Editorial Guidelines and Principles for Reporting on Children in the Media 2008

Produced by Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) in collaboration with Save the Children-Sweden in Zambia, these guidelines are intended to create awareness on how the media should report on children, and provide journalists with the necessary information to enable children's voices to become a part of daily media coverage, without violating children's rights. It is also intended as a tool for editors, providing references to guidelines and laws that may be useful during the production of news related to children.

The publication includes the following sections with tips and descriptors from the text.

• Principles of reporting on children: When trying to determine the best interest of a child, the child’s right to have their views taken into account is to be given due weight in accordance with their age and maturity.
• Guidelines and Practical Tips on Reporting on Children: For example, in all stories where identifying the child may cause harm, journalists should be sure to avoid indirect identification of the child through showing family, a school, residence, friends, or a combination of these.
• Imaging - Showing Children: Images of children can be extremely powerful and have a significant impact on people. Therefore, dramatic images of children should be used with extreme care and be contextualised within a story.
• Hearing Children's Voices - Children's Participation in the News: Children have the right to participate in matters that affect them. At the same time, children are dependent, trusting, and easily exploited or abused. By providing children with opportunities to speak for themselves about their hopes, fears, achievements, and the impact of adult behaviour on their lives, media professionals can remind the public of children's rights.
• Interviewing Children: Interviewing children requires extra care and preparation because it is not the same as interviewing adults. Journalists should take their time and not rush children.

According to MMA, the guidelines have been recommended by the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) to all their members. They have also been adopted by the Independent Group of Newspapers in South Africa.