NCFC Host Media Workshop for Reporting on Children  

Today, the National Commission for Families and Children held a media sensitivity workshop to teach journalists from across the country how to best report on children, youths, and sensitive topics. The workshop brought together key stakeholders from the media, law enforcement, and child advocacy organizations to discuss ethical standards in reporting. Commissioner of Police Chester Williams attended and emphasized the responsibility of journalists to protect children and the need for stronger laws to safeguard children in unsafe situations.

 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“When it comes to children who come into conflict with the law, the media must be responsible enough so as not to publish the identity of these children because then either way you take it whether they’re victims or offenders, it is going to bring some degree of of embarrassment to them. And I don’t think that we should expose children to things like that. Today was good and I want to thank NCFC for the invitation for even setting up this event. I think that this discourse today was very important and productive. And I wish that there was going to be more of this.”

 

Reporter

“What was the reception in relation to the proposition for a law change regarding that incident that you pointed to which you also prosecuted? Someone being a child who’s been a victim of cruelty has to be in someone’s custody in the abuser’s custody?”

 

Chester Williams

“Like I said, if it is that we don’t take care of our children today, then our future is going to be dim. We cannot live in a society where our children are being abused and the laws that are put in place to protect them is inadequate. To see that, in order to prosecute a person for cruelty to a child must be in the care or charge of the abuser. I don’t think it is right. If you abuse a child, if you are cruel to a child, it should not be dependent on whether or not the child is in your care or charge. It should be across the board. And so I would like to see that aspect of the law change, as well as to make the penalty for persons who abuse children to be more severe than what it is now it is now.”