In a world where media houses are competing for eyeballs in the superhighway of information, the ethics of news coverage are often sacrificed at the altar of clicks. Gasant Abarder examines in this SliceofGasant column how some media outlets got it horribly wrong and broke the law in covering the Milnerton High School bully saga.
One role of the media is to bring the temperature down in tumultuous and volatile times. It is meant to make sense of complexities so that the public can digest difficult situations that happen in our world. In the case of the Milnerton High School bullying case, the media fell short of this responsibility.
Firstly, let me put this on record: without the mom resorting to the measure of making the video public on social media, the action against the bullies may never have seen the light of day. It was necessary for the media too to give it national coverage because this was an incident that I hope is never ever repeated. The bullies must face the full might of the law and pay for their crimes.