Children and the media

Lesotho’s media has little space for children. When they publish or broadcast stories about children, they make little or no effort to make the information child friendly. Children mostly feature in the news when they are in disadvantaged situations, such as suffering abuse or having their rights and freedoms violated.

In order to improve reporting for and about children, MISA Lesotho has been running a project focusing on children and the media since 2010 under the motto: “Nothing for us without us”.

Project activities 2017-2018

This year with the support of UNICEF, MISA Lesotho’s Children and the Media project will focus on the following activities:

• Mini research on the use of social media amongst children in Lesotho. The research will provide information to a larger project about children’s handing of social media and how they use if for information, education and entertainment.
• Sensitisation meeting with children, editors and journalists. By bringing together media professionals and children, we aim to contribute to a better understanding of children’s needs and an improvement in media coverage of children issues in Lesotho
• Media production on World Children’s Day on 20 November. The activity will help promote World Children’s Day in Lesotho through radio programming and newspaper content.

The project builds upon previous MISA Lesotho initiatives, including:

• Focus group discussions on media and children in Lesotho
• Commemoration of 25th anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Child
• Media productions including the Children’s Voice newsletter in collaboration with World Vision and Lesotho Child Counseling Unit
• Regional conference of editors and children in the SADC region held in Namibia
• Training local journalists how to report children’s stories
• Production of radio programs on the commemoration of UNICEF’s 70th anniversary
• Contribution to the production of In The Zone, an international newsletter on children and the media.