Reporters Wont Call Children Criminal
About 30 local reporters attended the training at the Omtel Tepe Hotel in the campus of the 19 Mayis University. The reporters discussed the possibilities of a child-friendly media and children's participation in the media, on the basis of rights reporting.
About 30 local reporters attended the training seminar at the Omtel Tepe Hotel in the campus of the 19 Mayis University. The participants discussed the possibilities of a child-friendly media and children's participation in the media, on the basis of rights reporting.
After heated discussions based on exchange of experiences and examples, the participants agreed that children are not only the adults of the future, but individuals with certain rights in the society, and that the are not "criminals" but are pushed into committing crimes and that they are in danger.
Journalists to protect children
The local reporters stated they would pay attention not to violate children's rights when reporting about children, to protect the children's freedom of expression and their right to express their opinion on issues that concern them
Through a letter of commitment the participants signed at the end of the meeting, the reporters also promised to produce a certain number of "news reports or interviews about children, or about issues that would raise awareness about children's rights in the next six months" and to spend effort to get these news reports or interviews published by the media company they work at.
Kurkcu: Cooperation with the local media is very important for BIA
The training began with BIA² Project Coordinator Ertugrul Kurkcu, talking about the BIA project.
Kurkcu gave the participants information about the training programs by BIA, the BIA booklet, of which the second edition was published recently and human rights, and the radio programs prepared for women and children. Kurkcu said cooperation with the local media is of utmost importance for the BIA activities.
Kurkcu also talked about the International Communications Forum to be organized by BIA in Istanbul in November, and to be attended by the local media.
Onat: Media plays main role in implementation of rights
Yasemin Onat, a lawyer from the Antalya Bar Association made the first presentation on Saturday on "Children's Rights and Reporting." During her presentation, Onat talked about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children's rights as the subject of the news report, and the media's handling of children.
Onat said that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child oversees four basic rights of the child: The right to live develops, protect and participate. She added that a child-centered perspective views children as active individuals, active members of the society.
Onat said there is a very widespread belief that the parents carry all the responsibility of the child. But she stated that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child imposes equal responsibility to teachers, law and healthcare workers, state institutions, politics, budget, NGOs, media and international institutions and regulations.
Notions that are not used correctly legitimize rights violations
Onat said the system would collapse unless all the aforementioned fully protect the children and fulfill their responsibilities. "In such a joint system, the media plays the main role for the implementation of children's basic rights," she added.
Onat stated that legal notions that are not used correctly legitimize rights violations. "Under the law, children under 18 cannot be questioned," said Onat. "Children under 12 do not have criminal liability. They cannot be called a 'criminal'."
Onat said all investigations that involve children should be confidential and closed to press and public.
She said that Article 17 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child regulates the children's right to obtain information, documents and news from means of mass communication. Onat added there are two main topics on the quality of the publications:
* Information and documents that comply with the needs of the child.
* The publications should not have a harming or labeling effect.
The participants analyzed the expectations of the children, families, society and media managers' expectations from the media during the "Role of Press" workshop directed by Onat.
Hosta: "Come on Girls, to School Campaign" is a triumph of the local media
On Saturday afternoon, Sema Hosta, who is responsible of the UNICEF Communications Program, talked about UNICEF's New Country Programme and gave information on current projects and campaigns.
While talking about the 5-year New Country Programme, which will go on from 2006 till 2013, said their main goal is "to enable children to have their voices heard and to create a children's language."
Hosta drew attention to the fact that the media's mission is not only to report but to be effective in being inquisitive and supervisory.
Hosta, who argued that the media, and especially the local media, has a big responsibility in advancing children's rights, stated that UNICEF's most important experience has been to work locally. She drew attention to the fact that conditions can be very different even in regions that are geographically very close to each other. She added the local media has a lot of say especially in campaigns and stated, the "Come on Girls, to School Campaign" was successful "due to the triumph of the local media."
Cangoz: Media sees children as objects of consumption
On Saturday afternoon, Assistant Associate Professor Doctor Incilay Cangoz from the Communications Department of the Anadolu University, made a presentation on "Children as the Source of News, Ethics, Violations of Children's Rights in the Media."
Associate Professor Dr. Cangoz said the media produces representations in the public space and these representations gain a social meaning. She underlined the importance of what is being chosen as representation and how it is being communicated.
She argued that children are viewed as objects of consumption by the media, and added that children are subjects of the news only on religious holidays, children's days, and at the beginning of school years.
Cangoz said the media's economy-politics, the codes of professional journalism, the hierarchical structure of the media production, sticking to certain sources and the use of masculine-language, all play a role in this.
Media is the voice of the powerful
Cangoz argued that the media places importance to the powerful and recreates the inequality in the society by enabling those politically and economically powerful (ie. Large capital, army, popular persons, officials) to have their voices heard.
Another indicator of the fact that the media is not objective is the language used, according to Cangoz. "Language is not something neutral, clear and transparent like glass," said Cangoz. "We recreate the reality through language."
Cangoz said that the language is very suitable for discrimination. "We perceive the world, ourselves and our surroundings with the language we use," said Cangoz. "We have to be more careful when creating meanings. We should not forget about sexism when using a language." She then went on to examine news clips with the participants.
Degirmencioglu: Participation is a basic right of children
Associate-Professor Doctor Serdar Degirmencioglu from the Children's Rights Coalition, made a presentation after Cangoz, on "Children's Representation in the Media." He expressed that participation is a basic right of the children and talked about the possibilities of children's participation in the media.
Degirmencioglu said research shows that children prefer the Internet and television. "There is no place for newspapers in their preferences," said Degirmencioglu. "If the newspapers continue to ignore children, they will have no future."
Participation means having a say in the decision-making process, being influential, having the opportunity to actively intervene, and being able to work with adults, according to Degirmencioglu.
It is important to work together
Working with children means "less filtering, new ideas and creativity," added Degirmencioglu. He argued that the newspapers should embrace the attitude of making a difference instead of protecting the system and highlighted the advantages of the local media:
"The national media, because of its sterile structure, is distant from the children. But the local media has many opportunities."
Degirmencioglu gave examples participation of children in the media. The publication of the "Agustos" (August) newspaper by the young people who suffered the 1999 earthquake, the participation of young people in the local "Bush Radio" in South Africa, and the storesoup.com, which is prepared by children and edited by adults in the US, are successful examples of "working together," said Degirmencioglu.
Duran: "It is very dangerous to view the children as 'the others'"
On the second day of the training, Sema Hosta from UNICEF made a presentation on the importance of correct information about the avian influenza and what the media should pay attention to while covering the disease.
Following Hosta's presentation, BIA coordinator Ertugrul Kurkcu talked about the bianet Web site, and BIA Children's Rights Editor Kemal Ozmen talked about the Children's Web site.
Later, Ragip Duran from the Communications Department of Galatasaray University, conducted a workshop on "Violations of Children's Rights in the Media, Covering Children's Issues and Conducting Interviews with Children."
Duran, in a presentation before the workshop, advocated that the media recreates the society's perception of children. He said the notions about children, who are usually limited to ages 0-18, are not properly known and added this negatively affects the news reports.
He said it is very important for the media to correctly structure the notion and image of the child in fighting against prejudices.
"It is very dangerous to view the child as 'the other,'" said Duran. He drew attention to the fact that children are frequently subjected to violence, discrimination and are exploited for pornography. Duran said there are not many differences between interviewing children and interviewing adults but added the reporter must pay attention to certain issues when the interviewee is a child.
Duran then listed the issues that a reporter must pay attention to when interviewing a child:
* The child must be regarded as an independent individual,
* The child should feel comfortable at the location of the interview,
* The child's parents should consent to the interview,
* The language should be simple and understandable, the questions should be clear,
* The child's privacy should be respected,
* The questions should not remind the child of past pains and cause him/her agony.
Before the workshop, bianet children's rights editor Ozmen evaluated, together with the participants the children's rights violations in the newspapers that reported on the arrest of a 16-year-old child as the suspect in the murder of Priest Andrea Santoro of the Santa Maria Church in Trabzon.
The participants broke into four groups at the end of the workshop and analysed the violations of children's rights in the media by using news clips.
Criticisms and proposals
After the training seminar, participants presented their criticisms and proposals.
All participants said they found the training very fruitful and added they would share what they have learned with their colleagues and do their best to put them in practice.
There were criticisms on the fact that the training was too short, that there was not enough time for workshops and the trainers did not spend much time with the participants except during presentations.
The participants asked for the training seminars to continue and to be conducted in their provinces as well. (KO/EO/EA/YE)