By ANDREW PHIRI –
MEDIA Network on Child Rights and Development has said there is need to advocate for more social protection in the country for abused children.
Project manager Prisca Sikana said during a media training workshop on children’s rights and ethical guidelines for reporting on children issues that it was important to have safe homes for victims
countrywide.
The safe homes are necessary because victims in most cases are abused by people who are close to them and usually bread winners.
Ms Sikana said there was also need to engage chiefs and other traditional leaders in sensitising people on child rights and ensure that children who were victims of any form of abuse were safeguarded.
“What we have discovered is that most defilers are close people to the victims and in most cases the perpetuators are bread winners in these families, so we need a way of protecting the victims by providing them with safe homes,” Ms Sikana said.
Ms Sikana also advised journalists to report on children issues in an ethical manner and be specific.
Journalists must seek the truth and report accurately and as much as possible minimise writing stories that harm on the part of the child.
She added that media houses must not bring out the identity of the victimised children in order to safe guard their future.
“We have realised that there is also a problem of secondary identification when reporting on cases involving abused children
“This in most cases is done by giving out more details of the perpetrator,
which easily relates to the victim.
“We know it’s challenging for journalists to avoid revealing those details, but we feel that the abuser’s details should be minimised as much as possible,” Ms Sikana said.
Children involved in legal proceedings needed even more protection because they were at greater risk, hence the need to have their identity concealed.
Natasha Mwansa a Grade 10 pupil from David Livingstone Secondary School called for more sensitisation to children on the rights they are supposed to enjoy.
Natasha said children in most cases were victims of defilement and other forms of abuse because they had little or no information at all of their rights.