UNICEF Hosts a Media Sensitization Workshop

Today, UNICEF held a workshop to sensitize its staff and partners of different government ministries and agencies on how to effectively engage with the media. A technical expert conducted the session to prepare the officers how they can handle interviews and share sensitive information in such a way that vulnerable groups, especially children, are not harmed. Doctor Susan Kasedde of UNICEF tells us why the sessions is important to the work that law enforcement, human rights, medical personnel, education specialists and others who share information about children do.

Susan Kasedde

Dr. Susan Kasedde, UNICEF Rep, Belize

“The training is trying to help us understand the special considerations as we prepare to report on children or as we engage with children in support of the stories that we prepare for dissemination through the media. So, for children the key is to make sure that we do no harm to a child so as we prepare our stories, we are constantly going to be asking the question today and on Saturday in the way we are formulating the message, in the way we are using or not using the identity or identifying information about a child, are we putting in place the appropriate safeguards to ensure that that child will not be harmed through our story or our engagement with the media. But also are we making sure that our message is going to have the impact that we desire in terms of the changes we want to see. Because achieving that result is critical but protecting that child from inadvertent harm is our responsibility. So, those are the two things we focusing on in this training; how to be impactful but how to be sure that we are protecting at all times, the dignity, the privacy and the best interest of the children on whose behalf we are communicating.”