By Filistin Remawi
RAMALLAH, March 4, 2012 (WAFA) – With the help of the German Goethe Institute and in cooperation with al-Quds University’s Institute for Modern Media children’s TV news is coming to Ramallah.
Under the title “Prix Jeunesse” (Youth Prize), the Goethe Institute started on Sunday a three-day workshop in Ramallah on how to make children’s news and how to promote their programs.
Markus Mörchen, director of the German children news channel “Logo”, was invited by the institute to give an insight to Palestinian filmmakers and producers of German TV formats for children and to discuss the question: “What kind of TV news do children in Palestine want?”
Mörchen, who is in Palestine for the first time, said his goal from the workshop “is to change the perspective regarding children and to take children more seriously.”
“Get on your knees and ask them what do they want and show their own perspective,” he said.
“The main point is making the children’s programs and news understandable and interesting,” he added.
Joerg Schumacher, director of Goethe Institute in Ramallah, said his institute has been working on this idea for more than a year.
“Palestinian children are very much affected by politics, at least if compared with the European children,” he said.
He said this workshop is “a balloon testing if there will be any interest, demand and ability to continue working in such a topic.”
Fadia Salah-Al-Din, one of the trainees and a Palestinian producer and filmmaker, stressed that there was interest in this field in Palestine.
“It is a great experience because we don’t have similar programs,” she said.”Children’s TV news is something totally new for us and in Palestine. We are looking forward for the new ideas we will learn during this workshop so we later work on applying them here in Palestine.”
The Munich-based foundation, Prix Jeunesse, aims to promote quality in television for the young worldwide, bring forward television that enables children to see, hear and express themselves and their culture and that enhances an awareness and appreciation of other cultures, according to the organization’s website.
F.R./M.S.
