| Abstract: |
Widespread violations of children’s rights take place in Nigeria just like in other emerging democratic societies. In the Northern region of Nigeria, children are denied access to functional education, while in the South, they are trafficked and in some cases branded witches and subjected to hallowing experiences. Nigerian government is signatory to myriads of international treaties on the rights of children. Despite all these laws, children are still deprived of enjoying the full benefits of their rights. There are various and varied opinions on the extent to which the mass media and the practitioners in particular have played manifest roles or otherwise in the promotion of child rights in Nigeria. In an effort to bring this debate to the fore and help resolve this debacle, this study was initiated. Research questions were raised and hypotheses formulated accordingly. Survey research method and descriptive research designs were adopted in the execution of this research. The study population was the entire journalists in Enugu metropolis; while a sample size of 150 journalists were randomly selected from media organisations and print media correspondents in Enugu metropolis. The questionnaire was adopted as the measuring instrument for the study. Findings show that journalists in Enugu State are aware of the existence of child right to a great extent, that journalists and their media organisations pay adequate attention to issues pertaining to child rights and that there is a relationship between media promotion of child right issues and public compliance with the provision of the Child Rights Act. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended among others that journalists should be constantly retrained on new dimensions as it pertains to the promotion of child rights through societal media. |
