A workshop on promoting media protection for children got underway, on Tuesday, to map out a framework for an ethical strategy for Arab media professionals to adopt when handling child rights issues.

Organised by the Sharjah Baby Friendly Office (SBFO), ‘Professional Principles for Arab Media in Handling Child Rights Issues’, is a two-day workshop being conducted in partnership with the Arab Council for Childhood and Development (ACCD) and the Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND).

Held in collaboration with Sharjah Media Corporation and the Gulf Area Office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the workshop is being attended by media professionals, officials from child care organisations and experts in child rights issues.

In her opening address, Dr. Hessa Khalfan Al Ghazal, Executive Director of SBFO, said: "It is imperative for Arab media to enable a supportive environment for children by reflecting their appropriate image in society, respecting them and maintain their dignity and rights in all news coverage."

Al Ghazal outlined that the workshop is in line with Sharjah’s dedicated efforts to ensure the provision of the best standards of care for children, saying: "The emirate strives to firmly establish professional principles in media coverage of childhood issues, and makes it mandatory for the media to adopt policies that will develop a child-friendly media environment."

The need for ethical journalism, especially in handling childhood issues, was highlighted by Al Ghazal. She stressed on the need to not trample over children’s rights in the pursuit to ensure the right of the public to have access to information. "With a single word or image, we can become partners in harming a child, harming their dignity, and distorting their image," she said.

Fatima Yousef Bin Sandal, Director of Government Communications and Marketing at Sharjah Media Corporation (SMC), said: "How many times have we come across a touching story about the suffering of children in some countries, or sympathised with children recounting their experience of being subjected to violence or abuse? These tragic stories violate the very basis of humanity, putting a big question mark against words like compassion and mercy."

She elaborated: "Such heartbreaking accounts prompt us to question the use of children as mere media material – radio, TV, newspapers competing to reveal their unspeakable circumstances. What will be the impact of such propaganda on them? Aren’t we just adding insult to their injuries? What impact will such sensationalism have in young impressionable minds?"

Mohamed Reda Fawzy, Director of Research and Knowledge Development at the Arab Council for Childhood and Development (ACCD), highlighted the Council’s core focus areas in children’s empowerment, saying: "The Council strives to create an environment that promotes children’s rights within the family and the society by encouraging and adopting ideas, projects, legislations and policies that aim to revitalise child rights and integrate them into the overall development plans by forging effective partnerships with governmental, non-governmental, regional and international organizations."

"Through this initiative, and our partnership with the Arab League’s Women, Family and Childhood Department, and the Arab Gulf Program for Development (AGFUND), ACCD’s mission to establish the first media observatory for Arab child rights as a mechanism on monitoring and following up on Arab media within the context of child rights will be realised," he added.

Dr. Essam Ali, Social Policy Specialist at UNICEF Gulf Area Office, emphasised that Sharjah is the first city in the world that implements UNICEF’s new standards of the Child Friendly Cities initiative: "Sharjah has become a model that all emirates and Arab cities should follow," he underscored, commending the emirate’s efforts in fortifying its childcare systems, supporting the role of children, and honing their skills through establishing new standards that represent an enrichment of the Child Friendly Cities experience.

On its first day, the workshop highlighted the international and regional conventions on children’s rights, with a focus on the Convention of the Rights of the Child, as well as recapitulating the local media scene with regards to handling and interacting with child rights issues.

Dr. Al Ghazal spoke about ‘the reality of the rights and media protection policies and initiatives in the UAE’.

SBFO’s workshop comes within the framework of the executive plan of the Sharjah Child Friendly City project that aims to join UNICEF’s Child Friendly Cities initiative. It aims to introduce media professionals to the ethical and professional guidelines that should be followed when covering childhood and child rights issues. The workshop also aims to highlight harmful media practices that can adversely affect children through causing them physical or psychological harm, putting their lives in danger, impairing their dignity or damaging their image or that of their families.