Children's Day nets 24-hour coverage

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-06 08:08

The dedicated day for all children around the globe will now receive multimedia and traditional news coverage from more than 500 media organizations worldwide.

"Global News Day for Children" was launched yesterday to highlight the international media's role in helping improve the situation of children around the world and to promote Universal Children's Day, which falls on Nov 20.

Universal Children's Day was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1954 to encourage all countries to institute a day to promote the welfare of children.

"Global News Day" was co-sponsored by Xinhua and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). As of Wednesday, more than 500 worldwide media organizations had confirmed their participation in the program.

A 24-hour global live multimedia coverage of events on Nov 20 is planned.

It will be the first joint international media child rights advocacy program with simultaneous live coverage focusing on children.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the 1959 Declaration on the Rights of the Child and the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

UNICEF and Xinhua agreed that these child rights activities and media coverage would be aimed at raising governments' and public awareness of children's rights and interests, urging more care from the international community for children, and shouldering more social responsibility. "Global News Day" will be strictly a nonprofit venture.

"The Convention on the Rights of the Child is one of the few global commitments that link together virtually every country on the planet in common action," said Dr Yin Yin Nwe, representative of UNICEF.

She said that the convention is the most widely ratified human rights treaty yet established with only two countries having signed but not ratified the document.

China ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992.

Ten global children representatives will be selected by Xinhua and other institutions to tell of their present and future from different perspectives, such as armed conflicts, poverty, environmental degradation, health-care and education.

A global children's photography campaign, "children's eyes on the world", will be held to show the life and dreams of children from their perspectives.

The two parties will jointly hold a ceremony in Beijing on Nov 20 to launch the Chinese edition of UNICEF's State of the World's Children report for the 20th anniversary of the convention.

From 8 am on Nov 20, Xinhua will work with participating media organizations to launch a 24-hour, multimedia "relay" coverage on six continents. It will include the sharing of TV specials on children, joint TV coverage of the global events marking Universal Children's Day, exchanges of TV programs and the live broadcasts of text, photos, audio and video.

The program and the 24-hour live coverage are a result of the World Media Summit held in Beijing in early October. Summit participants agreed that humanitarian concern should focus first on children.

Xinhua