Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) is concerned with the lack of caution displayed by The New Age in “Mum tells of crèche ‘abuse’” (07/11/2017, p.3) which has been selected for a MAD[1] for failing to sufficiently protect the identity of an abused child.

The story reports on a teacher who allegedly washed a child’s private parts with Jeyes fluid “to stop the smell” after she soiled herself at a day care centre. According to the article, a case of deliberate child abuse by a guardian has been opened by the child’s mother. The names of both the mother and child are provided while a photograph of the mother and child with their faces pixelated accompanies the article.

While MMA appreciates the effort by The New Age of blurring the faces in the picture, we are concerned that the story failed to protect the identity of the child by naming her and her mother undoing the efforts made in the image to conceal their identities. Consequently, by revealing their identities, the article enables people, especially those who are close to the child, to easily identify her therefore subjecting the child to potential secondary victimisation.

Considering that a case of child abuse has reportedly been opened at the police station, the child might be a witness at criminal proceedings. By identifying her, The New Age potentially violated the Criminal Procedure Act Section 154 (3) which states, “No person shall publish in any manner whatever information which reveals or may reveal the identity of the accused under the age of 18 years or of a witness at criminal proceedings who is under the age of 18 years.”

t seems hard to argue how identifying the child directly and otherwise was in her best interest, which is supported by Section 28(2) of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution.[2]

We hope that The New Age will in future be more careful and apply ethical and legal standards of reporting when dealing with stories that involve children.

By Ntsako Manganyi

[1]Media Monitoring Africa highlights cases of good and best practice, where the media has promoted the rights and welfare of children, otherwise referred to as “GLADs”, as well as feedback on cases where the rights and welfare of children have been compromised through poor and irresponsible media coverage, referred to as “MADs”

[2]See  http://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/SAConstitution-web-eng.pd