Two articles by The New Age, “Big hearts for little people who need love” (01/03/2011, p.6) and“Pupil beatings continue in defiance of law” (31/03/2011, p.6) were selected for a MAD for identifying children when it was not in their best interests.

“Big hearts for little people who need love” reported on a couple who turned their home in Pietermaritzburg, Kwa Zulu-Natal into a shelter for homeless and abandoned children. The article should be commended for highlighting the abandonment of children in the region as it revealed some of the reasons behind the issue stating that, “with the increasing number of teenage pregnancies and HIV-Aids related deaths of parents, more babies are being abandoned in Pietermaritzburg.”

Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) is concerned however that a picture published alongside the article identified children in the shelter. Abandoned children should not be identified in the media as they are victims of child neglect, a form of child abuse.

Three children were also identified when it was not in their best interests in the article “Pupil beatings continue in defiance of law.” The article reported on a school in Ivory Park where teachers reportedly “used sticks, canes, skipping ropes, board dusters and sjamboks to discipline ‘naughty’ children”.

Three children who alleged physical abuse by their teachers were named in the article, while one of them was also pictured and accessed. This was not in the best interests of the children and in fact subjected them to possible victimization which may result from the abuse claims they made about their teachers in the media. “I get beaten for nothing when teachers have their moods” one of the pupils was quoted as saying.

Although The New Age should be congratulated for accessing children’s voices on the matter and clearly stating that corporal punishment is outlawed, it must be stressed that the identities of the children should not have been revealed.

MMA’s Editorial guidelines state that, “In all stories where identifying the child may cause harm, be sure to avoid (direct or) indirect identification of the child.” They further advise journalists to “continuously evaluate the decision to name a child, always testing the value of the information against the harm caused to the child.”

We urge The New Age to adopt these guidelines and avoid identifying children when it is not in their best interests.