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 - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights

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. ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights MISSION

ANDI and NETWORKS MOBILIZATION MONITORING THE COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA MEDIA ANALYSIS AND RATING ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights THREE STRATEGIC PILLARS

ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights ANDI BRAZILIAN NETWORK Amazonas Ceará Maranhão Minas Gerais Pernambuco Sergipe Minas Gerais Paraná Pernambuco Rio Grande do Norte Sergipe METHODOLOGY REPLICATION

ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights ANDI LATIN AMERICAN NETWORK Argentina Bolivia Brazil Costa Rica Guatemala Nicaragua Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela METHODOLOGY REPLICATION

ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights Part 1 THE 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. ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights

A REVIEW OF NEWS REPORTS: AGENDA-SETTING The evolution of the number of news items on childhood Brazil ( )

ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights 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

ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights 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

, ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights Position Survey (*) Articles which demanded government accountability for the problem 1 Human and Social Development27.6% 2 Human Rights15.3% 3 Adolescent Health 13.0% 4 Disability10.1% 5 Children’s Health9.4% 6 Drugs9.0% 7 Child Labour8.8% 8 Sexual Exploitation and Abuse8.0% 9 Public Policies regarding Communication6.0% 10 Councils5.9% 11 Education4.0% 12 Entrepreneurial Social Responsibility4.0% 13 Social Technologies3.7% 14 Climate Change2.9% 15 Violence2.3% 16 Tobacco and Alcohol1.4% AVERAGE8.1% Brazil * Thematic analysis of communications media carried out by ANDI since 2000 A REVIEW OF NEWS REPORTS: SOCIAL CONTROL

ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights Part 2 THE DEMOCRATIC REGULATION OF THE COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA

During the course of the 20 th 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). ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights THE DEMOCRATIC REGULATION OF THE COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA

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.). ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights

THE DEMOCRATIC REGULATION OF THE COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA 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. ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights

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. ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights

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. ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights

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). ANDI - Brazilian News Agency for Children’s Rights

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