Local media enjoined to advocate child protection

Sunday, October 2, 2011

THE media plays an important role in the advocacy and protection of children’s right, as well as in the protection of children from abuse and child labor.

This was stressed by National Council for children’s Television (NCCT) Executive Director Frank Rivera, in an interview during the seminar-workshop on Child Protection for Media Practitioners which they conducted at the Teachers’ Camp here, Monday, in partnership with the Philippine Press Institute (PPI), Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) and International Labour Organization (ILO).

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

According to Rivera, the seminar-workshop in Baguio is the second after Iloilo City, which aims to equip the media practitioners with information that is accurate and impartial and will be beneficial to the greater good of the Filipino children.

Rivera explained that with present customs, media practitioners sometimes forget the importance of children in shaping up a better future for the country. “Sometimes the rights of our children are being violated and protection of their rights is being undermined,” he said.

“Media is very powerful. It is very important for the media to put child protection in their advocacy. They must help report the truth coupled with the responsibility and ethics in doing so,” Rivera added.

For the said seminar-workshop, the participants from radio, television, cable and print in multi-media platforms are expected to come up with outputs that are congruent with the rights of the child in relation to child protection.

“We are also trying to put up a contest for the outputs that will be coming up from these series of seminar-workshops,” Rivera added.

Meantime, Rivera pointed out that they are also conducting regular dialogues with scriptwriters and producers of television shows to see to it that good messages and family values are injected in the scripts and direction of widely primetime shows.

“Television’s Teleserye is widely being watched and followed through even by children but sometimes they include scenes and dialogues that are not child-friendly, which prompted us at the NCCT to conduct regular dialogues with them,” Rivera said.