It is important that when reporting on children who are victims of or witnesses to a crime, the media ensures that the dignity and privacy of the children is sufficiently protected. Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) gives Daily Sun a MAD[1] for indirectly identifying children involved in a criminal case.
The article titled, “Couple in court for rape” (Daily Sun, 04/05/2021) reports on a couple that is facing charges of rape, assault and human trafficking of two girls aged 13 and 15 years. According to the article, these children who are originally from Mozambique came to South Africa after their aunt who is among the accused falsely promised them a better education. The article also reports that the children were treated as slaves by their aunt who helped her husband rape them and that they would be severely assaulted if they disobeyed her orders. The children managed to escape and reported the matter to the police. Their aunt and her husband both appeared and are still appearing in court in Mpumalanga. The article further reports that many organisations came out in support of the children and to make sure that justice was served.
These children were indirectly identified by naming their uncle who is a prominent member of a government sector and his wife as well as showing the couple’s photograph. Further, the indirect identification occurred when Daily Sun decided to name his official position at work and the government department he is affiliated to. This was unethical and against the Criminal Procedure Act [2] Section 154 (3) which states that, “No person shall publish in any manner whatever information which reveals or may reveal the identity on an accused under the age of 18 years or a victim or of a witness at a criminal proceeding who is under the age of 18 years.”
The journalist did not act in the best interests of the children as indirectly identifying the children potentially subjects them to harm such as stigma, victimisation and/or retribution etc. Further, the children might be harmed to keep them from testifying as they are potential witnesses at the criminal proceedings.
Further, indirectly identifying the children is against MMA’s Editorial Guidelines and Principles for Reporting on Children in the Media[3] which state that,” Even where you are trying to tell people about harm to children or another children’s issue or promote children’s rights, you always need to respect the best interests of the individual child. The best interest of each child needs to be protected over any consideration.”
The best interests of children are supported by Section 28 (2) of the Bill of Rights of the South African Constitution.
We are kindly requesting Daily Sun to withdraw the identities of the children’s aunt and uncle as well as his exact position at work. Further, we are requesting that an explanation be given to readers as to why the decision to withdraw the identities was taken.
We look forward to seeing Daily Sun and the media in general report more ethically on children’s issues.
By Girlie
Sibanda
[1] MADs are given to journalists who have irresponsibly reported on children and have compromised their rights and welfare.
[2] https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201503/act-51-1977s.pdf
[3] http://54.217.43.239/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/mma_editorial_guideline.pdf (See page 2)
UPDATE: After a successful engagement with Daily Sun, MMA is pleased to announce that the article has been disabled on the Daily Sun website and the publication will issue a retraction to its readers.