Internews Humanitarian Media Program
 
Internews Humanitarian Media Program Highlighted at Clinton Global Initiative
 
(September 21, 2006) Internews Network's Humanitarian Media Assistance Program was highlighted yesterday at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York . Former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger announced Internews' commitment to this program on stage during the opening day of the three-day event and presented a certificate to Jeanne Bourgault, Internews Chief Operating Officer.   Two boys with radio  
This is the first year that Internews has participated in the Clinton Global Initiative, an invitation-only, non-partisan endeavor that joins leaders from a wide variety of disciplines to devise innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges.  

Photo: David Swanson/IRIN

With assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Internews distributed about 10,000 radio sets to families affected by the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.

 

 

United Nations Secretary Kofi Annan, Bill Gates, First Lady Laura Bush, Rupert Murdoch, Warren Buffett and hundreds of others are scheduled to join former president Bill Clinton to discuss solutions to poverty; religious and ethnic conflict; global energy; and global public health.

Because the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) is designed to inspire action, each participant is required to pledge to take a specific action in one of four focus areas. According to CGI's web sites, these commitments have ranged from $100 million to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa, to a donation of 20,000 bicycles in disaster-torn Sri Lanka , to 100 hours volunteered in an interfaith youth group.

With the objective of empowering the poor and countries in the midst of humanitarian crises with access to vital local language news and information, Internews made a commitment to CGI to implement a humanitarian media assistance program that builds on its experience helping local media to provide critical information to populations affected by disaster.

Internews is seeking funding partners to achieve its committment to establish a global capacity for the rapid deployment of communication technology, crisis management expertise, and skilled humanitarian reporters. These tools and assistance will help local media to produce and disseminate accurate news and information to meet the critical information needs of the impoverished and those in the midst of complex humanitarian crises.

"In a crisis situation—whether a complex emergency involving conflict or a natural disaster—the sooner an effective two-way flow of information can be established between the local population and those providing assistance, the sooner those affected by the crisis can become active participants in their own recovery," said Mark Frohardt, Internews' Director of Humanitarian Media.

Internews Network has successfully implemented projects to assist local information flows during emergency situations including those following the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia and Sri Lanka , the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan , the ongoing refugee and internal displacement situation in Eastern Chad as a result of violence in Sudan , and the May 2006 earthquake in Yogyakarta , Western Java, Indonesia.

In these crisis situations, Internews Network has worked with local media outlets and humanitarian agencies to serve displaced populations in a number of ways, including:

  • Providing emergency broadcasting equipment and infrastructure to help damaged media outlets, especially radio stations, return to producing and distributing information quickly and rebuild fully in the long-term
  • Distributing thousands of radios to displaced persons
  • Coordinating meetings and communications between relief organizations and local media, ensuring that local voices and concerns are informing international media coverage
  • Launching daily-distributed programming on relief, recovery and crisis news produced and reported by local journalists
  • Providing financial and material assistance to journalists whose livelihoods were disrupted by crises

Current and past funders of Internews' humanitarian media assistance activities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Chad include: USAID's Office for Disaster Assistance (ODA), USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI), the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and others.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

More on Internews' work with media in disasters


 
 
 
 
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