REPORTING ON CHILDREN HAS CHANGE COME YET?

Tess Bacalla, PPI Training Director

Media play an important role in protecting and promoting children’s rights

Children’s issues have yet to enter the mainstream media

Echo Maryadi, chairman of Alliance of Independent Journalists

WHAT DRIVES MEDIA REPORTING ON CHILDREN?

“Because children are afforded special protection under the law, and because of the notions of innocence and, purity that we attach to them, the violation of children is often very newsworthy.”

Editorial Guidelines and Principles for Reporting on Children in the Media, Save the Children

“Different media outlets produce coverage designed for their main consumers. Thus different media outlets adopt styles that reinforce stereotypes understood to appeal to their particular audience group.”

Protecting the Rights of Children, Internews

Mandaluyong intensifies curfew on minors

Girl, 15, gang-raped by 38 men in Malaysia and then arrested

“A 15-year-old schoolgirl has reportedly been gang-raped by 38 men in an abandoned house in Malaysia.

“She survived the horrific ordeal but was then arrested by police in the Kelantan region as part of their investigation.”

Independent, May 2014

11-year-old charged with stabbing classmate in France

UN: Violations against children in conflict rose in 2015

Aquino leads enactment ceremony for law protecting children in disasters

Children bring perspectives to stories which contest stereotypes and bring other dimensions to such stories

A Filipino boy passes a slogan during a rally in the Philippines on Sunday, December 13, 2015 criticize the agreement reached during the United Nations conference on climate change, Conference of Parties 21 (COP21) in Paris

Children, police, enforcers bid their summer goodbye

SOME STAGGERING DATA:

MALNUTRITION or stunting rate for children aged at least 2 years old — at 26.2 percent in 2015, the worst in the last decade

AMID high economic growth, stunting among Filipino children below 5 years old rose from 30.3 percent in 2013 to 33.5 percent in 2015

One out of three Filipino children has stunted growth — study (CNN)

Save the Children: 3.6M Filipino kids stunted by malnutrition (Interaksyon)

More Filipino children stunted due to malnutrition (Inquirer)

Reporting children’s plight as events/incidents

Coverage of child abuse:

Which gets the most press?

Three men arrested for gang-rape and murder of 7-year-old girl in Paco, Manila

Physical abuse and sexual abuse are often the most featured, with fewer coverage of corporal punishment atschool and emotional abuse.

Whose voices …?

SOURCES?

“Media should not report the conditions of children only as events but should continuously report the process … leading to the occurrence of these events.”

Nordicom (Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research )

Place child protection issues in the minds of the public and on political agendas

“We hope the media, as a major player in this society, can develop this potential and prioritize children, especially the vulnerable and those who are most overlooked, so that their views and opinions can be heard.”

UNICEF chief representative Angela Kearney

It’s time to reframe our stories on children …

Mainstream children’s issues in our coverage

IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE!