Eguillon, Frecilo A. BC5A MASS MEDIA ETHICS Prof.

Alex Maaliw 12/01/2011 ARTICLE 3 of Broadcast Code of Ethics Coverage Involving Children Media indeed is a powerful instrument in raising the awareness of people of their rights most especially of the children. Broadcast Journalists have this power of uncovering stories (through dramas, documentaries and news) of abuses occurring in the society that involve children. In these cases, infiltrating sensitive stories such child abuse is a must. Stories alike have an overwhelming impact on societys attitude towards children which greatly affects the way the adult behave. With these, one concern should be in the awareness of the media practitioners and that is not to exploit or to double persecute children extremely damaged by the abuses they went through. The government has formulated orders to prevent exploitation of children that are victims of different abuses. Just like the R.A. 7610 Section 29: Protecting Confidentiality and P.D. 603: Child Welfare Code, Article 166. Even the organizations for media society have proposed orders such as the Article 3 of the Broadcast Code of Ethics. Despite these written orders, assurance for their implementation is not as huge. Year 1997, a story broke out in publics eyes. Its about a girl whose identity was hidden in the name Maricel. Shes a ten year old honor student from Makati who was raped by an adult male neighbor. She was undergoing therapy to go over the trauma she got from the sexual abused. Media has bullied her through interviews. Although she is guided by her psychiatrist, she became sullen and depressed. She even said Hindi ko na mabubura. She was eaten by medias so-called cathartic interview, and that she even added now that everyone knows everything, I can never erase what happened. This made her life more miserable that she even refused to go to school for children keep on teasing her. With their situation, her family decided to transfer to other neighborhood. Through continuous coverage of her story,

the alleged culprit was able to locate them which were very unfortunate. He even made threats through Maricels principal which caused her to develop a paralyzing fear of school. Media has turned ones life more than miserably miserable. Clearly and visibly there is a violation of Section 1 and 4 from Article 3 of Code of Ethics which is obviously illegal. Coverage of the story doesnt show respect for the privacy and protect the identity of the child involved in this case that is so unethical. There was no consideration of the possible consequences upon publishing or covering the story which made it immoral. It worsens the situation instead of minimizing the damaged that the abused had caused the child. With these, now we can ask where is the legal, ethical and moral ground that media were ought to exercise? Media has a vital role in developing the society and informing the people of what they can fight for. But why is that in some cases, media denies rights of the people such as privacy and anonymity most particularly in delicate issues involving children? Media is always the frontrunner in advocating rights of children. But situations must be carefully handled as it is fragile for advocacy may turn into an opposition.

SOURCES:
http://www.ifj.org/assets/docs/247/254/cf73bf7-c75e9fe.pdf http://www.nowpublic.com/world/philippines-still-pushing-against-child-porno http://www.childprotectionnetwork.org/pdf/publications/physician.pdf http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/issues/issues14/issues14.html