Journalists invited to "correct" the image of the child in their productions

"Children are both under-represented and not always well represented in the media, so it is urgent to reverse this trend," she said at a training workshop for young reporters from the western zone (Dakar, Thiès, Mbour and Tivaouane).

The meeting organized in collaboration with the Convention of Young Reporters of Senegal (CJRS) and UNICEF Senegal focuses on the theme: "Journalistic ethics and deontology and the rights of the child".

According to Ms. Diouf, who is also special advisor to the head of state, "the negative and unbalanced treatment of information about the child has harmful consequences on his education, his psychosocial development, his well-being" .

Indeed, she continued, they are quoted in the topics relating to "begging, juvenile delinquency, rape, drugs, infanticide".

However, Ramatoulaye Ndao Diouf acknowledged that this treatment of children's issues by the media can be explained by several factors, including "the ignorance of the rights of the child".

As well as "the lack of training of media players, the constraints related to editorial requirements, commercial logic and competition are evoked to justify this situation," she continues.

And Mrs. Diouf to specify that the objective of this workshop, which is held after that of St. Louis in 2016 for journalists from the North Zone, "is to strengthen the capacity of journalists, to get them to better understand, to deepen and respect children's rights issues. "

Ramaoulaye Ndao Diouf recalled the availability for the actors of a Practical Guide on "journalistic ethics and the rights of the child" which, according to her, will contribute to "improve the representation and the image of the children in the media ".

The CAPE coordinator also advocated for the inclusion of child-related modules in training schools to enable journalists to give greater importance to the rights of the child in their production. .

According to Ms. Diouf, "this will allow these schools to offer different training and to promote specialization among journalists on these issues".

"The interest of this workshop is to prevent the penalties provided for and punished by the provisions of the Code of the child in the making, in case of violation of the rights of the child in the treatment of information", a for its part, says the president of the CJRS, Pape Thioro Ndiaye.

Who notes that "Senegal has ratified almost all international legal instruments relating to the rights of the child and the obligation to comply with international laws that uphold the respect of the best interests of the child. child ".

He hopes that common axes and strategies for the treatment of information involving children will be defined at the end of this workshop.