Regional workshop on child friendly media
04-08-2015
A regional workshop titled the professional principles for Arab media's coverage of child rights issues "child friendly media" was launched on Tuesday. The workshop was organized by the National Council for Family Affairs (NCFA) in cooperation with the League of Arab States, the Arab Council for Childhood and Development, the Arab Gulf Development Project (AGFUND) and UNICEF.
The workshop aimed to increase awareness and build the capacities of media people on issues pertaining to family and child. It also aimed to deepen public awareness on such issues and achieve social and family safety in light of recent developments in technology and information which have narrowed distances between countries and have allowed the interaction of different cultures.
Minister of Culture Nabih Shiqim illustrated the ministry's role in caring for the creative aspects of children using different means that can build them cognitively and psychologically through several projects such as creative workshops, cultural camps, children magazines like Wisam Magazine in addition to promoting literature in the area of children's culture and the production of plays that deal with childhood issues. The ministry also supervises the children's mobile library in cooperation with Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation and Haya Cultural Center to reach children in remote areas and provide them with knowledge and sciences. Shiqim pointed out that the ministry adopts several instructive projects which fight extremism and terrorism so as to protect children and safeguard them against this plague that is tearing up the nation.
NCFA Secretary-General Fadel Al-Hmoud said that NCFA strives to keep Jordan as a leading country in childhood issues. Al-Hmoud emphasized the role of the media as a key partner in affecting the desired change in thinking, attitudes and behaviors of individuals which is demonstrated, as Al-Hmoud noted, by NCFA's establishment of the Jordanian Media Network for family protection against violence in 2009 to advocate for family protection issues and to enhance the role of the media in the promotion of national programs and projects in the area of family protection.
The secretary-General of the Arab Council for Childhood and Development (ACCD) Mohammed Rida Fawzi stated that the workshop is part of a series of workshops organized by ACCD in cooperation with partners at the national and regional levels in United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon to reach an agreement on the professional principles for the handling of Arab media to child rights issues.
Representative of the Women, Family and Childhood Department in the Arab League, Omran Fayad, said that the Arab League is preparing the Arab Development Agenda for Investing in Childhood in the Arab World 2015-2030 to serve as an Arab agenda for enhancing the status of the child and it is also preparing the third edition of the comparative Arab report on the extent of implementation by member States of the recommendations of the UN study of violence with a view to assess Arab efforts in the prevention of violence against children and set an Arab vision for future steps to protect children in the Arab states in cooperation with the office of the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against children and UNICEF's Regional Office.
UNICEF Representative in Jordan Robert Jenkins pointed out that the media is a key instrument in changing social patterns as it encourages positive activities, noting that the media can be relatively negative at times particularly when it puts the child in a position where he/she might be subjected to danger or violence.
Under the supervision of regional experts, the two-day workshop discusses the status of Arab media with regard to child rights issues, child right-related international and regional conventions and agreements as well as pan-Arab consensus on the professional principles of Arab media's coverage of childhood issues.
November 1st.2016
