Young leaders from Melbourne’s Sudanese community are banding together to challenge Channel 7’s ‘poor representation’ of African-Australian youth.
Musician Titan Debirioun, 19, was one of the organisers and key speakers at a rally last month outside Channel 7’s headquarters.
Hundreds protested against the network’s controversial media coverage of youth crime in Melbourne’s suburbs.
Earlier this month, Channel 7’s news and current affairs program Sunday Night came under fire, with accusations of race-baiting in a segment about the city’s so-called African gangs ‘running riot’.
The Sunday Night report was aired after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton made claims that Melbourne is unsafe due to violence within the African-Australian community.
Young Sudanese speakers talked about the negative effect misleading and divisive journalism has on marginalised communities.
Mr Debirioun said he fears for the younger members of his community who were the primary focus of the Sunday Night report.
“All the talk about African gangs is simply untrue and is having a negative impact on the youth in our community,” he said.
Sundanese-born people made up 3 per cent of serious assaults in January last year , according to Victoria’s Crime Statistics Agency, compared with Australian-born people who made up 71.7 per cent of the state’s offending population.
Mr Debirioun said a small number of offenders should not represent the Sudanese community as a whole.
“We have people in our community that do the wrong thing, but that’s just like any other community,” he said.
Channel 7 and Sunday Night defended their coverage of the issue, saying the investigation went beyond simply reporting on the experience of victims.
“It was a fair and factual report that gave context to an ongoing and important issue in Melbourne,” said a program spokesperson.
In an emotional plea to the crowd one protester, Nyawech Fouch, 21, called on the Australian media to understand the social consequences of targeting African youths.
“Please let us show you who we are, let us show you what we do, let us show you our character and let us show you that we are more than what the media portrays us to be.”
(Feature Picture: Channel 7 protest rally. Photo: Jeddda Costa)
(Nyawech Fouch sits in centre with family members at protest. Photo: Jedda Costa)
