What Is Ctfbd

About Children's Television Foundation of Bangladesh (ctfb)

"If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children."

This somewhat chilling observation, made by Mohandes Ghandi, political and spiritual leader in India around a century back, still ring challenging even though much has been gained in establishing the rights of the children.

The world has agreed upon a road map to a better future through rights based approaches in the form of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Bangladesh, as a signatory to the CRC, is committed to ensure the rights of the children and monitoring the progress of the nation towards the fulfillment of their rights. Despite numerous challenges and wide-spread poverty, Bangladesh has made significant progress in the area of child rights promotion, survival, and development. Development partners, and civil society organizations – including NGOs, academia, the private sector, and the media—play a vital role and have substantial capacity in the promotion and protection of children’s rights.

The profound relationship between children and media has been stated in the CRC. The Article 17 states that, “The media has a duty to disseminate information to children that is of social, moral, educational and cultural benefit to them, and which respects their cultural background”. Article 13 states that “Children have the right to obtain and make known information and to express their views, unless this would violate the rights of others”.

Media have been important actors in development and particularly in improving child rights in most of the countries, nowhere there has importance been as great as in Bangladesh. As the protection of child rights is an integral part of democracy, media could play an important role in promoting the rule of law through defending child rights and by continuing their efforts to set standards to ensure that no rights are violated by either state or non-state actors.

It is, however, studies revealed that media of the country do not provide enough spaces to cover the child rights issues except there is something sensational in the news item. Besides, the participation of children in media is not up to mark. A baseline study commissioned by the UNICEF Bangladesh in 2010 painted a rather worrying picture about the coverage of children issues in news media of the country. Besides, children still do not get enough opportunities to express their voices from their own point of view in an optimum level.

Vision of CTFB

CTFB envisions a society, in which children irrespective of religion, ethnicity, gender and socio-economic strata are in the centre of free and reciprocal information flow, enjoy freedom of opinion and expression and participate in media.

Mission of CTFB

The mission is to establish a common media platform, which enables children to raise their voice on their rights and interests. It will empower children to gain enduring living skills and knowledge through value-based entertainment and developmental television programming.

Goal of CTFB

The goal of this organization is to empower children to have access in media for knowledge and participate in media communication.

Rationale

Mass media especially TV has become a powerful media for expression of thought and mass awareness. A TV programme produced by children (age: 0-18) for children issues will generate interest among the children regarding their issues and also TV programme will generate awareness among the parents and policy makers of the country regarding child issues and rights.

Business Philosophies

The business philosophies are not oriented towards loss and profit rather train and make them a perfect citizen to become a future leader in media communication. Sooner availability of fund is ensured, it will establish the following:

  1. Animation Studio
  2. Production House
  3. Full-fledged children television channel
  4. Daily newspaper for the children
  5. School Radio (On-line radio, Community Radio, and FM Radio)
  6. Children News Agency
  7. Youth Media Network
  8. Media Institute
  9. Children and Youth Rights Movement
  10. We translate
  11. Research Academy for child & youth rights and development Network
  12. Social Entrepreneurship