'The Child in the News Handbook' is Online in Turkish and Kurdish

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The Child in the News / Child-Focused Reporting Handbook has taken its place in the Library of Child-Focused Reporting. Umay Aktaş Salman wrote and Ezgi Koman edited the book which we have published online.

The book has also been published in Kurdish, with the title, "Nûçe û Zarok/ Pirtûka Destan a Nûçegihaniya Zarokparêz." bianet Kurdî editors Murat Bayram and Ferid Demirel and intern Abdülselam Yıldırım translated the book into Kurdish. It is also the first Kurdish guideline published in Turkey, considering its scope and content.

Child-focused reporting project

IPS Communication Foundation ran the Child-Focused Reporting Project between January 2018 and February 2019, with the support of the Sweden International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). Elif Ünal was the coordinator of the project. The first output of the project was the Library of Child-Focused Reporting.

Prof. Dr. Aslı Tunç browsed 31 national newspapers dated on April 16, 20, and 24, 2018, and prepared the report.

Many thanks to the bianet team and everyone who contributed to the Child in the News Handbook.

Mater: "No more excuses for not doing child-focused reporting"

The 70-page book begins with an article by Nadire Mater, the Board Chair and the Project Consultant of the IPS Communications Foundation.

Mater says, "We hope that from now on, there won't be anyone who doesn't do child-focused reporting, or there will be no more excuses for not doing child-focused reporting."

From education to health, from conflict to refugee children...

In the part titled, "The Child in Turkey with Numbers," the book draws a portrait of the children in Turkey. In the part "The child on the Media," it tells how the children are covered on the media.

The book includes advice and points to consider for journalists who want to report on different topics, from health to education, from armed conflict to refugee children.

The handbook also contains a dictionary that sheds light on the terminology of child-focused reporting. 

Aktaş Salman: "One of the basic problems in the media"

Umay Aktaş Salman explains her main motivation behind writing the handbook:

"One of the fundamental problems in the media is normalizing the social perception that views the child as a 'deficient citizen'. As a journalist and a researcher, it was very important for me to write on this problem, which I regard very fundamental and important. Having held workshops about rights-based journalism, making publications that illuminate the way of the journalists and journalist candidates for years, bianet putting this unchanging problem into the agenda again and again, discussing it, being a guide, ensured this book come to life.

Koman: "These are obligations, not favors"

Ezgi Koman, the editor of the book, says that the child can become a subject by being accepted as equal partners of life, individuals who have rights and freedoms independently. "And all these are not favors but obligations for Turkey, a country who signed the UN Convention on the rights of the Child."

First guide in Kurdish

The handbook has been simultaneously published in Turkish and Kurdish. In terms of its scope and content, it is the first guide that is published in Kurdish in Turkey. Ferid Demirel, one of the translators, says, "There are very few organizations that report news in Kurdish but I think this will be an example for them. Maybe their number will increase with our guide."

Abdülselam Yıldırım agrees, saying, "I think that the terms used in the dictionary will be pretty useful for the works that will be released in the future."

Murat Bayram says, "bianet somewhat got their hands on the education problem, where the Kurdish language is disadvantageous. There are very few things. Among those few things, bianet's steps mean much."

(EÜ/HK/VK)