Islamabad : Highlighting the role of media in reporting and eradicating child labour from society, the International Conference on Ethical and Quality Reporting on Child Labour concluded with the pledge by participants to report child labour issues under the principles of ethical reporting.
The conference provided journalists, students, academia, lawyers, bureaucrats, child rights organizations and other participants an opportunity to share experiences and lessons learnt regarding quality and ethical reporting on child labour. The international conference was jointly organized by Group Development Pakistan (GDP) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) – which is a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN), whose mission is the promotion of decent work for women and men - under Asia Regional Child Labour (ARC) Programme, with the financial support of United Kingdom’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The conference was part of the project under which, GDP trained around 65 media professionals (out of whom 22 were women) from Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, Quetta and Karachi on the concept of child labour, relevant international commitments, national legal/policy framework and major developments, the role of media in prevention and elimination of child labour, guidance on investigating and quality reporting related to child labour issues in an ethical, rights and evidence-based manner. To further promote ethical journalism and assess the training impact, a media competition was organized to encourage the trained journalists to produce and publish media pieces on child labour: more than 30 pieces were produced and published, and top three stories were awarded prizes, and their work was recognized. In the opening remarks, Tomas Stenstrom, Officer in Charge, ILO Office for Pakistan welcomed the participants and congratulated the partners, donors and participants for organizing a conference on the importance of media’s role in curbing child labour. After the opening remarks, a detailed panel discussion on the rights of the child in the context of media reporting on child labour, examples of ethical and quality reporting on child labour, and the role of media in countering child labour, took place.
Christine Chung, South Asia team Leader and focal person for Pakistan and Kashmir, at the UNOHCHR said, “The best approach requires the adults to actively seek the children’s views and treat them seriously. Media and young professionals are doing their part for protecting their rights”. Senior journalist, Aoun Sahi highlighted that the news agenda is driven by big stories regarding politics and crime, and that little importance was given to the news related to social issues and human rights.