This resource kit provides journalists with the necessary information to enable children’s voices to become a part of daily media coverage, without violating children’s rights, South African laws, or international norms and standards. The resource kit is designed to allow journalists and editors easy access to guidelines and laws during the production of news. We hope that you will use this resource, and the valuable information contained within it, to help to bring more children’s voices into the South African media, in positive ways, which do not harm children.

This booklet is the result of the collaboration between MMP and Save the Children Sweden in Zambia, based on research in that country. It offers practical advice for journalists on covering children in an easy-to-understand and user-friendly format.

In the context of widespread HIV/AIDS and poverty, this booklet provides reference information about children affected by HIV/AIDS and related policy issues, which need urgent and in-depth coverage by the media. With the imperative to “put children first”,this booklet challenges some of the limitations and misleading messages in current coverage, and offers a resource list to help media with the task of shaping an appropriate national response to children affected by the epidemic.

The media plays an important role in protecting and promoting children’s rights, and in many instances, in exposing their abuse and their triumphs. The South African Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, including freedom of the press and other media, and access to information. These rights do not stand alone, however. The right to privacy, dignity, and specific rights protecting children are also constitutionally guaranteed. Satisfying the public’s right to hear stories about and affecting children, while at the same time respecting children’s rights to privacy and dignity, is a delicate and difficult balancing act. Journalists reporting on children are confronted with ethical dilemmas of an extraordinarily complex and diverse nature. This guide reflects these difficulties whilst providing journalists with a resource to deal with them.