Short Takes from Internews

PAKISTAN REBUILDS AFTER THE QUAKE

MARK EDWARDS/STILL PICTURES/INTERNEWS In a tent camp in Muzaffarabad in northern Pakistan, earthquake refugees listen to Jazba A Tameer (“Desire to Rebuild”), a daily radio news show produced by Internews from the quake zone.

The devastation caused by the October 2005 earthquake is still extensive for Pakistanis months after the temblor destroyed villages and left 87,000 dead and 3.5 million people homeless. The victims of the earthquake were left without means to get reliable news about what was going on, what they should do, and when and where they could expect to find aid.

Immediately after the quake, Internews staff in Pakistan traveled to the affected areas to assess the media situation. Within a few weeks they began producing a daily hour-long radio program called Jazba A Tameer (“Desire to Rebuild”). To counter widespread rumors that the earthquake was a form of divine punishment, one of the first programs that Internews produced explained the science of earthquakes.

Internews Pakistan also advocated for increased licensing of FM stations and expanding press freedom laws to provide quake-affected areas with greater access to information.

Jazba A Tameer is funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development.

REPORTING ON AVIAN INFLUENZA

To gain a deeper understanding of the needs and constraints facing journalists when reporting on avian flu in their countries and to help improve reporting on the virus, Internews is conducting a needs assessment in several countries, including Indonesia, Nigeria, and Ukraine.

The assessment includes focus groups of print and broadcast journalists and interviews with local health experts.

PARTNERSHIP FOR HEALTH JOURNALISM

Media coverage of human health can have a big impact on health care and disease prevention. To build better health journalism in countries with the most acute public health crises, including HIV/AIDS, polio, malaria, tuberculosis and avian flu, Internews Network, Panos London and the International Center for Journalists have launched the pilot phase of the Health Journalism Partnership.

HJP tracks training and support for media coverage of health issues, analyzes programs, recruits new donors and makes small grants. In the pilot phase, HJP is making grants of up to $10,000 to journalist associations, media outlets, and media training groups that demonstrate the ability to improve and promote coverage of key health issues.

HJP is made possible by grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Open Society Institute.

RADIO NEWS FOR DARFURI REFUGEES

GEORGE PAPAGIANNIS/INTERNEWS On the main square in Iriba, eastern Chad, reporter Al Haram Oumar interviews a woman for Internews’ community radio programs that serve the refugee population from Darfur, Sudan.

From a 20-foot cargo container perched on cinderblocks in the middle of a frontier town in Chad, Radio Absoun is making a difference in the lives of tens of thousands of Sudanese who have fled the genocide in Darfur, and the lives of Chadians impacted by their arrival. The station broadcasts for six hours every day, covering issues from access to water and firewood, to information about health and refugee rights. The project is funded by USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

NURTURING SMALL MIDEAST MEDIA

VALERIE ROWLES/INTERNEWS Internews established the Open Media Fund for the Middle East and North Africa under a grant from the US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. The first grants have funded a Tunisian online media forum on human rights; training for newspaper page designers in Bahrain; and the first Kurdish-language independent newspaper to be published in Iraq’s Kurdish region.