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Busan Metropolitan City Holds Completion Ceremony for Its 1st Children’s Reporter Corps, Celebrating Young Reporters Who Covered Busan for a Year

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Busan Metropolitan City announced that it held the Completion Ceremony for the 1st Busan Metropolitan City Children’s Reporter Corps, “Little Busan Reporter Corps,” yesterday (Jan. 31) at 2:30 p.m. in the Grand Auditorium at City Hall, honoring the young reporters who spent the past year traveling across Busan and delivering vivid news through a child’s perspective.

The event was attended by around 400 people, including child reporters and their parents, and was further enriched by the presence of guests such as officials from the Busan Metropolitan City Council and the Busan Metropolitan Office of Education.

Since its launch in April last year, the 1st Children’s Reporter Corps has visited a wide range of sites—performance halls and exhibition venues, mountains and seas, historic locations, and other places that offer a close look at Busan today—running on the ground to write sparkling stories from a child’s perspective.

The completion ceremony began with a screening of a video capturing the reporters’ activities, followed by video congratulatory remarks, awards, celebratory performances, and a commemorative group photo.

During the awards segment, 50 child reporters received certificates as outstanding reporters in recognition of their excellent articles based on on-site reporting.

Following the awards, celebratory performances by the Busan Metropolitan City Boys and Girls Choir and the children’s cheerleading squad “Shooting Star” continued, and the event concluded with a group commemorative photo amid a lively atmosphere.

The 1st Children’s Reporter Corps went beyond simply writing articles, carrying out a wide range of activities including field reporting, cultural experiences, and planned interviews, and producing a vast body of work totaling more than 1,000 articles.

They visited major facilities such as the Busan Concert Hall, Domoheon, and the Nakdonggang Eco Center, and conducted interviews with National Sports Festival and National Para Games athletes, torchbearers, and star chefs from the culinary program “Black-and-White Chef (흑백요리사).” They also continued active reporting at major city events, including the World Citizen Festival, the Climate Industry International Expo, Asia Startup Expo, and G-STAR.

These activities offered not only elementary school students but also citizens an opportunity to rediscover Busan’s charm and its diverse on-the-ground scenes.

Ahead of the completion ceremony, an exhibition was held in the Grand Auditorium lobby starting at 2:00 p.m., where visitors could view at a glance approximately 140 works submitted to the cover-illustration contest for the children’s newspaper I Dorandoran (아이 도란도란), Big 2025, from the inaugural issue through Issue No. 14.

The cover-illustration contest was designed to allow not only members of the Children’s Reporter Corps but also any elementary school student in grades 3 through 6 to take part in producing the children’s newspaper. Creative drawings by children have adorned the covers under themes such as “Busan, a Wonderful Cultural City I Dream Of” (Issue No. 1), “Busan, a City Where Sports Are Fun” (Issue No. 2), and “I Love Busan, a Tourist City” (Issue No. 3).

At the exhibition, not only the selected works but also all drawings submitted over time were displayed, providing treasured memories for the children who entered their artwork and for their families.

Meanwhile, recruitment for the 2nd Children’s Reporter Corps has been completed, and the group will begin full-scale activities starting with its launch ceremony in March. The children’s newspaper will also significantly increase its print run from 110,000 copies last year to 160,000 copies this year, enabling all elementary school grades to receive the newspaper at school.

The 2nd Children’s Reporter Corps will expand substantially from 204 members last year to 312 this year, and more children are expected to have opportunities to experience Busan and participate in reporting activities.

In his video congratulatory remarks, Mayor Park Heong-joon encouraged the children by saying, “Thanks to the Children’s Reporter Corps, all Busan citizens have come to see Busan in a new light,” adding, “I hope this completion ceremony will not be an end but a new beginning, and that you will continue to look closely at your surroundings and keep writing your own stories from the Children’s Reporter Corps’ eye level.”