16 May 2022, Daily Maverick, Girlie Sibande
Children make up 35% of our population, but according to the latest report from Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), they only account for 10% of news coverage. In addition, the voices of children are marginalised, making up just 1% of stories.
One of our exciting initiatives to help improve the way children are portrayed is the Isu Elihle Awards — launched in 2016 and now also supported by Unicef — which are open to journalists throughout Africa.
As the name suggests (“Isu Elihle” is isiZulu for “great idea”), the awards encourage fresh thinking and innovative story ideas on issues facing children. They also encourage journalists to hold those in power to account in order to address those issues.