Children and children’s rights are under-represented in the media. When children do feature in the news they are most often represented as victims. Children’s rights to privacy and dignity are often violated within the media, which subjects children to secondary trauma. The MMP has included children as part of the monitoring project, and advocates a child-centred approach to news reporting. This means that the best interests of the child are paramount.

Presented here is further information about children’s views on the news, child-related human rights legislation, and a list of organisations that work to protect the rights of the child. Journalists seeking information on how to protect children’s rights in their reporting, visit Empowering the Media on this CD-ROM, or visit our website at www.mediamonitoring.org.za