This document discusses media reporting on children's issues in the Philippines. It notes that while media play an important role in protecting children's rights, children's issues have yet to enter the mainstream media. The document examines what drives media coverage of children, focusing on violence and abuse cases, and notes coverage could better represent children's perspectives and place child protection issues on the political agenda. It calls for reframing stories on children and mainstreaming children's issues to bring needed change in media reporting.

1. REPORTING ON CHILDREN
HAS CHANGE COME YET?
Tess Bacalla, PPI Training Director

2. Media play an important role in
protecting and promoting children’s
rights

3. Children’s issues have yet to
enter the mainstream media
Echo Maryadi, chairman of Alliance of Independent
Journalists

4. WHAT DRIVES MEDIA
REPORTING ON CHILDREN?

5. “Because children are afforded special
protection under the law, and because
of the notions of innocence and, purity
that we attach to them, the violation of
children is often very newsworthy.”
Editorial Guidelines and Principles for Reporting
on Children in the Media, Save the Children

6. “Different media outlets produce coverage
designed for their main consumers. Thus
different media outlets adopt styles that
reinforce stereotypes understood to
appeal to their particular audience group.”
Protecting the Rights of Children, Internews

7. Mandaluyong intensifies curfew
on minors

8. Girl, 15, gang-raped by 38 men in
Malaysia and then arrested

9. “A 15-year-old schoolgirl has
reportedly been gang-raped by 38
men in an abandoned house in
Malaysia.

10. “She survived the horrific ordeal
but was then arrested by police in
the Kelantan region as part of
their investigation.”
Independent, May 2014

11. 11-year-old charged with
stabbing classmate in France

12. UN: Violations against children
in conflict rose in 2015

13. Aquino leads enactment ceremony for
law protecting children in disasters

14. Children bring perspectives to stories
which contest stereotypes and bring
other dimensions to such stories

15. A Filipino boy passes a slogan during a rally in the
Philippines on Sunday, December 13, 2015 criticize the
agreement reached during the United Nations conference on
climate change, Conference of Parties 21 (COP21) in Paris

16. Children, police, enforcers bid
their summer goodbye

17. SOME STAGGERING DATA:
MALNUTRITION or stunting rate for children aged at least
2 years old — at 26.2 percent in 2015, the worst in the last
decade
AMID high economic growth, stunting among Filipino
children below 5 years old rose from 30.3 percent in
2013 to 33.5 percent in 2015

18. One out of three Filipino children has stunted
growth — study (CNN)
Save the Children: 3.6M Filipino kids stunted
by malnutrition (Interaksyon)
More Filipino children stunted due to
malnutrition (Inquirer)

19. Reporting children’s
plight as events/incidents

20. Coverage of child
abuse:
Which gets the most
press?

21. Three men arrested for gang-rape and
murder of 7-year-old girl in Paco, Manila

22. Physical abuse and sexual
abuse are often the most
featured, with fewer coverage
of corporal punishment at
school and emotional abuse.

23. Whose voices …?
SOURCES?

24. “Media should not report the
conditions of children only as
events but should continuously
report the process … leading to the
occurrence of these events.”
Nordicom (Nordic Information Centre for
Media and Communication Research )

25. Place child protection issues
in the minds of the public and
on political agendas

26. “We hope the media, as a major player in
this society, can develop this potential and
prioritize children, especially the
vulnerable and those who are most
overlooked, so that their views and
opinions can be heard.”
UNICEF chief representative Angela Kearney

27. It’s time to reframe our stories on
children …
Mainstream children’s issues in our
coverage

28. IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE!