Short Takes from Internews

FARROW, CLOONEY SPEAK ON DARFUR

JAY BRADY PHOTOGRAPHY, INC. “Voices of Darfur” featured, left to right, Motasim Adam, President, Darfuri People’s Association of New York; Gayle Smith, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; George Papagiannis, VP, Director, Darfuri Refugee Radio and Humanitarian Information Service, Internews; Nick Clooney, Journalist; Mia Farrow, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador; and moderator Tara Sonenshine, Media Consultant, US Institute of Peace and Internews.

“The mantra of my family is that with knowledge comes responsibility. Through my experience in Darfur, I came out a witness.” Award-winning actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow spoke from the heart about the tragedy of Darfur at an event sponsored by Internews and the Museum of Television and Radio (MTR) called “Voices of Darfur.”

Part of MTR’s “Media as Lens” series, the May event in New York focused on efforts to bring humanitarian news to Darfuri refugees. The panel also featured journalist Nick Clooney, who has visited Darfur with his son, actor George Clooney.

Internews’ George Papagiannis described Internews’ work in eastern Chad building community radio stations and training local journalists to provide news for the refugees.

“These people were meant to be silenced, but we’re changing that,” he said. “Every day that a refugee’s voice is heard on the air, it is telling the Janjaweed, ‘you have failed.’”

MEDIA MATTERS

The Global Forum for Media Development, which Internews helped establish, launched a new publication on international media assistance at an event in Washington, DC in May.

Media Matters is an authoritative collection of 30 articles, arguments and case studies from leading political scientists and media support professionals.

The event included remarks by Internews Network President David Hoffman, who chairs the GFMD steering committee. “We talk a lot about the information revolution,” he said. “In the West, we tend to think of it as the gadgets we carry around. But we have the potential to have a real information revolution now, in our lifetimes—to bring access to information to everyone on the planet. If you’re robbed of your voice and cannot speak, you’re robbed of your dignity.”

Following a year-long collaboration among media development practitioners and leading social, political and communications scientists, Media Matters presents core messages to policymakers on the central role of independent media in effective international development.

Media Matters was published by Internews Europe on behalf of GFMD.

PUTTING A HUMAN FACE ON HIV/AIDS

BENJAMIN KIPLAGAT/INTERNEWS Dolphine Emali, TV Production Specialist for Internews Kenya, films the launch of the television training component of Internews’ Local Voices project in Kenya.

In Kenya, where some 300 people die of HIV-related illnesses every day, no one is untouched by the impact of AIDS. Yet Kenyan television coverage is ineffective in conveying new information on the epidemic.

To address this problem, Internews Network has expanded its Local Voices project to train and mentor Kenyan television reporters, camera people and video editors in how to cover HIV/AIDS accurately and effectively. Trainees receive free access to state-of-the-art broadcast equipment at Internews’ new TV studio in Nairobi to help them produce quality programs on HIV/AIDS.

Internews unveiled its TV training plans in Nairobi in May. Warren Buckingham, Kenya Director for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and US Deputy Ambassador Pamela Slutz were speakers at the event.

Internews has four years of experience helping radio and print professionals in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia to expand and improve their coverage of HIV/AIDS. Internews’ Local Voices project is funded by grants from the US Agency for International Development through PEPFAR.