An article that appeared in the Daily Sun with the title “My Girl’s Possessed” ( Daily Sun , 10,06,2010, p. 2) makes Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) mad. It fails to respect and uphold the rights of the child at the centre of the story. She is identified despite being the alleged victim of child sex abuse and a witness in a criminal case. On top of that, the details and descriptions of her alleged behaviour violate her rights to dignity and privacy.

The article reports on allegations made by the mother of a teenage girl, that her daughter became “possessed by evil” ( Daily Sun , 10,06,2010, p. 2) after they accepted ilobola from a 56 year old man described in the article as a sangoma.

According to the article police have arrested the man and he has been charged with statutory rape following reports that he had sexually abused the girl. Not only is she the victim of alleged child sex abuse, she is also a witness in an ongoing criminal investigation.

The article named the child and her mother and described where they lived. Not only is it unethical to identify a child in these circumstances, but child witnesses are given special legal protection under Section 154(3) of the Criminal Procedure Act, No. 51 of 1977:

“No person shall publish in any manner whatever any information which reveals or may reveal the identity of an accused under the age of eighteen years or of a witness at criminal proceedings who is under the age of eighteen years…”
The details given in the article of the child’s alleged “strange” behaviour are also not in the child’s best interests. It is potentially humiliating for the child, and could lead to secondary abuse, such as name calling or being ostracised in her community.

The article quotes the child’s mother saying that her daughter “needs help”. However public humiliation will not help this child. This is a story of alleged child abuse;, however, Daily Sunfocused instead on her mother’s claim that the child is “possessed”, using this in the headline. Rather than affording the child the rights she is entitled to., Daily Sun sensationalised child abuse in the most cynical way, and for this it gets a mad.