PODGORICA, 27 APRIL 2019 – Within the UNICEF and Montenegro Agency for Electronic Media campaign on media literacy “Let’s Choose What We Watch”, the first episode of TV news for children in Montenegro was aired on public service TV on Saturday 27 April. Children’s TV news were aired right before the main TV news for adults, using the internationally renowned Wadada News for Kids format.
The Wadada News for Kids international network is established by the Dutch non-profit organization Free Press Unlimited.
UNICEF volunteers – young reporters from the media literacy campaign “Let’s Choose What We Watch” and experts from public service RTCG’s Children’s Programme are making together the Wadada Montenegro news.
The main novelty is the participation of young people in the production of news for them, as well as the fact that Wadada Montenegro is the only media programme of its kind that is being offered for children in Montenegro in the local language.
“Research undertaken during the media literacy campaign has shown that half of the children in our country want to participate in the production of children’s media programmes. We are pleased that the public broadcaster was to first to respond to this data by launching the Wadada Montenegro News for Children and Young People,” says Milena Janjušević, the Editor of RTCG’s Children’s Programme.
Montenegro got this TV news show after UNICEF and Montenegro Agency for Electronic Media organized the Wadada News for Kids training in February within the media literacy campaign “Let’s Choose What We Watch”.
Montenegrin edition of Wadada News for Kids will be available in the international Media Lab used by all the member countries of this network. This means that the news produced by young people in Montenegro can be translated and broadcast in other countries, just as RTCG can download, translate and broadcast interesting news produced by young people from other countries.
Experience from other countries shows that the Wadada News for Kids is one of the most popular TV shows for families, because this is a news programme that covers the same topics as the news programme for adults, but in a way that makes it easier for children and young people to understand and more interesting to follow.
Wadada Montenegro News launching is one of the outcomes of the media literacy campaign based on the first nationally representative research on children, parents and the media in Montenegro. Among other things, this research has shown that less than one-third of parents (29%) and children (27%) think that there are enough programmes adjusted to children of different ages on Montenegrin TV channels, or enough content that is interesting, useful, inspiring and educational for children.
