Obstetric Violence Stories Win Journalism Award for Tolerance

“A fantastic and innovative show of investigative reporting on obstetric violence and its consequences for women” is how the jury explained its decision to award CINS.

Nearly 1,200 women participated in the award-winning investigation, sharing their experiences with CINS, along with doctors, numerous experts, the organizations Autonomous Women’s Center Belgrade and Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, as well as several influencers. This is who we dedicate this award to – everyone who helped CINS gather data, research, and present this topic in a comprehensive way, with the goal of raising awareness about the decades-long violence women have faced.”

Authors Dina Đorđević and Teodora Ćurčić collected a significant amount of data and testimonies, which resulted in two multimedia stories documenting cases of inhumane treatment of pregnant women and mothers in gynecological–obstetric institutions.

The process of gathering court and other documents, conducting analyses, and interviewing women lasted more than six months. It revealed that women experience violence at least twice – once at the hospital and then again while fighting for justice, which they often never receive.

CINS compiled three databases – containing information from women’s reports, court cases, and inspection findings from the Ministry of Health. All information was verified through fact-checking, providing additional assurance that the analyzed data was genuinely connected to obstetric violence and not other forms of abuse or irregularities. 

Stories from the Maternity Ward: Women Who Broke the Silence revealed that nearly 97% of women who experienced some form of inhumane treatment had never spoken about it before. There are many reasons for this: trauma, fear, or the belief that what happened to them was normal or impossible to prove. The investigation found that in 50% of cases, women were verbally abused, one in three women reported a violation of privacy, while one in four reported physical abuse.

CINS also looked into how institutions respond to reports of obstetric violence in the story Waiting for Justice: A System That Has Failed Women, which reveals that fewer than 3% of the women who shared their experiences with CINS reported their cases to institutions. These reports usually saw no outcome, or the proceedings were still ongoing at the time they were filed. The story also includes the testimonies of four women who reported inhumane treatment, along with the outcomes of their battles.

The investigation reached more than 5.8 million users on social media, while individual testimonies reached up to 2.5 million people. Numerous media outlets republished the investigation, and the story spread to neighboring countries, inspiring regional colleagues to also start looking into this topic.

The award is presented on the occasion of International Day for Tolerance, in Belgrade.

The Annual Journalism Award for Tolerance has been awarded for ten years by the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality and the OSCE Mission to Serbia. This year, the awards were presented by Brankica Janković, Commissioner for the Protection of Equality; Marcel Peško from the OSCE Mission to Serbia; and Andreas von Bekerat, Head of the European Union delegation in Serbia.