ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights

ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights

Dissemination and Communication regarding the Rights of Children

Twentieth Pan American Child Congress

23 to 25 September 2009

Lima – Peru


ANDI

• ANDI – Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights, is a civil society organization. Founded in 1993, in Brasilia, it is internationally recognized as a reference centre for communications on rights and human and social development.

• ANDI’s mission is to contribute to the construction, in the communications media, of a culture which gives priority to the promotion and defence of children’s rights, bearing in mind that democratic access to these rights is a basic condition for social equity and human development.


MISSION

ANDI and NETWORKS

• MOBILIZATION

• MONITORING THE COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA

• MEDIA ANALYSIS AND RATING


THREE STRATEGIC PILLARS


ANDI BRAZILIAN NETWORK

• Amazonas • Ceará• Maranhão• Minas Gerais• Pernambuco• Sergipe• Minas Gerais• Paraná• Pernambuco• Rio Grande do Norte• Sergipe

METHODOLOGY REPLICATION


ANDI LATIN AMERICAN NETWORK

• Argentina• Bolivia• Brazil• Costa Rica• Guatemala• Nicaragua• Paraguay• Peru• Uruguay• Venezuela

METHODOLOGY REPLICATION


Part 1THE ROLE OF JOURNALISM

THE ROLE OF THE PRESS

• To provide society with reliable and contextualized information – so that citizens can participate more actively in public life, monitoring and insisting on the promotion of their rights.

• To be pluralistic in the construction of an agenda of debates, covering subjects which are highly relevant for human development and can nourish public discussion.

• To exercise social control with regard to governments and public policies, cooperating so that governments (in addition to the private sector and civil society) are more responsible in the formulation, execution, monitoring and evaluation of these policies.



A REVIEW OF NEWS REPORTS: AGENDA-SETTING

10.70016.740

27.114

48.639

64.39676.929

93.581

115.869

161.706

116.556

156.552149.640

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

The evolution of the number of news items on childhood

Brazil (1996-2007)


Country Public Policy Mentions (%)

Legislation* Mentions (%)

Education as main item**

(%)

Argentina 2.15 % 1.32% 19.45%

Bolivia 2.00% 0.40% 25.74%

Brazil 16.04% 1.96% 26.06%

Colombia 6.48% 1.89% 21.03%

Ecuador 0.31% 0.35% 32.97%

Guatemala 0.16% 0.59% 20.47%

Mexico 9.46% 3.62% 31.18%

Nicaragua 0.31% 1.68% 21.33%

Paraguay 12.69% 0.62% 19.74%

Uruguay 31.00% 10.50% 25.46%

Venezuela 6.19% 1.33% 20.26%

LATIN AMERICA (average) 7.92% 2.20% 23.97%

Latin America

* Averages were calculated including all items referring to any type of legislation.

** Education was the subject most frequently mentioned in all of the countries analyzed.

A REVIEW OF NEWS REPORTS: CONTEXTUALIZATION


Country Pejorative Terms Used

Argentina 7.8%

Bolivia 8.3%

Brazil 2.7%

Colombia 17.6%

Ecuador 6.9%

Guatemala 12.6%

Mexico 30.6%

Nicaragua 19.7%

Paraguay 15.6%

Uruguay 10.0%

Venezuela 5.8%

LATIN AMERICA (average) 12.5%

A REVIEW OF NEWS REPORTS: CONTEXTUALIZATION

Latin America

,


Position Survey (*)

Articles which demanded government

accountability for the problem

1 Human and Social Development 27.6%

2 Human Rights 15.3%

3 Adolescent Health 13.0%

4 Disability 10.1%

5 Children’s Health 9.4%

6 Drugs 9.0%

7 Child Labour 8.8%

8 Sexual Exploitation and Abuse 8.0%

9 Public Policies regarding Communication 6.0%

10 Councils 5.9%

11 Education 4.0%

12 Entrepreneurial Social Responsibility 4.0%

13 Social Technologies 3.7%

14 Climate Change 2.9%

15 Violence 2.3%

16 Tobacco and Alcohol 1.4%

AVERAGE 8.1%

Brazil

* Thematic analysis of communications media carried out by ANDI since 2000

A REVIEW OF NEWS REPORTS: SOCIAL CONTROL


Part 2

THE DEMOCRATIC REGULATION OFTHE COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA

• During the course of the 20th century, the communications media have become one of the most significant institutions for the socialization of children.

• There is increasing public awareness of research regarding the media/children interface which traces the impact (positive and negative) of children’s exposure to the content transmitted by the media.

• Regulation is based on the legal principles established in different countries, as well as on principal international documents, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (particularly Articles 12, 13 and 17).


THE DEMOCRATIC REGULATION OF THE COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA


• State Regulation: the State is responsible for constituting, managing and making viable the means of organization and control, legitimized by the necessary legal frameworks.

• Self-regulation and Entrepreneurial Social Responsibility: strengthening the measures taken by communications enterprises regarding the replication of good practices in connection with youthful audiences.

• Social control: the encouragement by civil society of the creation of means to achieve the accountability of the media, such as media observatories, advocacy groups and media consumer associations (parents, educators, minorities, etc.).



• Content: encouragement of independent production and the regionalization of television programming; education policies for the media; regulation for the Internet and the new media; antenna rights; limits for publicity targeting children; classification of entertainment content in age groups and time frames; compulsory quality programmes for children on television; the right to response.


THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE

• ANDI and the ANDI Latin American Network undertook the production of a comparative map of the legal framework in connection with the communications media, with the strategic support of Save the Children Sweden, in 14 countries in the region.

• The States seek to establish certain guidelines for the regulation of the media when the focus is on the protection and promotion of children’s rights, even though regulatory frameworks for the sector are generally diffuse and fragile.

• Regulatory frameworks focus on the possible harmful effects of the communications media and make little progress with regard to the means to foster higher quality communications media.


THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE: GOOD PRACTICES

• In Canada, the Broadcasting Act (enacted in 1968 and modified in 1991), which establishes the guiding principles for television programming, is supervised by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) – a body which is responsible for, amongst other duties, establishing measures for the protection of children from inappropriate programming, proposing positive alternatives and promoting education for the communications media.

• In the USA, concern regarding the quality of television programmes gave rise to the adoption of the Children’s Television Act (passed in 1990, introduced in 1992 and revised in 1996). One of the central objectives of this law was to promote an increase in educational and informative attractions on offer for children.


FUTURE CHALLENGES

• A conflict of interests: achieving an effective democratic communications media system – within the unconditional framework of freedom of expression – implies establishing agreements between interests which are often at odds with each other. Both governments and enterprises may act in opposition to the strengthening of a democratic and pluralistic communications system.

• The continent’s indicators clearly show that, in general, there is still a long way to go – and previous experience indicates that the steps we need to take require international cooperation as well as cooperation amongst very different national sectors (the State, businesses and organized civil society).



THANK-YOU!

www.andi.org.br

www.redandi.org

[email protected]

(+5561) 2102-6508

Documents

ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights