Media guidelines for reporting news stories that involve children and their families!

1. Guidelines
for media reports involving child protection issues in Belize
(Ratified at March 23, 2004 NCFC Media Summit)
All journalists and media professionals have a duty to maintain the highest professional and ethical
standards. This draft guideline sets the benchmark for promoting media coverage that considers the best
interest of the child as paramount in the context of the Laws of Belize and the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, while still upholding the public’s right to know.
Journalists and media organizations should regard the violation of the rights of children and issues related
to children’s safety, privacy, security, their education, health and social welfare, and all forms of
exploitation, as important questions for investigation and public debate. Children have an absolute right to
privacy, the only exceptions being those explicitly set out in these guidelines.
Journalists and media organizations should not consider and report the conditions of children only as events
but should encourage the continuous reporting of the process likely to lead or leading to the occurrence of
these events.
It is essential for the workings of an agreed code that the industry self-regulates. The code should not be
interpreted so narrowly as to compromise its commitment to respect the rights of the individual, nor so
broadly that it prevents publication in the public interest.
The public interest and children’s right to privacy
The public interest includes:
i. Detecting or exposing crime or a serious misdemeanor
ii. Protecting public health and safety
iii. Preventing the public from being misled by some statement or action of an individual
or organization
Journalists and media organizations shall strive for standards of excellence in terms of accuracy
and sensitivity when reporting on issues involving children. A child is considered anyone under
the age of 18 years as per the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Belize. The
only exception to this age level this Code makes is as per #2 below.
1. In any case where a child is involved in incidents, the reporting of which is deemed to be
in the public interest, the child’s identity is to be protected where public knowledge of
such identity may have adverse effects on the child.
2. In cases where the child is charged by the police as a perpetrator, and the police deems it
in the public interest to have a child over 16 years identified, such identification of name
can be made.
3. Journalists must not interview or photograph a child under the age of 18 on topics
involving the welfare of the child or any other child in the absence of or without the
consent of a parent or guardian.
4. Fair, open and straightforward methods for obtaining information from or pictures of
children should be used in all cases or reporting, whether such reporting will have
adverse or positive effects on the child. In cases of schoolchildren or children involved in
organizations, such children must not be approached or photographed while at school or
at the organization without the permission of the school or relevant authorities.

2. 2
5. Journalists and media organizations should avoid the use of stereotypes and sensational
headlines and presentations in promoting journalistic material involving children.
6. Where material about the private life of a child is published, there must be justification
for publication other than the fame, notoriety or position of the parents or guardians.
7. Journalists and media organizations must not make payment to children, or to their
parents or guardians, for information.
8. Where children provide information, independent verification of such information should
be ensured, and special care taken to ensure that such verification takes place without
putting child informants at risk
9. Portraying children in explicit and/or provocative sexualized images should be avoided.
In instances where such images are directly related to the news value of the story, they
should be used with discretion. In reports on the sex trade involving children, children’s
faces or other identifying markers should be cropped; in print, names should be changed
and this change so stated.
10. Verification should be made of the credentials of any organization purporting to speak for
or to represent the interests of children.
11. Children in abuse cases: sexual, emotional, physical or exploitation cases:
(a.) Journalists and media organizations must not, even where the law does not prohibit it,
identify children under the age of 18 who are involved in cases concerning sexual
offences, whether as victims or witnesses. In these cases:
i. The child must not be identified, whether through words, images or other
information such as street address or identification of relatives. The
child’s life and/or mental stability could be put at risk.
ii. In cases of sexual abuse involving incest, the word “incest” must not be
used where a child victim might be identified.
iii. Care must be taken that nothing in the report implies the relationship
between the accused and the child
iv. Care must be taken that nothing in the report identifies relatives or
friends of the abused child that would then lead to the identification of
the child
v. Hence, accused abusers may be identified given that the journalist
ensures that nothing in his or her wording, or interwiews with relatives or
friends of the accused abuser, lead to the identification of the child.
(b.) In cases of abuse involving child perpetrators, refer to #2.
---------- ----------- --------- ---------