Children and the Yemeni Media [Archives:2001/30/Reportage]

Yasser M. Ahmed
Yemen Times
The children’s issues in the world have emerged effectively and become the main concern of the interested since1988. Some international organizations have played a human and leading role which could tackle the children’s problems. Such problems were given priority by humanitarian international organizations. One of the major conferences in the world which constitutes a starting-point toward taking an interest in improving the bad situations of children, was the Child International Conference in 1990. It was attended by 159 world leaders. An annual schedule was allocated to discuss the conditions of the children in the world.
In 1989 the UN General Assembly has accomplished a human and historical contract by supporting children’s rights. The contract has been internationally achieved after a long struggle of detailed discussions and fruitful diverse talks. The governments have agreed obligingly to guarantee and improve the children’s situations. In 1991 Yemen has officially ratified the contract and in 1995 the Co-ordination of the Yemeni Non-governmental Organizations Co-operation was established to protect and take care of children’s’ rights. The Co-operation joined more than 43 assemblies, organizations and non-governmental unions, its main aim is propagating, pursuing, and supervising the execution of the contract and to take part with governments and the international organizations to supervise the possibility of carrying out the contract. The Co-operation has successfully performed the following:
Preparing a basic system for the Co-operation by making use of the participants’ remarks in the Constituent Conference, publishing it, distributing it to organizations, assemblies and the members and also preparing the internal and financial draft law of the Co-operation together with attending the discussion of the international committee in Geneva. A Number of solutions to the problems were carefully tackled by the participants in the conference. The report which was presented in the conference depended on the accumulated experience of the Co-operation in the continuous pursuing, supervising and participating with competent authorities to carry out the international conventions.
Despite of the signing of our country of the international convention for the child’s right, the reality of the Yemeni child is still too late to cope with the current realities.
The Child and the Media. In our country the media should allocate well-planned and studied possibility to the children’s’ programs. The child programs have to carefully studied by qualified specialists in the child’s thought. It has to be mentioned here that the children’s’ responses differ from one stage to another stage. The pedagogical, educational and entertaining role has to be taken into consideration. The TV for instance has its far-reaching impact on the child’s cognition. Studies and researches have proved that learning visually is more effective than learning audibly. Studies confirmed that the child’s delinquency toward TV and watching video cassettes have great impact upon the child’s intellect. TV is considered to be one of the powerful means of media. Studies also indicate that the feeble minded students are students who watch TV most of the time. The child has got diverse social and psychological needs to satisfy his desire by watching the programs which cope with his instinct. We have to be careful in selecting the suitable programs which suits their intellect. It is noticeable that our TV concentrates only on the entertaining side and most of them are foreign programs in which there is no interest in the child’s talents. The foreign animated cartoons have reached 100%. Such foreign animated cartoons are different from our culture. They reflect a very bad behavior and have inevitable consequences upon the child’s intellect.

Radio and Child
Radio is considered to be one of the successful means in our country. It is readily accessible to every one. It has some advantages such as the strength of broadcasting, portability and cheapness. In this case the child depends on listening only. Thus, the presenter should possess the capacity to attract the children’s’ attention through the live sounds, the exciting implications and audio effects. The presenter have to specify the style and the material in which is going to be presented away from the overloaded and monotonous expressions. The specialists in this field has to present the stories and acting to improve the child’s behavior through presenting songs, competitions and interviews in a simple language.

The Press and the Child
In this respect we have two approaches, the press which talks about the child and the press which talks to the child.
1- About the child is the press which talks about the children’s’ worries and problems. This kind of the press doesn’t introduce any materials talking directly to the child.
2- To the child is the press which aims at presenting useful programs concerning the improving of the child’s talents. A study was carried out concerning the reality of the Yemeni child in the Yemeni press, the results were the following:
* The children’s suffering.
* Their general hygiene.
* The children’s culture.
* Crimes against children.
* The children’s creativity.
* Begging.
* Delinquency.
* The child’s rights in the Yemeni
* Nurseries.
* The International Child Day.

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