What are we seeing and hearing in the media about child protection and trafficking? What is the media missing, what are they getting right? What do ordinary people understand by the concept human trafficking? How does the reality of it differ from people’s ideas and perceptions, and more importantly how much is known and understood by those who are most vulnerable in South Africa and the region? These are the questions Media Monitoring Africa asks and which its groundbreaking report “A Tangled Web: Human Trafficking, Child Protection and The Media” sheds some much needed light on.

SAfm’s Ashraf Garda will present an afternoon of “Stories from the Tangled Web” – real life insider accounts of the world of human trafficking in South Africa; the who’s, what’s when’s, why’s and how’s. The challenges those who are working on the issue face, the mountains that the lucky victims have to climb to ultimately survive, the difficulties of investigating, the gaps in services, the root causes and contributing factors, and the challenges and ethical dilemmas in reporting on it.

About the Tangled Web Report:

MMA’s findings, of monitoring the issue in the media during and after the FIFA World Cup 2010 provides valuable insight into media’s handling of the topic, and provides a wealth of information, as well as a foundation for best practice methodology for media and those working in the issue, with regards to reporting on it. Understanding child trafficking in all its complexity is a crucial first step to assist in combating trafficking in South Africa and to help protect and provide a safer future for South Africa’s children.

We hope those who listen to the broadcast will have their perceptions altered and some of their questions answered. That those who hear, will gain an understanding of the need to report on this issue, but also the value of doing so from a more informed perspective; and from that, that those who need to communicate on the issue and have stories to tell, know that media will handle their stories with sensitivity and trust.

For questions comments and more details contact:

Melanie Hamman
Project Coordinator Child Protection & Trafficking Project
Tel: +2711 788 1278
Mob: +27 83661 9223
E: melanieh@mma.org.za

Or

William Bird
Director, Media Monitoring Africa
Tel: +2711 788 1278
Mob:+2782 887 1370
E: williamb@mma.org.za