Weekly Media Roundup

November 19, 2015 at 3:27 PM

Emma's story: 'My son saved my life':

In the kitchen of her Motueka house, Emma Haruru stood with her three-year-old son in her arms and a knife held to her throat.

With her back to the wall and her partner in a violent rage, all of the years of beatings and abuse came flooding back in a moment. Then everything went black.

"I had my son in my arms and he was screaming and I just remember snapping," she says.

Senior leaders at NMDHB to ‘Take the Pledge’:

All service area leaders within the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board (NMDHB) will affirm their commitment to the 2015 White Ribbon campaign by ‘Taking the Pledge’.

NMDHB acknowledges and responds to family violence as a health issue and supports White Ribbon Day to highlight that violence toward women is never acceptable.

The White Ribbon 2015 campaign is focussing on healthy, respectful relationships and the issue of consent.

MPs debate new law to monitor deported Kiwis:

The Government is rushing through the bill in time for the arrival of a large group of deportees from Australia later this week.

Under the bill, people sent back to New Zealand within six months of getting out of prison will find the police waiting for them at the airport.

The returning prisoner, who must have been sentenced to more than a year in jail, will have to give a DNA sample and report to a probation officer within 72 hours.

Mei Fan murder trial: Murder accused blamed family in China:

The man accused of murdering his estranged wife wanted to travel to China with police and investigate the dead woman's family, who he claimed were responsible for the death, a court has heard today.

Michael Preston, 60, is on trial in the High Court at Wellington over the killing of Mei Fan in the capital city suburb of Miramar in November 2013.

White Ribbon Week highlighted through art exhibition:

A young artist is putting faces to domestic violence to help stop silence around abuse.

Alexandra Taylor, 22, has painted portraits of nine women who work with others that have suffered abuse for an exhibition titled Breaker of White Horses.

The women depicted in the portraits are employed at Family Action – a Henderson-based, non-profit refuge for those experiencing domestic abuse.

Whangarei mayor signs White Ribbon pledge, launches campaign:

This year's White Ribbon Campaign to end violence against women has been launched in Whangarei by mayor Sheryl Mai and deputy mayor Sharon Morgan.

The pair signed the White Ribbon pledge which promises never to commit, condone or remain silent about violence towards women.

"Violence against women is totally unacceptable, and as a community leader I want to play my part in ending it in Whangarei," Mai says.

Majority of South Canterbury Women's Refuge clients victims of sexual abuse:

More than 90 per cent of South Canterbury women seeking help from Women's Refuge are victims of sexual assault.

Both the number of women being assaulted and the level of those assaults have been rising, according to staff at Mid South Island Women's Refuge and Family Safety Services.

They believe the rising amount of violence towards women has also led to an increasing level of psychological problems among children.

Change called for in foster care system:

Netta Christian spent many years harbouring the trauma of her "stolen childhood".

She finally broke her silence in 2011, detailing alleged physical, psychological and sexual abuse she was subjected to as a state ward in the 1940s and 50s.

It has since become her life ambition to influence change in a system that she says is "fundamentally flawed".

Victoria Foster murder accused named:

The man accused of murdering Napier Plunket nurse Victoria Foster can now be named as her former partner, Chazz Hayden Hall.

Name suppression for Hall, 28, was lifted on Monday by Justice Simon France at a High Court hearing in Napier.

Hall is charged with murdering 24-year-old Foster on October 26, and also faces four other charges: unlawful possession of a firearm, using a firearm against police, failing to stop for police and dangerous driving.

Domestic violence cannot be shut behind closed doors:

Journalists usually react a certain kind of way when they hear about a certain kind of incident. If the word is uttered, their news sense usually turns off. They are everyday occurrences. They are deemed not newsworthy. The word that they listen for is "domestic".

That word denotes that an incident has occurred within a household, behind closed doors. It likely involves a partner inflicting some sort of abuse upon their significant other. Perhaps neighbours have heard yelling. Perhaps someone has called the police.

Domestic violence: We need to talk:

The numbers make for troubling reading.

In 2014, police responded to 101,981 incidents of domestic violence in New Zealand, the equivalent of about one every five minutes.

With that number in mind, consider that an estimated 80 per cent of domestic violence incidents are not reported to police. It is invisible to the system.

On average, 14 women, eight children and seven men are killed by a family member every year.

Thousands of Buddies and their carers get out and about:

More than 1000 people attended five Buddy Day breakfasts in the North Island this morning and were reminded of how important it is that adults commit to doing altogether better for kids in this country.

Buddy Day is taking place in Hamilton, Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington and Ohakune today (13 November) for the fifth consecutive year since its inception in Hamilton, in 2011.

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Weekly Media Roundup

November 19, 2015 at 3:27 PM