Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) is pleased to award Pretoria News and Weekend Argus a GLAD[1] for articles which involve minors that are not identified or interviewed.
The stories are titled, “Soshanguve learner attempts suicide over teacher ‘bullying’ incident.” (Pretoria News, 17/05/2021) and “Victims of alleged rape, sexual exploitation say state has not provided counselling or mental treatment.” (Weekend Argus, 22/05/2021).
The article by Pretoria News is written by Goitsemang Tlhabye and is about a 13-year-old Grade nine learner who reportedly attempted suicide after she was allegedly ill-treated by her teacher at school. According to the article, the 13 year-old was kicked out of class for making noise and was then dragged out of the class the next day and told not to return after she tried to apologise to the teacher. This incident led the child to consuming pills in an effort to kill herself. She survived the attempted suicide.
Among the people interviewed in the story are the child’s mother and aunt who are not identified. The journalist was extra cautious when it came to the identity of the child and even clearly stated in the article that the identity of the mother could not be revealed to protect the child’s identity.
It is also very commendable that the journalist did not interview this child. MMA applauds this because the journalist ensured that the child is not subjected to further trauma that might come as a result of being made to relive her traumatic ordeal.
The second article which is written by Genevieve Serra, reports on three boys and four girls who were “lured” to Muizenberg beach by a car guard and raped by a lawyer. According to the story, the suspects were arrested and appeared in court. The children are not identified in the story nor are they interviewed. A Photograph accompanying the article shows children identified as victims in the caption with their backs to the camera, a seemingly deliberate move to not lead to their identification. We applaud this!
Just as is the case with the first story, this article also only interviewed the children’s family and not the children. This minimised any potential harm. Interviewing the children would have subjected them to potential secondary trauma. The story mentions that the children have not undergone counselling and so it was a great decision not to interview them. Well done!
The withholding of children’s identities in both articles is in line with MMA’s Editorial Guidelines and Principles for Reporting on Children in the Media[2] which urge the media to always respect children’s dignity and well-being and to ensure that the actions of the journalists do not subject the children to harm, including potential harm.
In the second story, it is mentioned that the suspects have already appeared in court and will appear again. This means that the identities of the children involved as potential witnesses at criminal proceedings, are withheld in line with Section 154 (3) of the Criminal Procedure Act. In this case not revealing the identities of the children protects them from potential harm such as retribution or to be kept from testifying in court.
Great effort was made in both stories to protect the identities of the children involved by ensuring that their names or their parents’ are not revealed. Furthermore, both journalists were very careful to not interview the children about their incidents. For these, we applaud both media! Well done Goitsemang Tlhabye and Genevieve Serra! Keep protecting children in your coverage!
By Yinhla Ngobeni
[1] GLADs are awarded to media for responsibly reporting on children
[2] http://54.217.43.239/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/mma_editorial_guideline.pdf