Emotion can betray reporters

Thabo Leshilo: Around this time every year the journalism craft welcomes into its fold young university and college graduates for on-the-job training as reporters.

Those of them who studied journalism will be familiar with the mantra that their job will be to inform, educate and entertain - among other things.

Few will be surprised to hear that a big part of their job, one from which they will get much satisfaction, will be to "nail the bastards".

Once inducted, the rookies will soon learn that the courts of law provide fertile hunting grounds for all sorts of miscreants. Through the youngsters' work, the rest of society will get to know of the baddies who murder, rob, plunder, rape and do other horrible things.

Alas, the trainees will also learn the annoying corollary to the pleasure of nailing bastards, which is being prevented, by law, from doing so. They will find themselves spending days, weeks or months looking into the eyes of men who are accused of raping their own young daughters, frustrated by the fact that they can't identify them, even when they're convicted.

Well, it comes with the territory. The law prohibits the identification of rape victims and children who are victims of abuse. Hard as it might be to accept, it is sometimes necessary to hide the identity of the perpetrator to protect the identity of the victim.

Protecting the identity of the alleged perpetrator means much more than simply not naming him. It means you cannot provide telltale hints that might identify him, and thus his victim. That's when journalists are called on to keep their emotions in check and report dispassionately.

Unfortunately, this appears to have been lost on the Sowetan on Wednesday. Its lead story, "TV star raped own child", went overboard. It gave so many clues by which the accused could be identified that the newspaper might as well have splashed his name and face on the front page and posters.

Reader James Khumalo complained: "The lead story in Sowetan today [January 5] about an actor who allegedly raped his own four-year-old daughter, says in the intro they won't name the actor to protect the daughter. But a few sentences down the story gives hints on who this actor is. The Sowetan is being irresponsible. This type of reporting is purely sloppy."

The reporter got too emotionally involved. There is no excuse for that. The story clearly violated Avusa's editorial code. Given the amount of effort the company invested in familiarising all its journalists with the code, and the SA Press Code, last year, no Avusa journalist can claim to be ignorant of the rules.

Our code clearly states that: "We recognise that children's rights to privacy and dignity deserve the highest degree of protection, and we undertake to respect these rights in every situation. We will maintain the highest possible ethical standards in reporting on children."

Each published story represents the work of several people besides the reporter, including the news editor, subeditors and the night editors, who are supposed to ensure adherence to rules and high standards. This systemic failure cries out for urgent attention.

Sowetan's news editor, Willie Bokala, acknowledged the concerns raised by the reader. He also said it was not the newspaper's intention to reveal the man's identity.

Interestingly, the offending lead story appeared on the same day as a report about how the media, and families of the people whose graves were desecrated in Musina, were kicked out of the court in which the alleged perpetrators appeared.

This was because some of the accused are minors and the Child Justice Act requires that they be tried in camera.

Breaking rules, as in the reckless handling of the actor's child's identity, does little to help the media in its contention that the Musina trial should be open to the media.

Of course, it would be preferable for the Musina Magistrate's Court to follow the precedent set by Judge Joseph Raulinga, of the Pretoria High Court, who agreed to allow limited media and public access, by means of closed-circuit TV, to the Eugene Terre Blanche murder trial, thus balancing the overwhelming public interest in the matter and the right of the minor accused to a fair trial.