Scottish Government Criminal Justice Division - Trauma Reporting

Learning Fund Case Study:  National Union of Journalists (NUJ) - Lowlands and Uplands

The NUJ was approached by the Scottish Government’s Criminal Justice Division (SGCJD) to address media reporting on child homicide victims. This included exploring the possibility of providing training on sensitive reporting for journalists covering these cases. After ongoing discussions with their team and considering feedback from Victim Support Scotland, NUJ developed a new course, ‘Trauma Reporting for journalists’, which was delivered at the end of January 2026.

The course was delivered in conjunction with a psychologist and aimed to make journalists more trauma informed and trauma aware and improve ethical standards.

Subjects covered included child homicide, sexual abuse, and terrorism. The course encouraged journalists to change their approaches and questioning techniques to deal more sensitively with the victims of different kinds of trauma. The course was attended not only by journalists but also representatives from the SGCJD and Victim Support Scotland. Additional sessions will be funded by SGCJD in the future.

The feedback was very positive and comments included:

‘One of the most useful NUJ courses I have ever taken - really engaging/thought-provoking in terms of how to approach interviews with traumatised people, and good to have the insight/perspective of a psychologist.’

‘An important topic which was sensitively and comprehensively covered. I appreciate that the tutor shared a story from her own life - putting myself in her shoes in that moment was a real “lights on” moment for me. It’s easy to believe that you empathise with people, but this example plus the exercises we did were genuinely eye-opening and I will carry those with me as tools to get myself into the correct mindset when approaching the “transaction” of an interview with a person who has experienced trauma. Thank you!’