Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) BBC film exploits minors, the vulnerable

BBC film exploits minors, the vulnerable
Comment
Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:05:00 +0000

THE 'shockumentary' Zimbabwe's Forgotten Children which aired on BBC4, brought to the fore, issues of child abuse and lack of protection for our society's vulnerable.

In the documentary Xoliswa Sithole on the BBC's commission, sought to highlight the fate of "Esta, Grace and Obert (who) are just four of many hundreds of thousands of children struggling to survive in Zimbabwe."

Sithole fails to explain how these children came to be where they are today; having grown up in Zimbabwe herself, under the same government of President Robert Mugabe.

The obvious bias of this documentary is not what we intend to highlight; but issues surrounding child abuse and lack of protection for minors.

Many organizations like Child AbuseWatch regard the use of children in reality TV shows as exploitation at best and abuse at worst. Xoliswa's documentary negates our role in society as watchdogs for the exploitation of our children.

A clutch of children's-rights advocates in the world, argue that any filmmaker who puts a minor on a TV program, documentary or otherwise, should be, by definition, a child abuser.

There is no doubt that the programme raised serious child-protection issues. Whilst it appears that parental consent was obtained for filming in one instance, such consent if it was obtained was, in our view ill-advised and naive, as the parent was dying of AIDS or was also a vulnerable other.

The BBC and presenter Xoliswa watched as a woman died of AIDS, and no attempt was made to show that they tried to help her.

It is hard, therefore, to believe Xoliswa's crocodile tears at the end of the documentary.

She failed to highlight that the issues she was addressing in Zimbabwe were pervasive, and not unique to Zimbabwe.

These issues (HIV, AIDS, lack of healthcare, poverty, lack of schooling) are world issues; found in South Africa (Xoliswa's home country) and the rest of the Sub-Saharan region. Is she being selective of her victims, or she is vying for a certain kind of response from a gullible viewership?

The children in the 'shockumentary' were greatly distressed and this in my view is abusive. This distress has now been publicly broadcast and is therefore likely to have long-term consequences for some of them.

In addition, given the current international concerns in relation to the safeguarding of children, it is in my view highly irresponsible for the BBC to broadcast a programme which demeans and to some extent demonizes children and thus reinforces negative public perceptions of children and their vulnerability.

Xoliswa's documentary has breached laws requiring local authority approval for any child performance. It is clear that no licence was sought from the authorities. Given that any such application would have resulted in detailed inquiries from the authority about the nature of the programme and the safeguarding issues involved, one can only surmise that this was a deliberate and sickening omission.

Given that this was not a commissioned screening, it is unlikely the children and parents had access to expert advice at all stages, or whether there had been constant security and trained chaperones intervened when appropriate.

that the victims are seen as worse off at the end, one wonders whether the children had been paid anything at all and whether their lives improved as a result of the documentary.

Shocking and twisted ethics!

Labels: BBC, PROPAGANDA, SHOCKUMENTARY

posted by MrK @ 6:30 PM