Activist implores Sky News to drop footage of FGM
Sky News has come under pressure from activists to scrap the planned broadcast of a controversial film from Somalia later this week, which depicts a young girl being subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM).
The clip is said to show a young girl being held down and cut whilst curious bystanders look on, prompting critics to complain that it is tantamount to filming child abuse.
Leading the charge against the film is Daughters of Eve co-founder Leyla Hussein who first learned of the broadcaster’s intent to screen the clip when being asked to appear on the channel for a filmed interview.
Hussein said: “You can see her face. People are watching. The film crew are filming. No one intervenes … when I was cut I remember that most of all, no one intervened.”
A Sky News spokesman stood by the decision to air the footage, insisting that steps would be taken to protect the girls identity and that the difficult subject matter would be handled with ‘sensitivity’ in order to ‘…capture the stark reality of this widespread practice … [and] will help our viewers to understand the issues surrounding FGM and its social and cultural acceptability in some parts of the world.’