LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

As our world becomes ever more complex and interconnected, access to information is playing an increasingly central role in every problem facing humanity. At the individual level, access to information allows people to make informed choices—to decide how to vote, to educate themselves on critical health issues, to get the market data they need to sell their products, and ultimately to participate in the global community. At the global level, ensuring people’s access to information and strengthening the voices of those who have been marginalized are essential elements of any solution to the most difficult issues of our time—reducing poverty, combating deadly diseases, resolving national, ethnic, and religious conflict, and working for human rights.

Internews’ work fostering independent media and promoting open communications policies fundamentally aims to empower people to participate in the social, political and economic development of their societies. For people to make their voices heard, they need the capacity to create and disseminate their own information. This is why Internews nurtures local radio and television stations in hundreds of cities and towns around the world, and why we train some 8,000 media professionals each year. It is why, in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, we teach local journalists, talk show hosts and disc jockeys how to cover HIV/AIDS rather than distribute programming we make ourselves. And it is why, in October, we organized the inaugural conference of the Global Forum for Media Development, a gathering of 425 media activists from 97 countries all dedicated to strengthening the movement for independent media.

To ensure that people have easy access to information, a legal and policy environment must be in place that guarantees the right to communicate privately, the freedom to express opinions publicly, and a regulatory framework that promotes multiple sources of news and information. This is necessary for both traditional media as well as newer channels of communication such as Internet blogs or cell phone text messaging. That is why, in transitional countries such as Afghanistan and Timor Leste, Internews works for media laws that protect the free flow of information and the rights of journalists. It is why, from Algeria to Vietnam, we work with regulators and businesses to ensure unrestricted and affordable access to the Internet and cell phones.

People everywhere want freedom, peace and prosperity. Information-rich societies will help turn this dream into reality.

DAVID HOFFMAN