Media Watch

Articles on forced jabs choose sensation over information

Reports of contraceptive injections administered to girls as young as 10 at a primary school in Port Elizabeth, have raised a dull hum throughout the news media.

However reports leave questions around rape and HIV and HIV prevention in general unaddressed.

Sundry articles have also reported that girls at a Port Elizabeth primary school were given the contraceptive injections without their parents consent. The articles have also chosen to focus on the fact that the girls were told that the injections would prevent unwanted pregnancy if they were raped.

While shocking and sensational details such as these are common media fodder, they are often the sole focus, leaving other pertinent questions unaddressed. Specifically questions around whether or not messages about HIV prevention were communicated to the girls are left unconsidered.