TVB Jade Doc Wins Asia Pacific Child Rights Award

HONG KONG, November 5: Hong Kong broadcaster TVB Jade has
received the Asia Pacific Child Rights Award 2007 for its documentary Children
Left Behind.

The award was presented during a ceremony held on November 2
at this year’s CASBAA Convention.

Produced by Catherine Lee Yuk San, Children Left Behind is a 30-minute documentary that chronicles the lonely
lives of China’s “home-alone” kids—children left behind by parents who
have migrated to urban centers in search of work. According to the documentary,
this is a problem acutely felt in Hunan, Szechuan and Chongqing provinces with
large numbers of children—over 22 million—left on their own or
under the care of elderly relatives.

Established in 2001, the Asia Pacific Child Rights Award is
jointly organized by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the Cable &
Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) and the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The award is presented for the best television
programming on child rights issues produced in the Asia-Pacific region.

More than 60 entries to the competition were received this
year from countries that include Australia, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia,
Iran, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Sri Lanka.

Other finalists include Children in Rural Bhutan, from Bhutan’s Juthrul Gharkhen Communication; the
Indian production Daughters on Sale;
On the Abandoned Track, from
Indonesia’s Metro TV; Fields of Fire: Seeds of Hope from Australia’s Sky News; The Kobe
"A" Case—10 years for both the victims and assailant from Japan’s Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation; Let
Me Win—Children of the Special Olympics in China from China’s Phoenix Satellite Television Co.; Reporter's
Notebook: Discrimination, from the GMA
Network in the Philippines; To Wherever the Wheelchair Takes Me from Japan’s TV Asahi; and Children of
Lapindo Mudflow from Indonesia’s RCTI.

"The Child Rights Award continues to provide an
important platform for broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific to share their quality
programming on children's issues,” said David Astley, the secretary-general of
the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. “The ABU congratulates TVB Jade for
winning the award this year. Their winning entry Children Left Behind is a poignant documentary on issues facing children
and we look forward to seeing more and more quality programming on children's
rights by Asian broadcasters in the future."

Madeline Eisner, UNICEF’s regional communication advisor for
East Asia and the Pacific, said: “This year’s award coincides with an important
milestone for children. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most
widely ratified human rights treaty in the world, turns 18. By seeking to share
children’s stories, uncovering violations of their rights and fostering an
understanding of our responsibility towards them, the media plays a critical
role in creating a better world for children.”

Simon Twiston Davies, the CEO of CASBAA, commented: “We are
delighted to once again partner with the ABU and UNICEF on this project.
Speaking on behalf of the industry, we will continue to make use of our
collective broadcasting platforms to promote child rights and the healthy
development of children’s lives."

—By Ned Berke