The objective of the media monitoring is to review the materials on children’s issues published by electronic, online and print media and analyze their compliance with child rights, ethical norms and in-depth reporting standards. The monitoring will take place from 1 April 2016 till 30 November 2016.
The initiative envisages several components: media monitoring will be carried out and special appeals about the revealed violations will be sent to self-regulation bodies of broadcasters; specific case studies will be prepared and discussed with journalists and others who are interested; concrete guidelines for reporting on children will be developed around selected issues; four seminars will be organized for four media organizations (two in Tbilisi and two in the regions) selected on compatitive basis and the trainers will work with the selected journalists on site and assist them in planning and preparing the relevant materials; meetings will be held with schoolchildren on media literacy issues. In addition, various children’s programmes will be analyzed in terms of the content.
The mid-term report about the results of the monitoring will be released in July and the final report will be presented in December. The best in-depth and ethical reporting on children will be revealed as a result of the monitoring that will be awarded with the annual Charter and UNICEF prize in December.
The Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics, with the support of UNICEF, carried out three similar projects in 2013-2015. The results of the monitoring show that significant progress has been achieved in ethical reporting on children. However, media reports on children only in the context of news and limits itself mainly to brief information. In-depth analysis of the issues that are of particular importance for improving the state of children, remains a problem. Within the framework of the previous project the broadcasters signed a memorandum assuming responsibility for extending the scope of the concerned parties in self-regulation commissions to include complaints on child-related issues.
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