Children and Media Initiative

According to Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), the project will see experiences and skills shared between Zambia and South Africa. MMA in South Africa has already been training child media monitors, and in Zambia, MNCRD is already running a Children's News Agency. Each country will now build on these projects, working to achieve three key goals over the next three years: the training of 540 children in both countries; the adoption of child approved ethical guidelines by 15 media houses in South Africa and 10 in Zambia; and mainstream media publication of over 300 articles written by 60 child journalists.

The project will engage with 24 Zambian and South African print and electronic news media with a daily audience of at least nine million, organisers explain, to increase media's coverage of children's rights and enhance the space for children to voice their opinions. In the weeks and months after the launch, training will begin for children involved in all three elements of the project. In each country there will be new elements, and previous projects will be expanded upon and improved. The project is is designed to provide opportunities for children to work with the media to gather more influence, and to change the way the world views them, so that they are consulted more in the decisions that directly affect their lives.

Children, Youth, Media

According to organisers, media recognise three critical steps that newspapers need to take to ensure they are protecting and empowering children on their pages. These are to do no harm, encourage achievement, and bring youth in to the media. One identified missing link is content generated by children for mainstream media.