HeraldLIVE receives a GLAD[1] from Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) for accessing children in an article about them.
The article titled, “Eastern Cape pupils shine in coding contest” (29/07/2020) by Zamandulo Malonde reports about children having both excelled in a national virtual coding contest. According to the article, the children, Zukhanye Swartbooi and Simamnkele Dekeda took first and second place respectively after beating hundreds of other participants in a competition that reportedly saw 95 South African schools and non-profit organisations take part. A picture of Dekeda accompanies the article. Both children are quoted in the article and they describe how important it was for them to do well and achieve great results.
Swartbooi, a 16-year-old grade 11 pupil is quoted saying, “I’m very proud of myself for doing so well and earning myself a tablet.”
His peer, Dekeda says in the article, I was nervous about this particular tournament because there were a lot of us taking part but I was confident in myself and it turned out to be a lot of educational fun.”
MMA is pleased that the journalist made sure that the article was about the two children by making them the central focus of the story. We are also pleased that the children’s voices can be heard throughout the article. This is commendable and we encourage other journalists to emulate this as children have voices and they are able to express themselves. Hearing children speak in articles about them is important because it not only empowers those children but also uplifts and encourages other children who read about their peers to start believing in themselves.
MMA’s Editorial Guidelines and Principles for Reporting on Children in the Media state, “Children have a right to have their views heard on matters that affect them, so [media should] try and include them.”[2]
The Guidelines were developed with input from journalists, editors, media experts and children.
We look forward to reading more of such stories by HeraldLIVE. Well done!
By Baatile Mohale
[1] A GLAD is awarded to an article that reports about children in a positive way
[2] http://54.217.43.239/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/mma_editorial_guideline.pdf
The following are HeraldLIVE‘s responses to the commentary;
News Editor
Thank you for letting us know!… Encouragement is always appreciated. We are always looking for these inspiring stories, offering hope at a time when there is so much negativity around.
Acting Editor
Thank you so much for this! We are really excited about the selection.