NEWS / TRAINING: MISA trains journos on child reporting

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has trained Malawi journalists on child reporting. An initiative MISA programme specialist for Media Freedom Monitoring and Research, Levi Kabwato describes as an on-going effort towards empowering journalists to report informatively and positively on children and child rights.

The training took place this week in Blantyre where journalists were informed about various issues governing child right that focused on ethical guidelines and principles; international human rights instruments such as the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

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ARTICLES / PROJECTS: Journalism now child's play (SOUTH AFRICA)

South African schoolchildren have launched a Children's News Agency - the first local attempt to distribute news about children, written by children.

The initiative is backed by the European Union, Save the Children and Media Monitoring Africa. It will involve 600 children in SA and Zambia and is based on three elements: writing ethical guidelines to help journalists, the news agency and the training of child media monitors.

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NEWS / PROJECTS: New children's media project launches in SA and Zambia

'Children & Media: Championing Best Practice', is a project that launches today, Thursday 24 February 2011, by Media Network on Child's Rights and Development (MNCRD) in Zambia, Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) in South Africa and Save the Children, with the support of the European Union and Sida Sweden.

It aims to work with almost 600 children and 500 journalists to ensure children's rights are respected in media in South Africa and Zambia, and to deliver more representative and ethical journalism.

According to MMA director, William Bird, "We've seen a gradual improvement in how children are reported on in the media since 2003. However in SA, 7% of stories that mention children violate their rights, in Zambia that figure is 18%. This is usually where a child is named where it is clearly it is not in its best interests, frequently stigmatising the child, increasing its vulnerability or even putting its life in danger."

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