Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) would like to award a GLAD[1]  to Saturday Star for its story and editorial piece speaking about the abuse faced by children during the COVID-19 crisis and consequent lockdown in South Africa.

“Lockdown: abandoned children left to die” (Saturday Star, 16/05/2020, p.1) written by Shaun Smillie, Kashieffa Ajam and Sheree Bega, is an article that reports on how child abandonments and acts of violence against minors have increased since the start of South Africa’s lockdown due to the spread of the Coronavirus. A number of representatives from various organisations who are seemingly experts, are interviewed about the various cases relating to child abuse that they have experienced during lockdown and how these have been affecting children.

Shaheda Omar of the Teddy Bear Clinic SA is quoted saying, “The frustrations, desperation, manifest itself in desperate outcomes like when parents violate their own children by rejecting and abandoning them. This is the result of the lockdown. It is something that was not foreseen, and not planned for. And not thought through. It is definitely having a ripple effect. It’s saving lives versus saving livelihoods.” This quote highlights the impact the lockdown has on the maintenance of children.

In addition to the article, a powerful editorial piece is added in the same publication titled, “Children bear brunt of lockdown” (Saturday Star, 16/05/2020, p.6) further discussing the challenges and issues children are facing during the lockdown. By giving weight and prominence to issue, the journalists and editor adhered to the principles highlighted in MMA’s Editorial Guidelines and Principles for Reporting on Children in the Media^[2] which state, “Children’s issues are important. Media professionals should always strive to bring attention to issues that affect children in society”.

It is important for the media to raise and bring attention to children’s issues so that issues facing them can be brought to the attention of policy makers and other duty bearers.

Additionally, children’s issues should be reported on as they are often marginalised in coverage and in society at large. In crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, children are seldomly reported on as politicians are the main figures featured in coverage. This is evident in the Top 10 Sources graph of the MMA Covid-19 Media Coverage analysis report.[3] According to this report, “what becomes apparent is that the people who have been interviewed and/or quoted the most by the media are high-ranking government officials”. Children are nowhere near the top 10 sources in this report.

The Bona Bana Children’s Media Coverage 2017[4] report highlights that children only constituted 10% coverage across all media even though children in South Africa make up 35% of the population.[5]

Saturday Star not only voiced the issues faced by children during this pandemic, which sadly have been neglected as the focus of media coverage is on COVID-19, but also contributed to bridging the gap in media coverage.

According to The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children (ACRWC)[6] Article 16, “Children should be protected from all forms of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment and especially physical or mental injury or abuse, neglect or maltreatment including sexual abuse.” South Africa ratified the ACRWC in 2000. The article extensively provides a lense for South Africans to see how children’s rights are being violated due to the acts of desperation by adults, some of whom have no form of income.

MMA encourages Saturday Star to continue reporting on children’s issues and making society aware of the effects the COVID-19 crisis and lockdown are having on children.

By Nomshado Lubisi

[1] A GLAD is awarded to an article that responsibly reports about children

[2] http://54.217.43.239/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/mma_editorial_guideline.pdf page 1

[3] These reports which are part of a series of analyses on Covid-19 media coverage, are available on MMA’s website. Click this to go to the site

[4] http://bonabana.co.za/presentation-2017/#/

[5] http://www.ci.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/367/Child_Gauge/South_African_Child_Gauge_2018/Chapters/demography%20of%20South%20Africa%27s%20children.pdf

[6] https://www.unicef.org/esaro/African_Charter_articles_in_full.pdf

Below is Saturday Star’s response to the commentary;

Thank you so much for the GLAD. Children’s issues are very important to us and we strive to highlight them where we can. In this lockdown, experts have relayed truly harrowing stories of the risks facing children, and we will continue to tell these stories using a child-centred approach.