New TV guidelines to protect children

The editorial board of Public Broadcasting Services has informed all producers they must contact the Foundation for Social Services, popularly known as Agenzija Appogg, before involving in programmes children under 16 who have any kind of problems.

"It is not permitted that minors take part without clearance from the agency and no one can appeal from the decision taken by the same agency," the PBS editorial board said.

The decision by PBS was "fully supported" by the Commissioner for Children Sonia Camilleri, the Maltese Psychological Association and the Malta Association of Social Workers.

They welcomed the measure aimed at safeguarding minors involved in real-life stories on TV programmes.

The Commissioner for Children encouraged other broadcasting stations to adopt these policies for the protection of vulnerable children.

The Maltese Psychological Association said the requirement that vulnerable children appearing on such programmes are screened by professionals is commendable.

The association said that while it is aware that such programmes may have a positive impact on some participants, one cannot dismiss the intense psychological turmoil and reactivation of past trauma that is at times triggered.

"Professionals working to re-establish severed family relationships know that such delicate work requires months of careful preparation of the children and adults," it said.

"Even then, a substantial risk is involved and subsequent support is required as a follow-up but the MPA is not aware that such provision is currently being offered to the participants in these TV programmes.

Moreover, the financial resources made available to these families in moments of need may obscure the fact that such public displays of personal life stories increases their vulnerability, particularly when one considers the local social context."

The MPA said it is also seriously concerned about family members who actually refuse to take part in such programmes but whose story is still exposed through the involvement of their relatives.

Contacted yesterday, Fr Joe Borg, chairman of the editorial board, said some time ago PBS had drawn up guidelines on the involvement of vulnerable people and these were subsequently adopted as guidelines by the Broadcasting Authority for all stations.

But the editorial board felt it had to go a step further - it wanted to give the highest level of protection to minors and a clear, strong signal to actual and potential producers of PBS and to the audio visual market in general.

"Unfortunately, there are still a number of programmes on other stations that disregard the guidelines on vulnerable people," Fr Borg said.

"We do our own monitoring in our programmes and there were several instances where we drew the attention of producers to certain issues.

Asked about Sunday's edition of Tistà Tkun Int, where one of the slots aired on Thursday was not aired on Sunday, Fr Borg confirmed that a feature on a 15-year-old was pulled out at the request of the board.

The Commissioner for Children said she had received a report about two children who were featured on Tistá Tkun Int and who failed to attend school for four months after their appearance on the programme because they felt ashamed after the exposure.

"We had a written complaint about this and we have several verbal reports about other cases. We are very concerned about this and we support the decision by PBS as these cases should be avoided in future," she said.

The PBS guidelines now make it imperative to have an independent psychologist and hence there should be no conflict of interest.

Mrs Camilleri said some TV programmes were causing "turmoil and upheaval" in the lives of children who were living in institutes and who were happy living with other children but were all suddenly getting this urge to find their parents.

"It is one thing helping people and giving charity but repeated exposure of the same story is another issue. If you want to help, do it privately. I don't care if abroad some TV stations are doing the same. If they are wrong, we should not be copying them.

"This not to mention the fact that certain people are using these programmes to promote themselves. This is not to be encouraged," Mrs Camilleri said.

Contacted for her reaction, Tistá Tkun Int producer and presenter Rachel Vella said they were the first to have a psychologist and guidance before any official guidelines existed.

"We have no problem with the new policy. On the contrary, we welcome it. We try to help people with our programme," Ms Vella said.