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I have always been intrigued by the power of the media and how the news agenda is fixed.  Equally interesting is the media’s link to fame and celebrity. Sometimes the indiscretions of a ‘personality’ can overshadow and sideline most other things in the press, however epic stories such as the tsunami in Asia and the bombing of London rightly dominate the news pulse of the nation. The documentaries that follow on, chronicle history and help to explain the world and our place in it. Another moment in 2005 that will mark our collective memory is Live 8, the biggest global media event in the history of Planet Earth, when the world’s political powers were forced to face the poorest of the poor. While even this ‘good cause’ had its critics, I was encouraged that an unlikely issue such as grinding poverty had been forced onto the international agenda making it the hot topic of our day. I suspect that the tremor of impact will be felt in years to come as young people, drawn by the music, go on to take their part in making a difference.

That is the accomplishment of Sir Bob Geldoff, Bono and the other musicians who used their celebrity to turn the spotlight on the politicians with such an important challenge. Our hope and prayer is that our new campaign to help children in prison will build on this platform. It seems an extraordinary contradiction that at the start of the 21st century, a time of unparalleled technological breakthroughs and public awareness of social issues, children can remain in prison, caught in an international blind spot. Held in cramped overcrowded cells, detained with adults for indefinite periods of time, in conditions some call torture, without legal assistance, prison turns children into criminals instead of turning them from crime. Even the world’s leading authority admits that exact numbers of children in prison just don’t exist.

Kids behind bars have been betrayed by the system, victimised and brutalised and some will never be the same.

This why we must act.

Danny Smith
Founder of Jubilee Campaign