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Category: Children [REMOVE]
- Sunday Times reflects on society’s failure to protect children
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Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) was highly impressed by the Sunday Times article, “Children caught in the crossfire of warring parents” (04/10/2009, p. 10), by Claire Keeton. The article received a MAD OAT Glad nomination for taking a children’s rights perspective and focusing on how children can be harmed during disputes between parents.
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- No clear case for child identification
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Over the last couple of weeks, and since MAD OAT urged Sowetan to to “Stop identifying child witnesses”, a couple of articles (“Boy stabbed at school in ‘racist attack’”, 23/09/2009, p. 7 and “‘Trigger-happy’ police”, 30/09/2009, p. 4) have come to Media Monitoring Africa’s attention which failed to protect the identity of child witnesses.
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- Ethical issues raised by reporting on children affected by HIV and AIDS
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The article published in The Star by Health-e News Service, “Without ARVs life looks bleak for HIV/AIDS patients” (31/08/2009, p.8), and the accompanying photograph provided by The Star, received a MAD OAT Mad nomination. The article identified two children living with HIV and The Star provided a picture of one of them. Although the article is commended for investigating and raising awareness around drug shortages in the Free State and the effects this has had on HIV-positive patients, this was overshadowed by the identification of two children as being HIV-positive.
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- The Times exposes conditions in rural schools
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The Times’ article “School’s out for these children” (25/09/09, p. 4) by Sipho Masondo, photographs by Daniel Born, is one to be glad of. It brings attention to the conditions in rural schools, including teachers’ absence from school and teacher shortage. It also included a child’s perspective.
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- Celebrity publicity at children’s expense
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Two newspapers received a MAD OAT Mad nomination, Sunday Sun for the article “My boob job can wait!” (13/09/09, p. 11) and The Times for “Can you feel the love?” (15/09/09, p. 3). Both newspapers reported on celebrities involved in charitable causes in a way that failed to respect the rights of the children involved. A picture and caption provided by one of the newspapers revealed the HIV status of one child, while the other newspaper failed to protect the child’s right to dignity. In both cases the focus of the stories were on the actions of the celebrities and not of the children, whose purpose and inclusion served to highlight the celebrity rather than the children.
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- Great investigative reporting overshadowed by revealing child witness’s identity
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On 8 September 2009 The Star published a front page story, “Teen shot dead by cops” (08/09/09, p. 1) about a boy who was allegedly shot dead by Metro police. There was a series of follow up stories, “Metro cops face murder probe after teen shot dead” (09/09/09, p.6), “Community mourn shot teenager” (11/09/09, p. 2), and “Anger at funeral of teen killed by cops” (14/09/09, p. 3). While The Star is to be commended for its investigative reporting into the alleged shooting and following up on the story, they were nominated for a MAD OAT Mad for identifying a witness that was reportedly a child. In doing so they failed to take into account the best interests of the child and may have contravened the Criminal Procedure Act.
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- Expert tips for single fathers, in Beeld
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The topic of single fathers and the issues surrounding raising children is not often covered in media. Beeld is commended for raising awareness around this topic in the article “Enkelpa: opvoeder, maat én beskermer” (“Single dads: child raiser, companion and protector”, 10/09/09, p. 20), which appeared in its regular section “Pols”. Furthermore, the article is written by Marinél Read, a therapist who has a lot of experience on this topic, and comes with a number of tips which will help single fathers.
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- Saturday Star celebrates teenager’s achievement, making her voice central
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Earlier this year, in “Saturday Star silences children sometimes”, MAD OAT commented on how Saturday Star sometimes wrote about children without accessing the children themselves.The article in Saturday Star, “Teenager living out her dreams in chess”, by Bianca Capazorio (05/09/09, p. 10) is reason to be glad. The profile of 15-year old Melissa Greeff celebrates the teenager’s achievements, challenges stereotypes, and makes the child’s voice central to the story.
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- Children in prisons made visible
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Both Saturday Star and Sowetan brought attention to the issue of children living with convicted mothers in prison. We would particularly like to commend Saturday Star and Carien du Plessis for their article “Have children in prison reached a cell-by date?”, published on 29 August 2009. The article stands out for several reasons. It is well written, it looks at a complex issue in which children are involved, it looks at relevant legislation, and it sources an expert and several political office bearers.
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- The Star lets the children do the talking
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It’s not often that one gets to read a full page feature article that succeeds in giving children a voice, allowing them to express their feelings and emotions about an issue that affects them.The Star’s feature, “Tug of War” (21/08/09, Verve Section, p. 18) by Noor-Jehan Yoro Badat, did just this, through using two case studies involving children who came from “broken” homes.
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