A roundtable was held in the city of Ganja on the topic "Protection of children's rights in audiovisual media".

On May 23, 2023 a roundtable on the topic "Protection of the rights of the children in audiovisual media" was held in the city of Ganja, organized by the Audiovisual Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Representatives of the Audiovisual Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Executive Power of Ganja City, the Media Development Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs, Regional Department of the Ministry of Science and Education, NGOs, as well as regional terrestrial television broadcasters participated in the roundtable.

Opening the event, Assistant to the Chairman of the Council Hashim Alimammadzade spoke about the importance of the event organized on the eve of June 1 -the International Children's Day and noted that the protection of children's rights is currently one of the most pressing issues in the world.

In her speech Khalida Mete, the Executive Secretary of the Commission for the Protection of Minors' Affairs and Rights under the Executive Power of Ganja City, spoke about various problems of minors, children without parental care, cases of school evasion, hard-to-educate children, children prone to crime and the importance of educational work to prevent such cases.

Then representatives of state structures and non-governmental organizations made presentations on the topic of the round table.

Aykhan Sadigly, the representative of the Audiovisual Council, noted that Article 17 of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, adopted in 1995, on the initiative and under the direct leadership of the National Leader, directly reflects the protection of the rights and interests of children. He also added that a number of targeted state programs and national action plans approved by the head of state are aimed at development in the protection of the rights and interests of children, the formation, regulation, implementation of a unified state children's policy, providing the necessary standard of living for the physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development of children.

One of such programs is the "Action Plan for the implementation of the strategy for children for 2020-2025". According to this Action Plan one of the main executive bodies is the Audiovisual Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Aykhan Sadigly also provided the participants with information about the work done through the involvement of audiovisual entities in the way of protecting the rights of the children and spoke about the tasks assigned to audiovisual media entities in this area.

The roundtable continued with the speech of Sevil Rasulzadeh, Senior Advisor of the Analytical Analysis and Information Support Department of the State Committee on Family, Women and Children's Issues, during which she informed the participants about the work done to implement the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On the Protection of Children from Harmful Information". She also spoke about the rules of age classification of information materials, and the rules for the certification of experts in the age classification. The representative of the Committee gave recommendations to media representatives on media coverage of children's rights and children's issues.

Sabina Seyidova, the Head of the Department of the Media Development Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, spoke on the issues of audience measurement on television and the rights of the children. She also gave detailed information about the requirements of the rules of professional behavior for journalists regarding information aimed at children and the steps that have been taken and planned to improve the professionalism of journalists as a solution to the problem.

Commenting on this issue, the adviser of the Sector of Education Quality of the Ganja-Dashkasan Regional Education Department of the Ministry of Science and Education, Ramina Mammadova noted that such basic issues as the formation of skills that ensure the adaptation of people to a new life and media literacy are priorities for the education system. It is predicted that media literacy would be included as an extracurricular activity in schools, which should play an important role in protecting children from harmful content in the audiovisual media environment.

The roundtable continued with a presentation on "Ensuring the psychological well-being of children" by the executive director of the Ganja branch of the "Narınj" Psychological Center and chief psychologist Himain Fazizade. Speaking more about the psychological aspect of the issue, the expert spoke about the role of public associations and psychological centers in the field of child rights protection.

Then Sudaba Mammadova, the chairman of the Regional Public Association "Tamas" recommended the media representatives to be more sensitive and careful when preparing news about children.

Representatives of regional audiovisual media entities also expressed their attitude to the problem, told about the difficulties they faced in this area, and asked their questions.

The roundtable was held in the format of mutual exchange of views and experience, dialogue and discussion.