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Children showcased on world's airwaves

"Children's Day of Broadcasting is an opportunity for children around the world to participate in the huge and influential world of broadcasting. On this day, children actually help create and convey messages about their lives that are seen by millions of people around the globe," said William Hetzer, broadcasting chief at the United Nations Children's Fund. He added that the Convention on the Rights of the Child -- ratified by almost every country in the world -- is the force behind ICDB.

"The Convention on the Rights of the Child says the freedom to express opinions and participate in public discussion is a fundamental right of all children," Hetzer said. "On International Children's Day of Broadcasting that right becomes real."

Broadcasters participating in Sunday's activities will air new material created by a 10-nation Special Broadcasters Group, a consortium of child broadcasting units from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Jordan, Latvia, Namibia and Venezuela. Brazil is represented by TV Cultura, which recently won a second International Council/UNICEF award for its outstanding contribution to the 1998 ICDB.

The special programming for Sunday focuses on the theme "Kids Are Changing the World". Video portraits of children who are making a difference will be shown on more than 2000 participating media outlets. These presentations will be supplemented by locally produced profiles. Children will also be featured as broadcasters, reporters and creators of media content.

As part of this year's ICDB activities, the French and English networks of TVOntario plans to turn over the entire broadcast day to children, with a focus on the lives of other children that inhabit the planet and on child rights.

Working with the Special Broadcasters Group, UNICEF has developed a global network to identify and film children who are making a difference. These include:

• Rocharin Kanjina, a 17-year-old from Thailand, who works to create a better understanding of child rights, concentrating on ending sexual exploitation and abuse;
• Dayana Auyadermont, 11, from Venezuela, who is helping to help clean up the Yocoima River and Zeus Marin, 13, also from Venezuela, who uses his radio call-in programme to inform his peers about the danger of drugs;
• Lara Barudy, a teenage photographer from Jordan, who works through her photos to preserve the natural environment and endangered species in her country.

Participating broadcasters this year include ABC (Australia), CBC (Canada), YLE (Finland), RAI (Italy), Canal Once (Mexico), Disney (Middle East), Kindernet (The Netherlands) and Cartoon Network and The History Channel (USA). Some of the filming for this year's ICDB was made possible by a grant to UNICEF from Merrill Lynch.

Additional UNICEF resources available to media participating in ICBD include:

• Logos, graphics, public service announcements and TV and radio spots;
• Cartoons for Children's Rights, a new series of more than 30 non-verbal animated spots produced by top animation studios from many countries, using the Convention on the Rights of the Child as their subject. The cartoons are available in English, French and Spanish.
• A TV docudrama on Renato, a Brazilian street child, which follows his 10-year struggle to get a birth certificate so that he can register for school.

In Yemen, children presented radio programmes and handled phone-ins with callers from all over the country. And in Sri Lanka, children presented the national TV Good Morning Show and interviewed leading broadcasters on how they protect and promote the rights of children. Plans for a new Code of Ethics in Media Advertising Using Children were also promoted.

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