Sharjah Baby Friendly Office (SBFO) is promoting media protection for children through a three-day training workshop commencing on Tuesday (October 3) titled ‘Professional Guidelines for Arab Media in Addressing Child Rights Issues.’

The initiative from the office - which is tasked with ensuring Sharjah takes a lead in creating a child and baby-friendly environment - is being conducted to help create a general framework for a joint Arab media strategy based on ethical and professional principles for media professionals to adopt when handling child rights issues.

Themed ‘Child Friendly Media,’ the three-day workshop forms part of SBFO’s ongoing efforts to provide the highest standards of support and protection for children in the emirate of Sharjah and the UAE. The activity is being conducted in collaboration with the Gulf Area Office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Sharjah Media Corporation (SMC). It is also being held in partnership with the Arab Council for Childhood and Development (ACCD) and the Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND).

The workshop will commence with an opening ceremony attended by the UNICEF Gulf Area Office Representative ad-interim, Shahida Azfar, and will include addresses by His Excellency Mohammad Hassan Khalaf, Director General of SMC; Dr. Hessa Khalfan Al Ghazal, Executive Director of SBFO; Essam Ali, Social Policy Specialist at UNICEF Gulf Area Office and Dr. Hassan Al Bilawi, Secretary General of ACCD. The programme will then commence, comprising five panel discussions and hands-on sessions that will feature an elite group of experts in the field of media ethics and children’s rights issues.

Participating experts who will be presenting the discussion sessions include Essam Ali, Social Policy Specialist at UNICEF; Iman Bahie Al Deen, Director at ACCD; Dr. Adel Abdul Ghaffar, Professor of Communication at University of Cairo and Dean of Faculty of Communication at University of Al Nahdha and Dr. Hani Jahshan, Regional UN Child Protection Expert in Jordan.

SBFO’s workshop comes within the framework of the executive plan of the Sharjah Child Friendly City project that aims to join UNICEF’s Child Friendly Cities initiative. It will introduce media professionals to the ethical and professional guidelines that should be followed when covering childhood and child rights issues.

The activity will highlight to participants the international and regional conventions on children’s rights, as well as summarise the local media scene with regards to handling and interacting with child rights issues. It will also highlight harmful media practices that can adversely affect children through causing them physical or psychological harm, putting their lives in danger, impairing their dignity or damaging their image or that of their families. A series of examples will be highlighted during the workshop and the particular guidelines in reporting the issues of child abuse and violence against children will be discussed.

“Through this workshop we are seeking to work with media entities towards developing a child friendly media environment in Sharjah and the UAE, which forms part of the office’s mission to advance the status and wellbeing of the nation’s children in general. The hosting of the workshops reflects the major role played by the media in promoting community awareness about childhood issues and their important contribution to creating an ideal environment for children where they can feel secure and be assured that their dignity and rights are protected,” said Dr. Hessa Khalfan Al Ghazal.

“We believe that the workshop will result in fruitful takeaways for participants and are optimistic that it will contribute to shaping a strategic partnership between SBFO and the media organisations taking part. It will pave the way for us to work jointly towards launching initiatives and training programmes that help develop a code of ethics and professional practices in covering and addressing childhood issues, across both traditional and modern media platforms,” she added.