Internews Report - Fall 2006 - Humanitarian Media

After Tsunami, Internews Rebuilds Media in Aceh and Sri Lanka

    Photo:Staff member reads a newspaper with others working at terminals in the background
WAYNE SHARPE /INTERNEWS
The groundbreaking Peuneugah Aceh (News from Aceh) radio program was produced by a team of Indonesian journalists in a production studio Internews built in Banda Aceh.

The Asian earthquake and tsunami that struck on December 26, 2004 was one of the deadliest catastrophes in modern history. It killed some 230,000 people and left countless homeless.

The disaster also devastated the media sector in affected countries just at a time when survivors urgently needed information about the extent of the damage and the relief effort. Radio antennas and transmitters were washed away, printing presses smashed. Many journalists were killed or injured.

The Indonesian province of Aceh was one of the hardest-hit areas. Internews, which had been working with Acehnese journalists for six years, immediately flew in a radio team and a “suitcase radio station” to the remote province. Within two weeks of the tsunami, the only radio station back on the air, Suara Aceh (Voice of Aceh), was set up with a suitcase radio station to allow them to extend their reach beyond the capital.

Photo: radio station staff gather around a table
JONATHAN WITCHELL/INTERNEWS
In Sri Lanka, building on its post-tsunami work, Internews launched the Media House in Matara to ensure that Sri Lankan media include the voices of communities isolated from Colombo.
    

Using a team of Acehnese and Javanese journalists, Internews then began producing a daily radio program, Peuneugah Aceh (News from Aceh), which broadcast news of reconstruction to an estimated one million people through September 2006.

Internews’ reconstruction work in Aceh was funded by USAID, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the UK’s Department for International Development, and HIVOS.

Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka, with a grant from USAID, Internews trained journalists in field-based reporting, a ground-breaking format for Sri Lankan radio, and set up mobile production units in tsunami-affected areas. These units produced the only comprehensive radio program that told the story of the reconstruction through the voices of those affected.

This daily 40-minute program, produced in both Tamil and Sinhalese, was a dramatic new step for Sri Lankan media, which have usually ignored voices from the regions outside Colombo. A survey conducted by USAID showed that the project significantly improved listeners’ understanding of the issues affecting them.