News Media Power and Public Policy: The Mediatized Construction of Women Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation

Abstract

-Like other areas of violence against women, sex trafficking has become in the last decade increasingly politicized in Portuguese society, with the news media attaching important visibility to it, both for public awareness purposes and government reaction. This happened after the dismantling of a chain of striptease clubs, suspected of hosting trafficking activities. Known as the "Passerelle case", this event attracted great media attention and brought to the public sphere the problem of trafficking in women for sexual purposes. This article looks at the Portuguese press to understand in what ways the news coverage of the case paved the way for the social and political acknowledgment of this issue, and to what extent it favored an understanding capable of making a real difference in the lives of women. It argues that, despite the news media's undeniable involvement in sociopolitical changes claimed by feminism, its emancipatory potential remained unexplored. Key words: Gender. Trafficking in women. Prostitution. Portugal. Press. O PODER DOS MEDIA DE INFORMAÇÃO E AS POLÍTICAS PÚBLICAS:A construção mediática do tráfico de mulheres para exploração sexual RESUMO -Tal como outras áreas da violência contra as mulheres, o tráfico para exploração sexual tornou-se na última década crescentemente politizado na sociedade portuguesa, com os media de informação a concederem a esta prática uma importante visibilidade, tanto no domínio da conscientização pública como no plano da reação governamental. Isso aconteceu após o desmantelamento de uma cadeia de clubes de striptease, suspeita de atividades de tráfico. Conhecido como o caso Passerelle, este acontecimento atraiu elevada atenção mediática e fez aflorar no espaço público o tráfico para fins sexuais. Este artigo analisa a imprensa portuguesa para compreender de que forma a cobertura noticiosa do caso abriu caminho para o reconhecimento social e político deste problema e em que medida favoreceu uma compreensão capaz de fazer diferença na vida das mulheres. Defende-se que, apesar do inegável envolvimento dos meios de comunicação nas mudanças sociopolíticas reivindicadas pelo feminismo, o seu potencial emancipatório permaneceu inexplorado. Palavras-chave: Género. Tráfico de Mulheres. Prostituição. Portugal. Imprensa.

Scripted Gender Practices: Young Adults’ Social Media App Uses in Portugal

“…Interested in questioning how gender and sexuality are constructed in practices of media production and consumption, feminist scholarship has been highlighting the importance of identifying dominant ideas and discourses and how those symbolic materials are outcomes of social arrangements that legitimate an essential division of society (Silveirinha et al, 2019; Simões, 2018; Simões & Silveirinha, 2019). As digitization took place, concerns have also been directed to the gendered dimension of human embodiment and humans’ relational practices with technology.…”

Al margen de los cuidados: experiencias de (des)protección sociosanitaria de trabajadoras del sexo en Oporto, Portugal

“…En el caso del Estado portugués, salvo la financiación de algunos proyectos de inter-vención dirigidos sobre todo al ámbito de la salud pública, semejantes al proyecto aquí analizado, en estas últimas décadas poco se ha llevado a cabo para transformar sustancialmente las circunstancias del ejercicio del trabajo sexual. El último cambio verdaderamente significativo se produjo en 1982, cuando Portugal pasó de un modelo prohibicionista, donde todos los actores envueltos en la prostitución eran criminalizados, a un modelo de cariz abolicionista donde solamente se criminaliza la explotación económica de la actividad por parte de terceros (lenocinio (44,45) . Desde entonces, el trabajo sexual ha permanecido en una especie de limbo jurídico, en una condición de alegalidad (21) : no es ilegal, pero tampoco se beneficia de cualquier tipo de encaje ni de reconocimiento legislativo.…”

TRAFFICKING AND PROSTITUTION OF BRAZILIAN WOMEN IN PORTUGAL: the journalistic discourse between the stereotyping and the victimization

“…As Simões (2018) explains, the decriminalization of prostitution and the penalty for its exploitation correspond to the abolitionist view, which complies with the political-legislative framework of most European countries. The perspective, although it considers prostitution as a form of slavery, differs from the prohibitionist view in terms of the means adopted to combat it, since it criminalizes all agents involved in its practice (covered by Portuguese legislation until 1982).…”

“…As noted on the OTSH website 3 , this should not be considered if any of the following means of trafficking people are used: violence, abduction, serious threat, abuse, deception, fraud or a position of vulnerability. According to Rita Basílio Simões (2018), these measures correspond to a punitive approach followed by the Portuguese state when it expanded the range of criminal actions defined as human trafficking.…”