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| Eric Amo, Regional GJA Chairman with other media colleagues |
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| Gregory Dery, Child Protection and Advocacy Manager for World Vision Ghana |
Media
practitioners have been advised to mindful of digital footprints when reporting
on child issues especially matters on child right and abuse online.
The Executive
Director of J Initiative, a youth focus NGO, Awo Aidam Amenyah, gave the advice
at the opening of a two-day media training workshop on Child Protection in
Bolgatanga.
Ms Amenyah recounted the growing trend of negative reportage on
child violation and other related issues without taking in consideration the
long term effect they may have on victims as they grow to become adults.
Such reports, she noted constitute child
violation and must be discarded.
She was of the firm believe that exposing
children of abuse with photos and traces of their background leaves an undesirable
footprint that have the tendency of jeopardizing their future aspirations.
Ms
Amenyah, is therefore urging the mass media to show empathy when reporting on issues
of child violations to safeguard their reputation.
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| Campaign Coordinator of World Vision Ghana, Micah Ayo Olad, |
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| Section of the media |
Weak protective
structures including poverty and social norms are considered key factors in dealing
with issues of child protection.
These dynamics
according to experts increase children’s risk to child protection and
violations.
Child neglect on the other hand, has become a common phenomenon as
children of school going age are denied access to education and other opportunities
that are deem necessary to their total development and social wellbeing.
At some
instances, families and particularly parents hide behind poverty and shirk
their responsibilities on children.
Victims of child neglect are sometimes
exposed to lots of dangers. Others have no option than to indulge in social
vices and hazardous work because their lives depend on them.
Meanwhile, child
protection seeks to guarantee rights of all children to a life free from violence,
abuse, exploitation, neglect and deprivation. Anything short of these
constitute child violation.
It is for this and other reasons that World Vision
Ghana is partnering the GJA to school media practitioners on their role to ensuring
child protection.
About 30 journalists and editors drawn from various media
outlets in the Upper East Region attended the two day training workshop.
They
were treated on topics such as concept of human rights, National Child
Protection Legal Framework, Child Online Protection as well as National Child
and Family Welfare Policy among other national child right campaigns.
This was
intended to sharpen their reporting skills on children and also make issues of
children more audible and visible to help influence public discourse in
affecting policy implementations on children.
On Child online protection, it was revealed
that there were some key national policy gaps that ought to be given the needed
attention to enhance and protect the wellbeing of children, particularly
internet users.
As it stands now, Ghana does not have a legislation that
criminalises online grooming with no domestic laws concerning cyber bullying.
Interestingly,
the country’s media landscape is flooded with alleged reports of child abuse
and children with special conditions without considering the negative impact it
might have on their lives as they develop from childhood to adulthood.
A columnist and the Executive Director of J Initiative, a grassroot
youth and family focused NGO, Awo
Aidam Amenyah entreated the media to exercise caution when reporting on child abuse and other related issues in order to protect their
image.
In the course of
the training session, media practitioners were taken through a presentation on Media
and Child Protection.
On behalf of the GJA, an Executive Member of the association,
Mathew McKwame implored the media to abreast with the concepts of human rights
and the children’s act to serve as a guide when reporting on issues of child
abuse especially rape and defilement.
Mr McKwame further urged the media to
challenge government to come out with clear cut policies on children’s right.
Also in a presentation,
the Campaign Coordinator of World Vision Ghana, Micah Ayo Olad, announced plans
by his outfit to intensify efforts at ending child abuse through a five year
partnership wide campaign nicknamed "Child Health Now" and "Ending Violence against
Children", EVAC.
Story by Isaac Asare
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