The Division of Human Services in the Department of Equity, Social Justice, Empowerment and Human Services in collaboration with UNICEF recently held a seminar titled ‘Children and the Media’ for media practitioners.
The seminar focused on the rights of the child which must be considered and referenced in all aspects of the media, especially in journalism.
“The Caribbean Broadcasting Union, UNICEF, and the Association of Caribbean Media Workers have produced a Caribbean Guideline book for Caribbean Media workers,” explained Dr. Lisa Trotman-McLean, Communications Specialist with UNICEF. “The session focussed on child protection, and the guidelines for protecting children who are in need of special protection. So hopefully by the end of the session journalists will have an improved knowledge of who are children in need of special protection, we would also have an improved knowledge of how you can cover children’s issues better using the human rights lens.”
Director of Social Services within the Division of Human Services, Elizabeth Lewis, said that there is always room for improvement.
“We have had some concerns with respect to how children are represented in the media, both from the perspective of the child as the perpetrator, and the child as the victim. So we felt it fitting to bring our media practitioners on board as we recognize the importance of the media to Saint Lucia, and we recognize the work that they do.” For further information pertaining to the Children and the Media seminar, visit the UNICEF website.
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