IMS, DR and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs introduce free expression and media literacy to school children with Children’s Christmas Calendar

Each year, the calendar reaches an estimated 100,000 children in Danish schools through teaching materials distributed to schools throughout the country and materials distributed on web and television. The calendar is designed to teach children ages seven to 12 about how children live in different parts of the world, and families across Denmark buy the cardboard Children’s Christmas Calendar in shops.

This year the Danish National Broadcaster, DR, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ development aid agency, Danida, are partnering with IMS on the Children’s Christmas Calendar. The proceeds from the sale of the calendar will benefit IMS’ partner in Tunisia Al Khatt’s work to create children- and youth-driven media in areas of Tunisia where there are no local media and few activities for children and young people.

“IMS is proud to collaborate on this year’s Børnenes U-landskalender in Denmark, promoting good journalism and media literacy to young audiences. Media literacy – understanding how the media works – is an important skill in all communities, as well as having access to local news,” say IMS director Jesper Højberg, who presented the Children’s Christmas Calendar with with Maria Rørbye Rønn Rønn, General Director of DR, and Lotte Machon, State Secretary for Development Policy.

As this year’s partner on the Children’s Christmas Calendar, IMS worked with our partners in Tunisia, the independent media group Al Khatt, to ensure that those who benefit from the Calendar’s proceeds also played a role in producing the material. While the Children’s Christmas Calendar always includes portraits of children in the featured country, the approach for this year’s project is different: IMS and Al Khatt trained young people to conduct the interviews and film the children featured in the project. In this way, IMS is redoubling our efforts to educate children and youth in the importance of journalism by creating new journalists.

In the coming months, IMS will visit schools across Denmark to discuss the importance of media literacy and good journalism. The cardboard calendar will be on sale until Christmas and the proceeds will go to Al Khatt and their efforts to strengthen journalism in Tunisia, avoid news deserts and activate children and youth in rural areas to be change makers in their communities through work with journalism and media.

While Danes may take freedom of expression and the press for granted as a right enshrined in their constitution, they are rights that were hard-won by Tunisians. IMS has worked with partners in Tunisia since 2004, but our efforts came into full force after the 2011 revolution.

When work began on the Children’s Christmas Calendar, the situation in Tunisia looked different than it does today. While Tunisia has been hailed as the success story of the Arab Spring, developments over the last year have caused concern. Specifically, the recent issuing of Decree-Law No. 54 threatens to undermine freedom of expression and the press through restrictions on digital communications ostensibly meant to stop “fake news”. Similar laws in other countries have allowed authorities to arrest people – including journalists – who post dissenting opinions online that are deemed “a danger to someone or the safety of the state.” With an election coming in December, limiting freedom of expression online also limits the publics’ ability to fully engage in the democratic process.

With the funds from the Christmas Calendar, IMS and Al-Khatt aim to increase young Tunisian’s engagement and participation in their society and give them the tools necessary to make positive contributions to democratic developments in their communities and beyond. The proceeds from the calendar will be used to locate eight marginalised areas in Tunisia and set up media clubs for children and young people aged 11 to 17. These media clubs will be run by Al Khatt and build on their long experience in creating and sustaining youth-driven media. 

Those children taking part in the journalism programmes in Tunisia will gain skills that will be useful to them later in life, including producing news for different platforms, practical training in video and podcast production, photography and journalistic processes. The children will also learn about the value of active citizenship, freedom of expression, their own rights and responsibilities and how to check if information is valid and true.