by A. Lumaque

Roxas City (28 December) -- A two-day meeting of the Kabataan News Network (KNN) bureau coordinators nationwide was held recently in Manila to further enhance the 30-minute weekly program aired over two national television stations.

The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) sponsored project implemented by Probe Media Foundation, Inc. (PMFI) aims to maximize children participation thru television medium.

Participation rights of children were recognized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) adopted during the United Nations general assembly in 1989. The CRC also upheld and acknowledged the survival, development, and protection rights of children already stipulated in the 1959 Universal Declaration of Child’s Rights.

Dr. Dale Rutstein, UNICEF-Manila Communications Officer and founder of KNN, said that the program is responding to the urgent needs of the youth to be heard through television as a medium of child participation. He also discussed the situation of the country’s young people citing research studies on child labor, armed conflict, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS as well as adolescent development and participation approaches among others during the meeting.

The project has established 11 bureaus in Baguio, Mt. Province, Manila, Camarines Norte, Cebu, Dumaguete, Capiz, Davao, Zamboanga Del Sur and North Cotabato and Saranggani. It is the only national television program produced, written and directed by young Filipinos aged 15 to 18 who underwent PMFI training on television production aspects like video camera operation, shooting, interviewing, reporting, shotlisting, transcription, scriptwriting and voicing.

Catherine Colmenares, PMFI Children’s Media Associate Director, said that KNN is now an Anak TV Seal awardee and one of the ten finalists in the Child rights award sponsored by the UNICEF and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union held in Hongkong this year.