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§ Include contact information and definitions of terms in every story.

§ Support law enforcement: Emphasize the success stories; de-emphasize the infighting.

§ Honor the need for confidentiality:

§ Protect the victims.

§ Protect the case.

§ Use journalistic techniques that make the story personal without revealing too much.

The Role of the Media

§ Train reporters to understand the issue, know the background and laws.

§ Organize a multi-lingual human-trafficking team.

§ Publicize and cover Anti-Trafficking events.

§ Know when to blow on the flames and when to put out the sparks.

Some misunderstandings that need repeated clarification:

§ Trafficking and smuggling are not the same thing.

§ This is not an illegal immigration issue.

§ This crime is not the victim’s fault even if he/she may have initially entered the country illegally and voluntarily.

§ This crime does not affect only one kind of person – the uneducated, the undocumented, the Latino, etc. In reality, anyone can become a victim, even your daughter.

§ The crime occurs in all kinds of communities because it occurs as domestic servitude, in landscaping and construction, in restaurants, nail salons, as well as sexual exploitation.

§ The crime is now second only to drug trafficking.