   "You need to have referral systems to the health system, and the health system needs to be prepared to receive people who are trafficked ... with an understanding of what trafficking means to health," she added.   Very little is known about what makes someone vulnerable to being trafficked, Zimmerman said.   "Trafficking cannot be explained by poverty alone. There are lots of poor people in the world who don''t get trafficked," she said.   "There has been lots of awareness raising. But really, is it enough to say: ''Hey, if you migrate you could be trafficked''?   "What this study does, is hopefully puts numbers to the problem so that real action is taken to prevent exploitation, and resources are there to help people to recover who might fall prey to these abuses," Zimmerman said.   http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2015/abuse_trafficking_health.html http://www.cogitatiopress.com/ojs/index.php/socialinclusion/issue/view/21 Visit the related web page
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