Unicef’s regional office for Mena said that participation was still open for its regional media award on child rights, an annual prize that encourages greater representation of children in the media.

This gives the opportunity for media professionals and amateurs, including teens, to participate through works produced between October 2009 and August 2010.

“The regional media award is an annual prize that Unicef launched to motivate those working in broadcast and print media to highlight the reality of child rights and convey their challenges and suffering to the public,” said  Abdel-Rahman Ghandour, regional communication chief at the Mena regional office.

“This award started in 2004, focusing each year on a different theme. It rewards media practitioners for their efforts to highlight children’s issues and concerns. They are partners and friends with Unicef in spreading awareness on the reality of childhood,” he added.

The subject of this year’s edition is “Child Rights” in celebration of 20 years on the signing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The novelty this year is the introduction of photography as a fifth category beside visual, audio and print media as well as online media.

Ghandour added that he expects large participation this year as the theme encompasses diverse issues of interest in the media.

According to Unicef’s The State of the World’s Children report, in the Mena region, around 20 per cent of girls of primary school age and 50 per cent of girls of secondary school age don’t go to school, and 10 per cent of children between the age of 5-14 are involved in labour, which limits their ability to break the cycle of poverty.

“Competition this year will be tough judging by the number of applications we keep receiving from across the region,” said Reem Najjar, Unicef’s award coordinator.

Arabic, French and English are the languages of the contest and applications will be evaluated by a jury including Unicef experts, a goodwill ambassador and child rights specialists.

August 20 is the deadline for receiving applications, the statement said. – TradeArabia News Service