Journalists honoured at Children’s Reporting Awards

MISA-Namibia held its annual Regional Children’s Reporting Awards last week at the Safari Court Hotel. The Awards aim to promote high quality reporting in the southern African region that give a voice to children’s issues and rights and provide accurate, informed and knowledgeable reporting in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the child.

National Director MISA-Namibia, Natasha Tibinyane, thanked all the reporters who entered the awards and hoped that they keep on reporting about children’s issues and give them a voice to be heard.
Seven judges were assigned to the five categories which were Radio News, Radio Documentary, Print Feature, Print News and Photography. 62 entries were received from the four participating countries, but the judges disqualified the Radio News category as they felt the entries did not meet the criteria.
The judges received a scoring sheet to help evaluate entries according to different criteria. The criteria assessed were, if the story respects the view of the child/children and their right to be heard, whether the children’s rights were violated or protected, if the stakeholders voices were heard, and if remedies are mentioned such as policies or legislation that addresses the issues raised.
The Awards form part of MISA’s broader Children & The Media Project. MISA has partnered with Save the Children International to create opportunities and safe space for the production of children’s media, sensitise journalist on child rights, develop codes of ethics for reporting on children’s issues and rights and promote fair, honest and accurate reporting on the experience of childhood.