“It is ironic that we are discussing the strategy and guidelines for good quality children programmes, when we are still discussing the possibility of having a Children’s Act,” said Foundation for Social and Welfare Services CEO Joe Gerada yesterday.
Mr Gerada was speaking at a national conference on Good Quality children’s Programmes, organised by the Commissioner for Children and the Broadcasting Authority.
According to reports, lack of resources and professionalism lead to mediocre children’s programmes on Maltese television.
Broadcasting Authority chief executive Kevin Aquilina presented a strategy for good quality children programming. He suggested the setting up a Quality Children’s Programming Commission comprised of experts in the field who will give free advice to broadcasting stations, advertisers and production houses.
The commission will have a threefold function: consultancy, programme selection and programme monitoring.
Dr Aquilina added that there should be a legal or licence requirement that television stations should broadcast a minimum number of quality children’s programmes and any adverts that were harmful to minors should be prohibited.
Another proposal was to set up the Quality Children’s Broadcasting Fund, which will develop high quality children’s programmes in Maltese and pay for the expenses incurred.
“The fund should receive a percentage of, say, 20 per cent of television licence fees... to distribute the revenue collected among broadcasters and independent production houses,” said Dr Aquilina.
He also suggested that the fund receives a percentage of the advertising budget of each broadcasting station, which will be given back to the stations to compensate for the lack of advertising in children’s programmes.
Dr Aquilina also called for more training of local broadcasters and producers by the Centre for Communications and Technology or the Faculty of Education.
Parents should be trained in media literacy and Maltese broadcasters and producers can train with foreign broadcasting stations such as the BBC or RAI.
University lecturer on mass media research and political communication Adrian Hillman spoke about the importance of high-level media literacy for both parents and children, and said that the positive effects of a children’s programme are lost without adequate guidance from both parents and teachers.
However, mass media expert Fr Joe Borg pointed out that the problem of mediocre television programmes is widespread throughout television, including adult programmes.
“The only difference is that adults are happy victims of poor quality TV programmes,” he said.
People have different conceptions of what is classified as a good quality TV programme, he added.
Communications expert Gorg Mallia agreed, and added that care must be taken not to impose a
personal standard of quality on
children’s programmes.
“Due to a lack of funding and human resources, most local children’s programmes try to fit in fun, entertainment, education and information in the one-hour slot, and fail miserably,” he said.
“Although local producers require more resources, simply throwing money at the problem will not necessarily raise standards and quality,” said researcher Stephen Zerafa.
Children’s programmes in other countries have simple, easy-to-follow story lines, plots and studio settings.
Several taboo subjects are discussed openly and there is ethnic diversity in both the audience and the presenters. There is great variety in the subject matter and the voices used for puppets, characters and animations sound quite natural.
There is also very little and very discreet sponsorship.
Mr Zerafa also pointed out that plots in children’s programmes should be clear and simple, without a patronising tone and material needs to be presented in small doses, as children do not have a long attention span.
Children’s programmes are still considered as time-fillers and not enough resources are allocated to set them up, he added.
Council for Children member Mrs Muscat Azzopardi also presented a report during the round-table discussion entitled A Children’s Rights Perspective.
Mrs Muscat Azzopardi pointed out that the Broadcasting Code for the Protection of Minors and the guidelines on Participation in Media Programmes of Vulnerable People was set up to safeguard children from harmful content of the media, especially television.
However, this is interpreted by service providers that as long as no rules are broken, they “are fulfilling their responsibility towards young viewers” even if they broadcast mediocrity.