Press ReleasesPutting Independent Media Front and CenterGlobal Forum for Media Development Hires Director, Establishes Secretariat
(July 20, 2007) The Global Forum for Media Development, a network of some 400 media assistance organizations from around the world, has established a global secretariat in Brussels. The newly appointed director, Bettina Peters (right), will work with GFMD members to highlight the importance of free, independent and viable media to human and economic development. "Media development has to become an integral part of overall development strategies, just like education or health. Too often, media assistance is relegated to communicating development goals or public relation exercises,” said Peters. “Our aim is to for media assistance to become a sector in its own right.” The GFMD is a practitioner-led process designed to be long-term and open to the community involved in media development around the world. It aims to bring greater linkages and sustainable impact to the work of the media development sector as a whole. Members range from organizations with international reach, such as the BBC World Trust or Internews Network, to national organisations, such as Media Rights Agenda in Nigeria or the Environmental Education Media Project in China. A major aim of the GFMD is to ensure that media assistance organizations from Asia, Africa, the Middle East/North Africa and Latin America are fully involved in the debate on media development strategies, defining objectives and analyzing the impact of media assistance programs. Peters is working with GFMD steering committee members to set up regional fora where these issues can be debated. A planning meeting for Asia will take place in Kathmandu, Nepal on September 18th and a Latin America regional forum is planned for the end of 2007 in Cartagena, Colombia. The GFMD will also tackle the issue of how to assess the media landscape in a given country and how to monitor the impact of media development programs on governance, democratic structures and development. The GFMD will develop a toolkit that media assistance organizations and policy makers can use to prepare targeted programs and to measure overall impact. Selected in May as GFMD director from among 35 candidates, Peters assumed her position full-time this month. Under her leadership, the GFMD has just secured funding from the Open Society Institute for GFMD advocacy and work on the toolkit. “We are thrilled to have found such a dynamic and capable director to take the GFMD to the next level,” said GFMD chairman David Hoffman, who is president of Internews Network. “There is lots to do to put media at the heart of the development agenda, but we believe that the GFMD can achieve its goal of becoming the platform where media assistance is developed, discussed and evaluated with input from around the world.” Peters has extensive experience in media assistance, capacity building and journalism training in Africa, Asia, Middle East and Eastern Europe. Before joining the GFMD, she worked for 11 years at the International Federation of Journalists and for five years at the European Journalism Centre. Currently, the GFMD secretariat receives funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Open Society Institute. The International Federation of Journalists is hosting the GMFD secretariat at its offices in Brussels. For more information on the work of the GFMD, contact: Bettina Peters |
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