NEWS: Students in media training workshop (PACIFIC)

In recognition of their potentials, about 20 students are attending a two-day workshop in Labasa to strengthen their participation in development.

Facilitated by the Live and Learn Environmental Education, the journalist forum is aimed at creating an advanced profile to the central role of children in the pursuit of peace, including children's roles in public education through media and formal education.

Formal education program co-ordinator Makelesi Batimala said the three-year project aimed to benefit more than 25,000 children under the age of 16 and to establish a large-scale network of 1800 schools and 2000 teachers in Fiji, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

full article

NEWS / AWARDS: Little girl’s struggles wins 2013 Asia-Pacific Child Rights Award

The heart-rending story of a small girl's struggle in a Manila slum has won this year's Asia-Pacific Child Rights Awards for broadcasting.

Reel Time: Bone Dry, a documentary by GMA Network, spotlights child malnutrition in the Philippines, where two in ten children are undernourished. 

Filmed in the Tondo district, one of the most poverty-stricken areas in the country, the documentary tells the story of Mary Rose, a 10-year-old whose height and weight are those of a five-year old child. She lives with her five siblings, who have all been diagnosed as severely malnourished.

The award, created by the ABU, UNICEF and the CASBAA media association in 2001, is given annually to the best television program produced in the Asia-Pacific with a focus on children's rights. It is being presented on 24 October during the CASBAA Convention in Hong Kong.

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WORKSHOPS / TRAINING: Workshop motivates people (PACIFIC REGION)

MORE than 20 participants from around the Pacific were part of a one-week UNICEF OneTalk4 All workshop at Tanoa Plaza in Suva.

The aim of the workshop was to get people talking about issues concerning youths within the Pacific region and finding ways to solving those issues through the support of the media.

Participants got achance to express their concerns on violence, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), non-communicable diseases and education and how they can get youths to be more aware of the issues.

Beiateta'ake Burabura of Kiribati said she had learnt a lot during the one-week workshop and it had motivated her in creating awareness on issues such as violence, education and STIs in her country.

Ms Burabura said she would surely make a difference when returning to her country as she would present everything she had learnt through the radio station.

"We got the chance to produce radio jingles and TV production ads, which portrays the importance of education," she said.

full article in the Fiji Times

NEWS / EVENTS: Youths gather to focus on child issues

Twenty-one participants from the Pacific region have gathered in Suva to address issues related to children and youths using the media.

The workshop has been organized by UNICEF,PACMAS and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

UNICEF spokesperson, Tomas Jensen says the participants will be engaged in group activities.

“We are going to be producing between 15 and 20 radio, tv, print and social media production that are focusing on topics relevant to young people in the pacific and we are also going to try to establish partnership with the media so that young people continue to do production after the workshop."

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OPPORTUNITIES: Video competition against cyberbullying (AUSTRALIA)

Join BackMeUp and take a stand against bullying. BackMeUp is a video competition to help eliminate cyberbullying in Australia! 

If you’re 13-17, then get snazzy with your camera and enter the competition to win an all-expenses paid trip to Sydney for a NIDA film-making course or some juicy JB HiFi vouchers.

Goodbye cyberbullying, hello Hollywood!

website

OPPORTUNITIES: Want to report for 3 News in NZ?

Think you've got what it takes to be a reporter for 3 News?

If you're aged between 16 and 18 and have a passion for writing, this could be your chance.

UNICEF NZ and 3 News are searching for five budding young reporters to write for 3Youth – a section of the 3 News website dedicated to news written by young people.

More info

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Child Rights Award 2012: A call to broadcasters

CASBAA, ABU and UNICEF are calling for entries for the 12th Asia-Pacific Child Rights Award from broadcasters and producers in the region.

Programmes both for children and about children are eligible and can cover any children’s rights issue. Entries can include documentaries that detail the plight of children, dramas that help break down stereotypes and discrimination, or animation that teaches and entertains.


Entries must have been broadcast between June 2011 and May 2012 and must be received by 8 June 2012. The Award will be presented during the ABU General Assembly in mid October 2012.

For further information, click here.

For further information, please contact:

Adela Chen, CASBAA (Hong Kong), + 852 3929 1711, adela@casbaa.com, pr@casbaa.com
Hanizah Hamzah, ABU (Kuala Lumpur), + 603 2282 2480, hanizah@abu.org.my
Kritsada Jirathun, UNICEF (Bangkok), + 662 356 9249, kjirathun@unicef.org

FESTIVALS / EVENTS: UNICEF brings acclaimed HIV film to Documentary Edge Film Festival (NEW ZEALAND)

UNICEF NZ is bringing four children's rights documentaries to the screen at the upcoming Documentary Edge Film Festival.

The festival, which opens in Auckland on 26 April and will continue in Wellington from 17 May, will include the highly acclaimed film The Carrier.

The Carrier is a powerful story of one woman's journey as she comes to terms with HIV and the impact the virus is having on her family and community. 28-year-old Mutinta Mweemba is caught in a desperate struggle to stop the disease being passed onto her unborn child.

Every day around the world about 1,000 children are newly infected with HIV. Vulnerable newborns can contract the virus from their HIV positive mothers during pregnancy, labour or delivery. Without treatment, a third of babies with HIV won't live to see their second birthday.

The good news is that there is a way to stop this happening by giving medication to pregnant mothers and newborns and UNICEF NZ is supporting mothers to do this.

full article - Documentary Edge Film Festival

NEWS / AWARDS: Japanese documentary wins 2011 Child Rights Award

Thursday 03 Nov 2011- A documentary about the lives of two disabled children in Japan has won the 2011 Asia-Pacific Child Rights Award for broadcasting.

Iori and Ibuki - Why We Were Born by Shizuoka Telecasting of Japan was named the winner of the award on 2 November in Hong Kong during the CASBAA Convention.

The Asia-Pacific Child Rights Award, created by CASBAA, ABU and UNICEF in 2001, is given annually to the best television programme produced in the Asia-Pacific region with a focus on children's rights.

Mariko Hashimoto, the producer of Iori and Ibuki - Why We Were Born, spent 11 years of filming and interviewing Iori and her family. Iori and her younger brother were each born with disabilities. Their story is a compelling tale of resilience and optimism.

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PROJECTS / RADIO: The Suitcase Radio has arrived in Tonga (PACIFIC REGION)

Nukualofa, Tonga - 15 September 2011 - A team of seven young women in Nuku’alofa will be paving the way for more youth involvement in Pacific media content development, production and broadcast as a new “suitcase” community radio station is installed in Tonga’s capital this weekend.

The young women, who are the first recruits of the Generation Next Tonga team of producers and broadcasters, to tell their stories as well as produce and broadcast radio programmes sourced through a range of civil society groups including the Tonga CSO Forum, Friendly Islands Human Rights and Democracy Movement, Langafanua, the Red Cross and the Talitha Project which is assisting in the coordination of the Generation Next Tonga team.

“Your involvement of young women in the community radio initiative is just wonderful,” said Head of Tonga’s Women's Affairs Division Polotu Paunga Fakafanua, referring to the Generation Next component of the community media project based at Ma’afafine moe Famili in partnership with FemLINKPACIFIC and supported by the Canada Fund and AUSAID.

full article

NEWS: Youth monitoring exercise to be undertaken (FIJI / PACIFIC REGION)

A youth media monitoring exercise will be undertaken from August as part of the International Year of the Youth.

The Department Youth and Sports and Fiji Media Watch this afternoon signed a memorandum of understanding to ascertain the volume and quality of media coverage given to the youth and related development issues.

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NEWS / ARTICLES: Children’s media trainings expanded (PACIFIC REGION)

MORE than 110 children in the Western Province are now able to use communication skills learnt from basic communication training.

The children were from the Save the Children child clubs of Vella la Vella at Paramata and Leona, Simbo at Masuru and Nusa, Munda at Kokeqolo and Dunde, Rarumana at Vunerima and Suitonami and Gizo at Pailoqe and Mile three took.

These children were recipients of these skills after Save the Children Child Club Advocacy Project (CAP) decided to expand its media project component to children in the provincial areas.

The training funded by Save the Children and AusAID was conducted by Honiara based CAP media officer Aldrin Peloko assisted by Save the Children CAP team leader in the Western Province, John Lilo.

The aim of the project was to build the child club members capacity, media skills and communication to produce simple media materials that will help advocate for children's rights.

full article

VIDEOS: Young people raise awareness about climate change in the Pacific nation of Kiribati

NEWS: Use media positively, Turaga urges youth (FIJI)

There is a need for young people to use the media wisely while at the same time, critically analyse what comes out of it.

Fiji Media Watch media monitoring co-ordinator, Fulori Turaga said educating young people was part of their advocacy program from 2010 to 2013.

This follows a presentation to students of Ahmadiyya Muslim College on Thursday.

"We've noticed schoolchildren and youths who are bombarded with what comes out of the media," she said.

"It is important to critically analyse what comes out of the media whether print, broadcast or even advertisements.

full article

RESEARCH / ARTICLES: Kids watch 15 hours of TV a week (AUSTRALIA)

She does not let the television dictate her life, but do not stand between 11-year-old Kayley Collier and an episode of Neighbours.

The Twin Waters youngster watches nearly half the amount of television in any given week when compared to other children in her age group.

New data released this week as part of the Young Australian Survey by Roy Morgan Research detailing children’s top media choices showed children aged between six and 13 spend more time watching television than any other media.

On average, they spend 14 hours and 48 minutes in front of the tube in any given week.

full article

NEWS / ARTICLES: Pacific Islands Eager to Improve Children’s Media

by Barbara Kolucki, UNICEF Consultant, Children's Media and Tomas Jensen, Communication Specialist, UNICEF Pacific

The week began with excitement and some trepi- dation. For the very first time, countries from the Pacific Islands met to learn about and produce innovative media for children and youth. The August 16-20 workshop in Suva, Fiji, included a wide range of 60 people from Fiji, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, and Vanuatu, most of whom had never met each other or worked together.

It included children's media producers in television and radio, but also journalists, artists, creative writers, graphic designers, musicians and people who work directly with disadvantaged and marginalized youth. Other participants included young people who are creating innovative productions after taking part in UNICEF communication workshops and several deaf or blind young adults, accompanied by interpreters.

Media for children is quite new in the Pacific. Often, producers with absolutely no experience are thrust into creating TV or radio for youth. As a result, they were eager to learn what others around the world do, in order to take their work to a new level of appropriateness and professionalism.

full article & more here

FIJI: Material for children soon available

Material for children soon available
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - Taken from / By: FBC News

Award winning international standard communication material and media for young children will soon be available in the Pacific.

The United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today conducted a workshop with the theme “Media for Children in the Pacific” involving media representatives from Fiji, Kiribati, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands.

UNICEF consultant Barbara Kolucki says the workshop aims to produce communication means for children like books, newspaper spreads, and radio and television spots on topics that will help them do positive things in life.

full article

NEWS / ICDB: Student Broadcasters Invited To Highlight Children's Issues (NEW ZEALAND)

Young Kiwis running their own school-based radio stations are being encouraged to take part in the International Children's Day of Broadcasting (7 March).

The UN Children's Fund-sponsored day, which coincides with Children's Day, encourages children to express themselves and learn about issues facing children in developing countries.

Student broadcasters in New Zealand can download and broadcast up to eight "digital diaries" in the weeks around the International Children's Day of Broadcasting.

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OneMinutesJr workshop in Suva, Fiji - Day Three

Fiji, 20 January 2010 - At 9 a.m. sharp, the third day of the OneMinutesJr workshop starts in Namadi Heights, a suburb of Suva, the capital of Fiji. There is a long list of videos that need to be filmed today. Planning the schedule is the first thing we need to do and therefore we group the workshop participants by film topic and locations.

Three films can be done right here at the workshop venue since we only need "neutral" backgrounds and no special locations. Also, for these films we need a lot of actors and it is necessary to keep the whole group together for this reason. The filming does not take too long and then we are off in groups.

David accompanies Naca (18) and Manoq (17) to a jail and a small village. They want to film their personal stories there, one is about juvenile justice and the other one about child abuse. At the same time, another group is taken by the second trainer to a home for disabled children and to a local hospital.

Junior (15) is wondering why he hardly ever sees disabled children in Suva. He has made some investigations and contacted a special school for disabled children. We go there and talk to the children, trying to find out how they live, what their dreams are and what they miss.

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OneMinutesJr workshop in Suva, Fiji - Day Two

Fiji, 19 January 2010 - On the morning of the second day of the OneMinutesJr workshop in Fiji's capital Suva, we do another round of one-on-one interviews with the participants.

The story ideas need to be finalized and transformed into concrete images. For now, these images exist on paper only as little sketches, but they will soon be turned into real moving images that will then be edited into 60-second videos.

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