How to Report on Modern Slavery

Exploitation vs. Human Trafficking vs. Modern Slavery: Know the Terminology
Tracking human rights abuses in the supply chain is difficult. Journalism trainer Kavita Chandran tells reporters how to start investigating.
by Madeleine Sherer, National Press Foundation
Modern slavery is a huge, underreported story, journalism trainer Kavita Chandran told NPF’s International Trade reporting fellows.
“How much profit does human trade generate for businesses per year? … $150 billion,” Chandran said, with much of that coming from the Asia-Pacific region.
She said that there are “push and pull factors” that lead people into exploitative situations, and it is important for journalists to understand those factors when reporting on human rights abuses in the global trade supply chain.
“There is a disconnect of understanding what life is like where the product is sourced from and what life is like when the product reaches the destination. So it’s important for people to read more on where what you wear is coming from,” Chandran said.
“When you’re covering business supply chains, labor exploitation and you’re writing from your country, you have to provide context about the ‘why’ in your country: What is happening? What’s the background? Why are people poor? Why do people need to leave?” Chandran told the reporters from more than a dozen countries in Asia.
She added that more stories on slavery and human trafficking should incorporate data and suggested using Walk Free’s Global Slavery Index as a resource for tracking raw material usage and its connections with forced labor. It shows the materials most often connected with slavery and the countries that buy them.
Exploitation vs. trafficking vs. slavery
Exploitation is when people don’t have the ability to leave. This can be when passports are confiscated, preventing them from leaving the country. But there’s a “lack of awareness” about how this is illegal, she said.
Chandran mentioned that the Hinduja family, the richest family in the UK, was recently found guilty for exploiting domestic servants - including the confiscation of their passports.
But it’s crucial for reporters to get the terminology right. People often use words like “human trafficking” and “slavery” interchangeably when they refer to different things.
Human trafficking is defined as the movement of people into a place or position where they become slaves. The definition of slavery, according to the International Labour Organization, is “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the threat of a penalty and for which the person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily.”
Tracking the supply chain is difficult. Here are questions to help guide your investigations:
“What are the products that are sourced? What raw material in your country goes to make something that ends up in a retail store somewhere and is big business? Once you’ve figured out what is the raw material, you need to then dig deeper. … Who provides the labor for the extraction of the raw material and assembly of the product? Who finances the making of the product? All these are story ideas … who profits at each stage of the product cycle? Who are the intermediate and end consumers of the product?”
Chandran said these stories don’t get written because of their difficulty, especially since it requires cross-border reporting. She suggests that if reporters can find where raw materials are collected or where people are being used to assemble products “you can at least start joining the dots.”
Use solutions journalism in trade, human rights stories
Chandran said that news fatigue is a big issue for reporters writing about long-running problems, like climate change or human trafficking.
“Believe it or not, people don’t want to read your news anymore. There’s so much bad news going on in this world … but how do you tell them that there is actually a solution?” Chandran said.
Chandran recommends using solutions journalism methods, such as framing your issue story through the lens of a person, group or situation that is actively and successfully working to solve that issue.
“Not propaganda. Not doing PR puffery for people, but just saying that there are people who are trying to fix something. Let’s focus and hold them accountable for the work that they’re supposed to be doing. That’s what solutions journalism is,” Chandran said.
Speaker: Kavita Chandran, Journalism Trainer, Thomson Reuters Foundation
Transcript, summary and resources: nationalpress.org/topic/kavit...
This fellowship is part of an ongoing program of journalism training and awards for trade coverage sponsored by the Hinrich Foundation.
This video was produced within the Evelyn Y. Davis studios. NPF is solely responsible for the content.