Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) congratulates Timeslive on its story entitled, “Mother, 23, jailed after leaving toddler alone during a tavern spree” (11/10/2018) by Nonkululeko Njilo in which the children involved were protected from further potential harm.

The story, which MMA selected as a GLAD,^[1] is about two mothers aged 23 and 26 years who were given prison sentences for child neglect and child physical abuse respectively. The story reports that the first mother left her one-year-old child alone at home all night while she went out to drink. The story goes on further to report that the second mother beat up her six-year-old child with a broom and beer crate for allegedly stealing a R400. Both children were taken to places of safety.

MMA commends Timeslive for protecting the identities of the children in the story. By not naming the children or their mothers, the journalist ensured that the rights of the children as enshrined in the Criminal Procedure Act which the Supreme Court of Appeal recently ruled in case 871/2017 (Centre for Child Law and Others vs Media24 Limited and Others) to be read as follows, “No person shall publish in any manner whatever any information which reveals or may reveal the identity of an accused under the age of 18 years or of a victim or of a witness at criminal proceedings who is under the age of 18 years.”[2]

Further, withholding the identities of the children also protected them from potential victimisation that might come as a result of being identified in the media.

This kind of reporting is also in line with MMA’s Editorial Guidelines and Principles for Reporting on Children in the Media,[3] which state, “In all stories where identifying the child may cause harm, be sure to avoid indirect identification of the child through showing family, a school, residence, friends or a combination thereof.”

MMA hopes that Timeslive will continue to practice such good journalism when it comes to reporting on matters that involve children.

By Girlie Sibanda

[1]A GLAD is given to an article that responsibly reports on children

[2] See Section 154 (3) of the criminal procedure Act 51 of 1997

[3] http://54.217.43.239/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/mma_editorial_guideline.pdf (Page 6)