IOL has established a specialized Gender-Based Violence (GBV) department to ensure sustained, in-depth, and meaningful coverage of gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa. This move was made by IOL at the end of Women's Month.
The new department will be overseen by two senior IOL editors, Yogesh Nair and Lisle van der Schyff, who will monitor specialized coverage across IOL's entire national editorial network. The creation of this department demonstrates IOL's commitment to treating gender-based violence as a critical national issue requiring continuous journalism, investigations, analysis, and public engagement.
The department's work will cover a wide range of issues related to GBV, including domestic and femicide, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child abuse, domestic violence, the criminal justice system, police work and prosecution, access to justice, survivor experiences, prevention initiatives, government policy, and institutional accountability.
Strength for Ensuring Accountability
IOL CEO Viasen Subramoney stated that the launch of this department reflects the media organization's responsibility to use journalism as a tool for raising awareness and ensuring accountability. He emphasized that gender-based violence is one of the most serious societal problems, representing a national crisis affecting families, communities, and future generations. As a major South African news platform, IOL bears the responsibility to give this topic due attention, depth, and sensitivity.
Yogesh Nair, IOL's provincial editor for KwaZulu-Natal, noted that one of the department's main tasks is to maintain gender-based violence as a constant editorial priority, rather than only covering it when particularly shocking cases appear in the news. According to him, gender-based violence has been covered for too long through the lens of individual tragedies; while these stories are important, they are part of a much broader picture that includes issues of prevention, accountability, police work, prosecution, social conditions, and the reasons why violence continues to become normalized in parts of society.
Van der Schyff, IOL's provincial editor for the Western Cape, stressed that an ethical and responsible approach to journalism will be central to the department's work. She noted the significant difference between merely reporting on GBV and providing quality coverage of the topic, as such stories concern trauma, vulnerability, and often people whose lives have been irreversibly changed by violence.
The GBV department will collaborate with IOL journalists and correspondents nationwide, as well as engage with experts, researchers, civil society organizations, lawyers, law enforcement agencies, and survivor support organizations to enhance the quality and depth of its reporting.