ASIA SIGNIS Asia Assembly Highlights Media Influence On Children

Posted: 11th October 2008

Signis President of Signis ASIA

PHNOM PENH (UCAN) -- Participants at the recently concluded SIGNIS Asia Assembly resolved to highlight issues arising from media influence on children in their respective localities.

This commitment arose out of discussions and presentations at the Sept. 15-18 Asian assembly of SIGNIS, the worldwide Catholic association for audiovisual, broadcast and new media.

Seventy-five Church workers involved in media and communications from throughout Asia participated in the assembly, held for the first time in Cambodia. Phnom Penh-based Catholic Social Communications of Cambodia hosted the event, which had the theme Children and the Media.
The participants, 33 of them Cambodians, decided to encourage communicators to make children's rights a priority in their work, in preparation for the SIGNIS World Congress next year. Media for a Culture of Peace -- Children's Rights, Tomorrow's Promise is the theme of that assembly, scheduled for November 2009 in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The Asian assembly kicked off with a Mass that featured traditional Khmer dance by children, some of whom have disabilities.

A highlight of the assembly was a presentation on Cambodian children by Chantal Rodier, a consultant on children's issues here. In her presentation, which included a video screening, she pointed out that children in Cambodia are especially vulnerable due to their extreme poverty and because electronic media have a strong and uncontrolled influence on Cambodian society today.

Participants from the Southeast Asian subregion agreed that values and cultural identity are slowly being eroded by the prevalence of violent video games, pornography in media, parents who are absent or who neglect their families, and uncritical absorption of negative and selfish attitudes.

They pointed out that modern media portrays as normal, or even promotes, values they consider blatantly anti-Christian. They cited consumerism; judging a person based on his or her physical beauty or material wealth; same-sex marriage; using violence to resolve disputes; and putting one's self before family or community.

A main concern participants raised throughout the assembly was how to create ways to raise awareness of all these issues in their countries.

During their time together, participants also visited an NGO-run school that has 3,000 poor students, many of whom worked and lived at the city dump.

The assembly officially accepted SIGNIS Vietnam as a member. Auxiliary Bishop Pierre Nguyen Van De of Bui Chu led the Vietnamese delegation.

Other participants came from China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand. Representatives from each country or territory gave a report on their own area.

The assembly also featured a one-minute video production contest on the theme Children and Media. A Malaysian production entitled Superman emerged the winner among six entries.

As the gathering ended, Paris Foreign Missions Bishop Emile Destombes, apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh, told participants, "Your work in the field of social communications is an inspiration to each of us committed in one way or another in witnessing the Kingdom of God in this great continent."

SIGNIS president Augustine Loorthusamy then invited all participants to take an active part in preparing for and participating in the upcoming SIGNIS World Congress.

On Sept. 19, some participants went on a three-day trip to Siem Reap, about 230 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh, where they visited the famous 12th-century Angkor Wat temple complex and a church in a floating village along the Tonle Sap (great lake).

Article Source: ucan