Perspectives On Media Representation Of Children

The fundamental human rights must always be taken into consideration by the media, because one of the major duties of a journalist is to observe whether the rights of each and everyone are respected in the society. But the battle for rating sometimes leads to unfortunate compromises and the disregard of the ethical principles and even the laws. Such undesirable situations are to be noticed also when events involving children are covered by the media. Because of the pressures constantly made by the institutions and organizations with expertise and responsibilities in the field, such as UNICEF, things have improved significantly lately. But there are still issues to be solved and the good practice guidelines are still needed in order to correct the journalistic misconducts and avoid the occurrence of what is usually referred to as 'secondary trauma'.