In 2002, the Mail & Guardian reported that a BBC documentary on the topic of infant rape had been condemned by MPs of the African National Congress before it was screened. South Africa’s news24 later reported that after seeing the film, the MPs, many of whom were members of Parliament’s committee on child abuse, actually […]
Lindsay Hanna
6. Subject, and friend
Documentary has no established ethical guidelines and the nature of the form—visual, artistic and often implicit in meaning—does not lend itself to rules that are universally applicable. Many filmmakers argue that ethical decisions must be made on an ad hoc case-by-case basis. This was the conclusion of a report from the American University Center for […]
5. Documentary’s edge
While journalistic practice may be governed by publication-based ethical guidelines, documentary films are not subject to the same sort of evaluative criteria during the newsgathering stage. Documentary production is not regulated and journalist filmmakers are typically independent small business owners who sell their work to distributors, mainly for television broadcast. As independent producers looking to […]
4. Guidelines for filming a child
Gans and Lee did talk with other journalists they knew in making this decision, though they did not consult any one set of ethical guidelines produced by a journalistic organization. Lee argued that most journalism ethics are based on legal practices or on the ethics of the particular news agency, and noted that they didn’t […]
3. The privacy of a child
The ethics of privacy is another lens through which to examine this documentary. In her book Secrets, Sissela Bok defines privacy as “the condition of being protected from unwanted access by others — either physical access, personal information or attention.” In the case of No Past to Speak Of, the child could not make a […]
2. Informed Consent
Informed consent is a term used more often in health-care or psychology than journalism, but it can be helpful term to consider when getting consent to interview, or report about children. Informed consent means that the doctor, or journalist in this situation, explains what is happening, why it is happening and what the potential consequences […]
1. Perspectives
A mother’s limits Alice believed sharing their story would help remove the stigma attached to rape. Prior to filming, she had given public talks and spoken to both the South African and international press. Alice was comfortable sharing her daughter’s story, but unsure about including footage of her daughter in the film. However, she permitted […]
No past to speak of: making a child the face of infant rape?
The documentary’s subject matter could not have been more important: an epidemic of brutal assaults on children. One mother wanted her young child’s face shown in the documentary, but was that sufficient consent? Case study by Erin James-Abra, Erin Byrnes, Emily Loewen and Kasia Mychajlowycz December, 2012 No Past to Speak Of is a documentary film […]
7. Epilogue
What would you have chosen to do as a journalist in this situation? Because this case study is intended primarily as a teaching resource, a password is required to view the epilogue. The purpose is to encourage readers to pause and think about how they would resolve the difficulty, before learning how the journalist(s) involved […]
6. The decision-making point
Ross and Nelles had to make the decision of whether to include the names of several industry workers before writing the article. Many of the sources told stories about damage done to their property and personal threats for simply underbidding a contractor who was meant to win a specific bid. Ross was worried that if […]