» A terrible invasion of privacy

A terrible invasion of privacy

September 15th, 2009

Asked to comment on the latest stories on Caster Semenya, I said: I can see no justification for this terrible and hurtful intrusion into the personal life of Semenya.

There are times when public interest may justify an invasion of privacy, but these should be the exception rather than the rule. I cannot see that the public interest is served in getting such hurtful information out quickly rather than letting it come out in an appropriate and sensitive way. The Australian paper that carried this story has only added pain onto an already painful story, and seems to have no regard for the individual who is a victim of such unwanted attention.

Once the information is out, however, the rest of the media would look foolish if they did not follow the story, though we can still be careful about treating the story with care and try to minimise the hurt. If journalists are going to do good as well as harm, then they will at least use this story to increase public understanding of complex contemporary ideas of gender and sexual identity. Some good might then come out of this tragic tale.

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism

3 Comments Add your own

1. More on the media and Cas&hellip | September 15th, 2009 at 10:40 am

[...] and her family. But both GenderLinks’ Colleen Lowe Morna and Wits University’s Professor Anton Harber believe the media unjustifiably invaded the athlete’s [...]
2. zwischengeschlecht.org | September 17th, 2009 at 4:07 am

dear anton harbinger

thanks for outlining the ethical side of this global field day for bad journalism. and also for asking to try to do good as well.

however, the core problem obviously isn’t “public understanding of complex contemporary ideas of gender and sexual identity”, but the taboo, discrimination and massive human rights violations of the people who are or - like semenya, are suspected of - being intersexed.

the semenya “case” is only the latest in a long row in the sports world of unfair, harmful and and hurtful treatments of actual/suspected intersexed athletes, see e.g. maria patino, santhi soundarajan or sarah gronert.

also, their plight goes far beyond sports, e.g the genital surgery (many call it mutilation) which is forced on many of them while they’re still toddlers.

as far as i know, up to now the only south african journal which rose to the challenge was the witness, which brought some articles by/about sally gross.

basic information on intersex and human rights abuses can be found at http://isna.org and http://intersex.shadowreport.org (see e.g. 3.3)

see also http://intersex.org.za/

thanks for your consideration
3. George McBarnes | August 11th, 2011 at 1:49 pm

Well, just take a look on the resent Murdoch case in the UK - incredible stuff!

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Anton Harber: Media

Professor Anton Harber directs the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at Wits University. He is former editor of the Mail & Guardian.
Full bio

Daily newspaper sales, South Africa
(Ave sales Jul-Dec)
1960 - 681 053 (Population 17,3m)
1970 - 723 566 (22m)
1980 - 803 229 (27,5m)
1990 - 1 214 396 (35,2m)
2000 - 1 117 886 (44m)
2006 - 1 600 000 (47,3m)
2011 - 1 310 000 (49m)

(Sources: ABC and nationmaster.com)

“It was pure political theatre. The excited room was filled with government officials, government consultants, quasi-government agencies, politicians and pupils from government schools. As if on cue, the room rang with applause as one education victory after another was claimed. This was, after all, the annual drama in which the minister of basic education appears on stage to announce the Grade 12 National Senior Certificate (NSC) results …” - Educationist Jonathan Jansen, one of the few with the credibility to look critically at this “celebratory orgy of mediocrity”.

“The (Incwala) ceremony is cloaked in secrecy and marks the (Swaziland) king’s return to public life after a period of withdrawal and spiritual contemplation. Among its highlights is a symbolic demonstration by the king of his power and dominance in a process involving his penetration of a black bull … But last year’s selected bull, according to a recent account from a whistle-blowing Incwala initiate, objected strongly, and threw off Africa’s last absolute monarch.” - Some surprises in this (un-bylined) account of Swaziland politics in Southern African Report

“When the Great Zucchini arrived that Saturday morning, Don had no idea who he was. Frankly, he didn’t look like a great anything. He looked like a house painter, Don thought, with some justification. He wears no costume. He was in painter’s pants, a coffee-stained shirt and a two-day growth of beard. He toted his beat-up props in beat-up steamer trunks, with ripped faux leather and broken hinges hanging askew.” - A classic of magazine profiling, by Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post.

Diepsloot (Jonathan Ball, 2011)

Diesploot: Of Frogs and Fractals, a public lecture at the University of Johannesburg, 4 August 2011

Troublemakers - The Best of South Africa’s Investigative Journalism (Jacana, 2101), edited by Anton Harber and Margaret Renn

Introduction - The Troublemakers: An account of the rise of a new wave of investigative journalism in South Africa.

What is Left Unsaid: Reporting the South African HIV Epidemic, edited by Kristin Palitza, Natalie Ridgard, Helen Struthers and Anton Harber (Fanele, 2010)