by Bernardo Caceres Vegas, KNN Regional Program Officer for Latin America

KNN will soon start-up a new kids news TV+Internet+Radio platform in Bolivia, with local partner Nicobis production house, and in that goal the KNN training weeks kicked off Monday at La Paz.

KNN Bolivia training kick off meeting

The first week trainer, Rob Van Trier, chief editor at the NOS Jeugdjournaal, introduced the enthusiastic Bolivian KNN crew into the tricks of the trade, and promoted the planning and development of the program format.

Jeugdjournaal's chief editor Rob Van Trier

Liliana de la Quintana and Alfredo Ovando, owners managers at Nicobis

The week also held the Andean traditional opening ceremony (chariaje) for the KNN Bolivia office.

"Chariaje" in the new KNN Bolivian office

The training will go on for the weeks to come, delivered by experienced kids news makers from the Jeugdjournaal and NAPA, the Peruvian KNN programme, and pilot broadcast are expected for December. Stay tuned.

The organizers of Peruvian Blog Day 2011 had a surprise for No Apto para Adultos – NAPA (Not Suitable for Adults), the Peruvian KNN programme and Internet site: during the annual blogs awards ceremony last Friday, Marca Perú, the State brand globally promoting Peruvian products, recognized the 4 year work of NAPA giving the Peruvian kids information and a voice, by calling them on stage for a special tribute.

As part of the tribute, a video was screened with interviews to NAPA‘s founding members (Bernardo Cáceres, creator, and Amanda Gonzalez, journalist) and to Marca Peru‘s director, Isabella Falco, in charge of promotion of the country’s brand image, who highlighted the unique contribution NAPA is performing in the building of a best informed and critical thinking new generation of Peruvian citizens. You can watch the video at http://napa.com.pe/2011/08/20/%C2%A1un-reconocimiento-para-ustedes/

May this recognition bring NAPA the long deserved support of broadcasters and advertisers, for a growing succesful long life of No Apto para Adultos in the benefit of Peruvian non-adults!

It´s Saturday afternoon, first of the two MIPJunior days in Cannes, France, and the winner of the Kid’s Jury 2010 competition will be announced in a little while. The award ceremony is co presented by Christophe Erbes of Media ©nsulting and TF1’kids TV presenter Billy, and Monsieur Julien Borde, head of children and youth programmes at France Television.

The first two categories, pre-School (3-6 years old) and Kids (7-10 years old) have been awarded the winning title by a Jury of children from the International school of Nice. Now at last the turn of the Pre-Teen (11-14 years old) award, with our World Kids News among the five finalists. The other four seem multimillion dollar productions, from experienced and rich studios.

As priory in the afternoon, every Kids’s Jury finalist is presented by our hosts, and a short clip is projected in the big screen and the monitors scattered in the packed Martinez Hotel Conference Room. After each clip, a production company representative will be handed a microphone, to briefly address the audience. The presentation goes on for the fourth finalist, and I proudly see the WKN clip in the screen. I am ready to take stand, and can’t help shake a bit in my third row seat, but after the clip and briefly commenting the uniqueness of the product, our hosts go on presenting the last finalist, whose representative will also present himself to the audience. Why did the organization not give World Kids News a voice? It is because we’re here for the first time?

The Kid’s Jury decision is announced. Christophe Erbes steps down to the first floor rows and queries a girl from the Jury: “World Kids News is the winner. It is our favorite programme because it shows us how our peers live in other parts of the world”. She couldn’t have expressed it better. As I enjoy the applauses, I can notice also confusion and astonishment, particularly in our presenters face, who now want to quickly terminate the ceremony to pass on to MIPJunior’s Opening Cocktail.

But as sole representative of WKN, I will not let such a visibility chance go by. So I raise my hand, and amused Christof and Monsieur Borde ask the cordless microfone for me . I thanked the Kid’s Jury and the MIPJunior team, and invited all buyers and broadcasters present to approach me at any moment, during the rest of the MIPJunior or during the MIPCom days, to discuss how our World Kids News product or our kids news feed could better suit their programming needs.

A group of 18 children from the international school in Nice choose ‘World Kids News’ as the best program for the age group 11-14 of 2010. KNN Network Coordinator Bernardo Cáceres came all the way from Peru to receive the award, in name of all the programs in eight countries around the globe.

From Burma to Peru, youth news programs upload their best report of the month to the collective database. The scripts are written in Peru and the footage edited and presented in South Africa. On the website worldkidsnews.com everybody can watch the monthly 10 minute show.

With the award winning World Kids News the network aims to become an independent organisation, that offers and exchanges quality TV, online and mobile content with other media partners, to give even more children a voice.

You are invited to watch the program and share your opinion in the comment section. Congratulations to World Kids News!

Kids News Network (KNN) presents its second online program “World Kids News’ on child labour worldwide. The KNN members supplied their best reports for this special. The programme was edited and presented in South Africa. Watch the episode “How about child labour?’ on worldkidsnews.com.

Kopano Mocwane, WKN presenter.

For this month’s special, reports made by the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, Suriname and Peru were selected, telling us different stories about how kids make money, sometimes voluntarily, often forced by poverty. Children tell their own stories and give their own opinions on the subject. This means that the usual stance, “child labour is a bad thing” is cast aside. By presenting various children’s views, the audience is free to make up its own mind.

World Kids News is available for broadcasters and distributors world wide.

Additionally, WKN presents a report on the first Youth Olympics Games held in Singapore in August this year. The Burmese kids news programme ‘Youth Voice‘, along with KNN Asia coordinator Ria Ernunsari, reported on the event for all KNN members.

KNN’s aims with the monthly broadcast – which includes footage from all KNN members worldwide – is to gain more visibility and awareness  KNN  wants to do so not only to provide children worldwide with a good programme, but also to interest donors and potential partners.  World Kids News is an important part of the sustainability strategy (called KNN Support) to become a self-sustaining network within two years.

A boy in Peru, who works on the land with his family, tells about his dreams.

Kids World News is produced under the responsibility of KNN’s Network Coordinator Bernardo Cáceres, former editor in chief of the Peruvian kids news NAPA. He selects the best KNN reports from around the world that are submitted through an online database and rewrites the scripts. MediaGate, a small but professional production company in South Africa,  then downloads the items and edits them accordingly. MediaGate ran auditions and found the perfect WKN host: Kopano (20), a natural (and winner of Miss Teen South Africa in 2008).

Kopano presents World Kids News every month.

Several KNN representatives will present World Kids News in the coming months, at conferences and festivals for media professionals. Locations include Johannesburg (South Africa), Calgary (Canada), Tokyo (Japan) and Cannes (France). The aim is to sell the format to interested broadcasters and distributors worldwide.

Mexico city held, from July 16 to 19, the First Ibero-American Festival of Children and Media, Apantallad@s, a showroom for kids on media projects and awareness, consisting of a seminar with producers and experts, workshops for more than 60 attendants from all over Mexico, Latin America and abroad, and a record assisted exhibit at the Museum of Popular Arts.

r. to l.: Susana Velleggia. President Festival de Cine Nueva Mirada para la Infancia y la Juventud (Argentina); Carlos Sotelo García. Senator, President radio, television y cinematography, Senate of the Republic Committee, (México); Aleida Calleja, moderator (Mexico); Gerardo Sauri Suárez. Realtor de Libertad de Expresión de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Distrito Federal, (México); Bernardo Cáceres Vegas, Kids News Network Coordinator (Perú).

l. to r. Iván Gomezcésar, Enlace Comunitario, UACM (Mexico); Ana Rosa Duarte. Colectivo TURIX y Yoochel Kaaj: Cine Video Cultura, A.C., (Yucatán, México); and Bernardo Cáceres Vegas, lecturing on the creation of No Apto Para Adultos - NAPA (Perú)

Thousands of kids attended workshops on communication rights, radio, TV and crafts, while producers and experts discussed public media, quality kids programming, audience literacy and identities in the global village. The organizers were Mexican organization Comunicación Comunitaria, presided by Irma Ávila Pietrasanta.

KNN presented World Kids News, the on line showcase of its associates' content and synergies.

All participants agreed to demand public media in their countries and to promote  more quality programs for children and adolescents. They also joined in KNN proposal to bring the voices of children and adolescents to the COP 16 environmental summit in Cancun, Mexico, next December.

Kids News Network proudly announces the launch of World Kids News (WKN), a TV pilot and Internet platform showcasing the best news items that have been tailor-made for children by the network’s members in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Follow the link, to find out more about WKN, but come back for some behind the scenes info.

Way beyond spelling the adult news to the kids, KNN ensures that news for children is understandable, non-sensational, and relevant. It provides a platform for children to express themselves freely, on matters both big and small, in their homes, classrooms, towns, countries and indeed in the world at large.

In 2008 during the Beijing Olympics, a team of KNN producers and experts provided a daily feed for our national audiences on the lives and dreams of the Chinese youth. This collective effort confirmed KNN was more than the sum of the national programs and their audiences.

Now that kids in 8 countries enjoy exchanged items, and visit and greet KNN sites in four continents, it is time for the KNN vision to grow still bigger.

In the following weeks, a new KNN Collective will cover the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The team’s best items will make up the next bulletin of World Kids News. And from month to month in 2010, WKN thematic episodes will be available for TV networks and cable operators’ worldwide.

Last but not least, we thank the kids news in the Netherlands, the NOS Jeugdjournaal, for hosting the first WKN broadcast.

We invite you to follow and promote WKN, and help us empower children around the world – to be better informed and with high self-esteem – ready to pursue freedom, democracy, and respect for human rights and the planet.

Packed of enthusiasm and great ideas, the KNN 2010 summit, last week in Johannesburg, was a big success, with presence of kids news makers from 10 different countries.

We confirmed our determination to build a strong network for kids empowerment through information and free expression.

The 2010 Best Item Award went to the recently launched  Caribbean Kids News, and was proudly received by CKN editor in chief Sulin Passial.

Kids and soccer, the news in Soweto, was covered by crews from Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia training for KNN’s coverage of the world cup.

Standing l. to r. : Daniel Bello (NAPA-Peru), Nkosinathi Mkhize (Kids News, South Africa), Katja Michael (KNN Program Officer), Toe Zaw Latt (Youth Voice, Democratic Voice of Burma), Ole Chavannes (KNN Program Manager), Jihad Abufala (Community Media Network, Jordan), Bordina Muala (Telejunior, Mozambique), Jacqui Hlongwane (SABC, South Africa), Mabvuto Phiri (Z-Kids, Zambia). Seating l. to r.: Hasina Kathrada (KNN Regional Program Officer Africa), Soelami Starke (Ten Minuten, Suriname), Ria Ernunsari (KNN Regional Program Officer Asia), Sulin S.F. Passial (Caribbean Kids News, Dutch Antilles), Bernardo Caceres Vegas (KNN Network Coordinator).

Commitments for collaboration and exchange, new targeted audiences in the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, the new KNN Radio strategy, are set for the coming year. The fleet of KNN news rooms is only bigger and stronger.

This most recent picture – set before the Dead Sea horizon- portraits the subscription of a memorandum of understanding to introduce KNN to Jordanian kids. Jordan’s Community Media Network founder and director Daoud Kuttab signed Saturday with Free Voice’s Bart Dijkstra. The Dutch Ambassador to Jordan Johanna van Vliet, and the newly chosen director of Free Voice Jan Bonjer also attended the bonding event.

Daoud Kuttab founder and director of Community Media Network (CMN) which runs Radio al Balad and Ammannet.net website, said that being able to produce TV news for children is a dream come true. “We have been doing a school radio program for years and we feel that a kids news program on TV will be widely received by children in Jordan who are the majority of the population”.

Free Voice will support this project with a grant of 150,000 euros, provided that CMN also makes a contribution necessary for the success of the project which is estimated  at 350,000 euros. Both parties will have to fundraise the remaining amount. Katja Michael, the program officer of Kids News Network at Free Voice along with their Middle East coordinator Jan Keulen and staffers from Community Media Network met with local and international foundations and ambassadors to enlist their support to fund this unique media program.