Youth Today

This project uses the medium of television to promote youth advocacy through active participation. SYC selects its young reporters from local high schools in Phnom Penh, where flyers and school contacts are used to attract applicants with a commitment to the advocacy of child rights. After selection, participants take part in training sessions designed to teach script writing, camera work, and production skills. Additional training is supplied for editors, who assemble the show. Each young reporter is assigned a position according to his or her abilities. The programme's 30 participants (aged 14-22 years) are divided into 10 groups, each consisting of a producer, a script writer, and a camera operator. They volunteer their time to undertake research, select stories, plan for shootings, shoot, review footage, write scripts, record voice narration, and edit the film. Each production team is expected to produce one story per month.

Airing on Mondays at 3:50 pm, each 10-minute-long "Youth Today" programme features several news stories about children's rights that run three to four minutes each. The topics are selected by the young reporters, who draft their own scripts, then shoot and edit the weekly episodes. One show focused on child labour, for example, and the young reporters covered a story about youth working at a brick factory. (Click here to listen to and/or watch 2 programmes online.) One participant explains, "It is important for young people to make media because it shows that they can do anything. Older people can produce programmes well, but they do not really understand the feelings of young people. The best way is for young people to speak directly to other young people. They have the same feelings and they can be closer and understand each better, because they do not have any barriers."

Children, Youth, Rights.

"The 'Youth Today' programme has offered many young people the opportunity to develop career-building skills to which they would not otherwise have exposure. Many of the volunteers move on to work in the media professionally."