South Sudanese children are calling on media houses to give them a say for leaders and other stakeholders to hear their voices.
This was a concerned a 13-year old monitor Nelson Lodu reported to the African Child Day on Monday during Free Voice’s launch of 2013 media monitoring report under the theme ‘How are children portrayed in the South Sudan’s Media’.
The report engaged adults and children monitors in gathering information from 18 media houses including radio stations and newspapers in Juba, Torit and Yei between August and September 2013 to analyze quality and quantity of media coverage to children’s issues.
Mr Lodu said monitoring stories about children was very important to him because he learned more about child rights and the activity would be helpful to all children.
Adult monitor Lino Longa said children’s stories are never on top stories of radio bulletins making listeners not to pay much attention to them, saying most news about children are fairly reported, but no voices of children are often presented.
He called for children protection, saying in sensitive cases such as victims of abuses, their identity should not be disclosed in order to prevent trauma.
Free Voice trainer Anne Haaksman explained that the project followed the methodology of Media Monitoring Africa, a South African organization promoting quality media in the continent and the world.
She added that monitors underwent different sessions of training to learn how to analyze stories and use reporting tools.