Video/Audio

ICDB 2007

© UNICEF/HQ05-2216/Giacomo Pirozzi

A young man in the DRCongo practices with a video camera.

The 2007 International Children's Day of Broadcasting took place on 9 December 2007 with the theme “The World We Want.”

What kind of world do children want to live in?   In 2002, youth around the world met in New York to attend the Special Session for Children.  The outcome of that meeting was the agenda “Building a World Fit for Children,” which laid out four main priorities:  Promoting healthy lives; Providing quality education; Protecting children against abuse, exploitation and violence; and Combating HIV/AIDS.  On the fifth anniversary of this agenda, UNICEF asked young people: how far have we come?  Have these goals been achieved in your communities?  What problems still exist? What suggestions do the youth have to solve them? What can be done to build a world for children?   

2007 was also the 18th anniversary of the signing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).  The CRC states that children have the right to voice their opinions and have access to media that children can understand.  UNICEF believes youth also have the right to participate in the media-making process and the International Children's Day of Broadcasting was launched in 1991 to help open the airwaves to young people.

Broadcasters around the world, both television and radio, were encouraged to participate in this special day by creating special programs for kids and inviting youth into the studio to participate in the production and presentation of broadcasts.  UNICEF also appealed to broadcasters to invest in local youth by incorporating them in the production process year-round, not just on the ICDB.

UNICEF and the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will jointly award the International Children's Day of Broadcasting Award to honor broadcasters who capture the spirit of the ICDB. UNICEF will also award the ICDB Award for Radio Excellence.  The submission process will open in early 2008 and broadcasters will be able to submit their programs from the 2007 International Children's Day of Broadcasting. 

For the fourth year, the International Academy and UNICEF will offer regional awards to the broadcasters which best promote the principles, purpose and main themes of ICDB.  Each regional television winner will be invited to the International Emmy Awards Gala in New York in November 2008 and one will receive the prestigious International Children's Day of Broadcasting Award.  The regional radio winners will become finalists for the ICDB Award for Radio Excellence, to be presented in New York in November.

For more information, contact:
Karen Cirillo   Executive Producer, Children's Broadcasting Initiatives
kcirillo@unicef.org  +1.212.326.7506