Mere harm or statutory sex crime?

Abstract

On October 18, 2023, Dinamina newspaper reported two incidents: the sexual assault of a primary school student by a deputy principal and of a nine-year-old girl by her father. Dinamina described these suspected cases of statutory rape as suspects merely ‘harming’ the minors. The media has a responsibility to accurately convey the seriousness of statutory sex crimes, and this reporting did not meet established ethical guidelines.