Press Releases

Internews, CSIS Host Event on Media‘s Critical Role in Emergency Response

Photo: Internews Network A radio repairman in a refugee camp in Chad.

(March 22, 2005) Broadcasting information about sources of water and food or helping refugees reunite with family members are some of the ways that media can assist in emergency response and conflict situations. Speaking from experience working in Indonesia, Sudan, Rwanda, Chad, Somalia, Bosnia, Iraq, and other countries, Mark Frohardt and Kathleen Reen discussed the constructive role that media play in disaster situations at an event hosted by Internews and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on February 25 in Washington, DC.

Mark Frohardt, Internews Regional Director for Africa, recently returned from visiting Sudanese refugee camps in Chad where he is developing a community radio project to meet critical information needs. He touched upon issues that refugees must face in conflict situations such as whether to remain in place or flee a location, and whether to separate from or remain with their families.

Following the Indian Ocean tsunami, Kathleen Reen, Internews Regional Director for South and Southeast Asia, spent much of this year in the Indonesian province of Aceh, working with local journalists and international relief agencies to establish emergency media communications. She discussed issues affecting distressed populations there, including access to information on food, shelter and potable water.

“Engaging local media in the gathering and dissemination of critical information ensures an active and informed participation of affected populations in their own recovery,” said Frohardt.

The speakers emphasized that local media, as opposed to outside media, are most effective in emergency situations because of their ability to provide information in an appropriate cultural context. Media can also help increase the effectiveness of international humanitarian relief efforts, the speakers noted.

The discussion was moderated by Bathsheba Crocker, Co-Director of CSIS’s Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project, which explores the needs of societies emerging from armed conflict, identifies gaps within current capabilities of the international community, and works to improve the efforts of key actors involved in post-conflict operations.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Mark Frohardt, Internews Regional Director Africa

Kathleen Reen, Internews Regional Director South and Southeast Asia

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)