Say Yes, Winter 2004: Child Vaccination for the Media

The media has a unique and important function in the promotion of the rights of the child. For instance the Haydi Kızlar Okula! slogan, if it is to succeed in promoting the issue of girls’ education, must reach people living in the remotest villages and towns where the issue is critical and the media enables us to communicate the message. In this way, the media can be a positive force in support of issues relating to the health, care, education and development of children.

However, an ‘issue’ becomes a point in question in the public eye because opinions conflict and parties differ. Some are of the opinion that we do not need to educate our girls and far too many see the HIV/AIDS virus as only the remotest threat to the stability and comfort of our lives. The big, sensational, headlines grab our attention instead. So how do important, but at the same time everyday, issues such as girls’ education or HIV/AIDS awareness compete for the public’s attention?

Sensationalism is an infection not unlike Measles: when one organ of the media catches a big story, the infection spreads through every limb of the press and television and when the public is scandalised, we have a situation of epidemic proportions.

Last October, the media had a very serious episode of sensationalism over the case of a schoolboy in İzmir who is HIV positive. While the entire country fell into a fever of controversy, virtually all of the child’s rights were compromised or violated in one form or another. His photograph was published and for a time he was kept out of school. Thankfully the Ministry of National Education (MONE) took a laudable stand and enforced his right to attend school. The fever abated and hopefully the nation has since learned that the HIV/AIDS virus is not a bogeyman but something which needs to be dealt with responsibly. The boy and his family were left with the scars.

So strong communication between the media, public and private sectors and governmental and non-governmental organisations is vital in order to avoid episodes such as this. For instance, prior to the launch of the Measles Vaccination campaign, the Ministry of Health (MOH) and UNICEF placed a focus specifically on media involvement and support for public information during the campaign. It was considered vital that the public fully understood and were aware that all children should get two doses of the vaccine -- consequently accurate and comprehensive media coverage had to be ensured.

The Measles Vaccination Campaign Briefing which was held between the 4th and 6th of December 2003 included representatives from UNICEF, the MOH, İstanbul University, the Association of Parliamentary Correspondents and the press. Apart from the priority of developing a communication strategy for the imminent vaccination campaign, the meeting served as a platform for the broader discussion of the responsibilities of various sectors to promote and uphold children’s rights.

One of the most significant outcomes was the initiative led by journalists from the Association of Parliamentary Correspondents to set up the Child Friendly Media Communication Network and two days after the seminar, the Child Vaccine for the Media strategy was launched to enhance awareness of the state of children and children’s rights in the media.

The strategy will hopefully ‘immunise’ the media against outbreaks of misinformation and misunderstanding on the issue. A website focusing on media coverage of children’s issues will be set up to monitor and facilitate implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The network will be an autonomously controlled media organ and it is expected that it will develop into a forum for debating and exchanging views and opinions, and that it will ultimately be an essential tool to enhance awareness of children’s rights and prevent violations of those rights.

The seminar identified the following problems and solutions:

Problems

• Most sectors and groups in Turkey choose the easy option of undermining the reliability of the media rather than engaging in more constructive self-criticism. Mutual communication should be enhanced in order to benefit from media cooperation.
• For its part, the media tends to overlook news on crucially important health issues in favour of wider coverage of commercially popular news items.
• The media fails to pay sufficient attention to the social benefit and relevance of news relating to health and children.
• Legislative measures to protect the rights of the child are not fully implemented.
• The media is not sufficietly informed on children’s issues.
• Relevant academic studies conducted by universities are mostly unknown to the public at large.
• Although governmental organisations expended sincere efforts in the context of the Measles Immunisation campaign, media support in communication planning was unavailable.

Suggestions for solutions

• The establishment of a communication network enabling the media to exchange information and experience with other sectors of society in issues relating to children and health.
• Ensuring openness and transparency of all organisations in children’s and health issues including the Measles Campaign.
• Closer contact and communication between the MOH and the media should include training on health issues.
• Supporting the media in branch specialisation on issues relating to health and children’s rights.
• Ensure the active participation of local opinion leaders, the media and local authorities in activities which focus on children’s rights and health issues.
• Ensure closer cooperation between the media, professional and non-governmental organisations on children’s rights.
• Encourage both governmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to promote academic studies on children’s issues with the support of the media in order to raise public awareness.
• Extend professional support and expertise to governmental organisations for projects and campaigns building information on children’s issues and the promotion and protection of their rights.

The joint effort of the Measles Vaccination Campaign Briefing paid dividends in the success of the campaign itself when over 9.5 million children were successfully vaccinated in the last three weeks of December. In the region of two hundred and fifty articles and references to the MOH drive to eliminate the disease appeared in the press along with almost one and a half hours of nationwide television coverage of the campaign.

Minister of Health, Dr Recep Akdağ, spoke to UNICEF in this issue of Say Yes about the Measles Elimination programme and other improvements in the area of Maternal and Child Health.

See our Programmes section for more details about immunisation and Social and Resource Mobilisation in Turkey.

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