At the workshop, which was held in preparation of the Asia Media Summit 2009, Khan said that television’s enormous influence on children clearly brings with it a “responsibility to inform, raise awareness, instill knowledge and understanding of own and other cultures, and to stimulate children's capacity for creativity and empathy”.

“Strategies to improve the quality of television programming for children must be stronger based on multi-disciplinary research into children’s programming, on greater investment in capacity building for producers, on the development of parental guidelines and on increased participation of children in the creation of stories,” Khan said.

He also called upon policy makers to invest further in children’s television programming and to encourage the collection and analysis of baseline data on children’s information needs. “We encourage the use of multi-platform technologies to deliver children’s content, including mobile downloads or streaming,” Khan added.

Supported by UNESCO, the Asia Media Summit 2009 is being held on 26 and 27 May 2009 in Macau under the theme “Media Impact, Influence & Integrity in Changing Times”.