By Chioma Umeha
Following growing incidence of child abuse in the
society, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has urged media
practitioners to embrace ethics by avoiding reports which inflicts stigma on
children and compromise their rights.
This was made known in a two-day media workshop on
ethical reporting on children held at Kakanfo Inn, Ibadan, Oyo State, organised
by Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy in collaboration with
UNICEF.
The aim of the workshop is to share with
journalists some developed guidelines and principles that would assist in
covering children in an ethical and sensitive manner.
UNICEF Communication Officer, Advocacy, Media and
External Communications, Blessing Ejiofor, explained that reporting a child
abuse case without observing ethics of journalism relating to this kind of
reportage will cause more harm to the affected child.
Ejiofor who was addressing participants drawn from
the Southwest geopolitical zone of the country, noted that reporting on
children unethically places them at risk of retribution or stigmatisation.
She said: “We all know that reporting on children
and young people has its special challenges. In some instances, the act of
reporting on children places them or other children at risk of retribution or
stigmatisation.
“Hence, the aim of this workshop is to share with
journalists some developed guidelines and principles that would assist them
cover children in an appropriate and sensitive manner.
“The guidelines are meant to support the best
intentions of ethical reporter in serving the public interest without
compromising the rights of children,” she said.
“This workshop is to provide journalists with more
information and materials to support decent reporting on children and to
familiarize participants with the equity focused child rights based approaches.
It is also to share experiences on best practices worldwide,” the UNICEF
Communication Officer added.
Speaking further on ethics reporting on children,
Dr. Goke Rauf from Department of Mass Communication, Moshood Abiola
Polytechnic, Abeokuta, explained that ethics are rules of conduct or principles
of morality that point toward the right or best way to report children-based
issues.
Speaking on “Ethical Journalism”, Dr. Goke, noted
that in a quest to serve the public the truth, journalists should consider the
right to privacy of the victim, public interest on the story and national
security.
The guest lecturer highlighted factors responsible
for unethical practices as conflict of interest, poor technical knowledge,
ownership pattern, and poor welfare for journalists.
The scholar and UNICEF Consultant said: “It’s important
to set standards of moral context; you cannot say because you have the truth,
you want to violate child right… code of conduct described by the press to
guide, guard and protect the professionals and profession itself.”
