Court allows identifying children after they turn 18

Significant victory for the media

IN A victory for the media, the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, has ruled that all child offenders, victims and witnesses may be identified once they are 18 years old. Various media houses, including Independent Media, were victorious following an application by the Centre for Child Law, Childline SA and the young woman who became known to the country as Zephany Nurse, to protect the identities of children even after they had turned 18.

The applicant scored a partial victory after the court declared that child victims under the age of 18 may not be named. As the law stood, these children could have been identified.

Judge Wendy Hughes made it clear that Zephany, or KL as she is referred to in court papers, may not be identified pending the outcome of any appeals following this judgment.

The head of the Centre for Child Law, Professor Ann Skelton, said it would appeal the judgment, other than the order affording protection to child victims under the age of 18.

She said it would launch proceedings for leave to appeal as these issues deal with children and had to be resolved as soon as possible.

Once the applicants have instituted appeal proceedings, the order of Judge Hughes will be suspended, pending the outcome of the appeal proceedings.

The application was sparked by Zephany, who said she lived in fear each day that the “paparazzi” would one day release pictures they took of her, depicting what she looks like today.

She said she has been hounded by photographers after it came to light that she was abducted from hospital shortly after her birth. She was 17 years and nine months old when her biological parents found her.

As she was under 18, she was protected, but she feared when she turned 18 her face would be splashed all over the media.

Although a court has interdicted the media from revealing her true identity pending the final outcome of the legal battle between the children rights groups and the media houses, she wondered if she would ever be able to live a normal life as the media follow her around.

The applicants wanted the Criminal Procedure Act extended, as to have a blanket protection for children once they turned 18.

Judge Hughes said: “I am of the view that there cannot be open-ended protection in favour of children, even into adulthood. This, in my view, would violate the rights of other parties and the other rights of the children themselves when they are adults. “She said as the Act stood, children were afforded sufficient protection, apart from victims under the age of 18.