May/June 2008

Sex trafficking in the spotlight

By Paul Macey, Words of Colour Creative Arts Director

My sister-in-law works for Eaves Housing Association, which runs the Poppy Project. The project provides services for women who have been trafficked into sex slavery in the UK. It is estimated that over 4,000 women a year are trafficked into the UK with research indicating that in some London boroughs over 80 per cent of these women are more than likely to have been trafficked and are subjected to horrific sexual abuse.

She told me that one way the project tracked down the many establishments such as massage parlours where women were imprisoned and abused was through checking the classified adverts at the back of local and regional newspapers. This simple but effective method cast a shadow of shame on the media industry and those who work within it. Newspapers are making millions of pounds out of advertisements from ‘businesses’ which trade on the misery and suffering of hundreds of women forced into sex slavery.

It dawned upon me that as a journalist it was not enough to look on appalled but to try and ensure that this situation was questioned and challenged. Surely if newspapers strengthened their code of ethics around advertising it would cut off a main avenue of exposure for those who profit from the industry. As a result I contacted Press Gazette who were keen to commission a piece which questioned newspapers’ role in the sexual exploitation of women.

Establishing the reality was easy. Across the UK a casual flick through the ads sections of newspapers revealed countless numbers for parlours which in reality offered far more than massages. In addition the women ‘on offer’ came from countries where it is known that trafficking takes place.

The next step was to ask the editors of these papers why this practice was allowed when it went against their oft espoused commitment to justice and law. Depressingly the overwhelming response was one of a total abdication of responsibility. Most said it was the responsibility of their marketing departments, which in turn argued that it was impossible to check every advert despite the fact that it was clear that some were complicit in selling women into sex slavery.

Regulatory bodies professed similar powerlessness. This included the Newspaper Society which provides legal advice and guidance to its members and encourages them to abide by the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) code which covers offensive or harmful advertising. Its publication, Ad Points to Watch, an A-Z of Advertising Law warns publishers to be wary of adverts for massage parlours that may be a disguise for sexual services. Yet despite this advice and the evidence that massage parlours offering sex are contained within some of their titles, the CAP code remains unenforceable.

However there are plenty of organisations willing to outline the steps that the newspaper industry can take to change this situation, and through good fortune my article coincided with challenges to the sex industry from a number of sources including the Minister for Women Harriet Harman, and the then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, both of whom supported the need for newspapers to do more to ban advertisements for premises such as massage parlours and brothels.

The outcome was that the Newspaper Society is now in talks with the Harmon to strengthen its code to ensure that newspapers take this issue more seriously. In addition to the piece in the Press Gazette the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) asked me to write about the issue at the same time as its Ethics Committee put forward proposals to ensure that members were supported in challenging their publications to remove offending ads from their pages.

It was clear to me that small though my efforts were, they have become part of a bigger movement demanding change. And for that I feel proud.

To read Paul’s original article on sex trafficking and the media visit: www.pressgazette.co.uk

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