Internews

Internews Network,^[1] now Internews, is an international non-profit organization.

Formed in 1982, Internews Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization incorporated in California. It has worked in more than 70 countries and trained more than 80,000 people in media skills. It is a founding member of Internews International,^[2] an umbrella organization, based in Paris, of 30 associated non-governmental media organizations. Internews was founded by David M. Hoffman, Kim Spencer, and Evelyn Messinger.

Internews Europe is an independent media development organization, based in London, UK, and relying mainly on European funding.

In early 2015, Internews Network and Internews Europe began to integrate more closely and operate cooperatively with independent boards of directors.^[3]

Activities

Since inception, Internews has worked with 4,800 radio and television stations and print publications. Internews activities include:

Training. Internews trains 8-10,000 media professionals each year in journalism, production, and management. For more advanced students, Internews offers training in topics such as computer graphics, media law, and investigative journalism.

Production. To strengthen the independent media sector, Internews works with local media professionals to produce original programming. In 2008 this came to 8800 hours of television and radio programming.

Media infrastructure. Internews provides a broad range of infrastructure support to enable independent media to provide vital news and information, including providing journalists and stations with production equipment, creating production studios, and building radio stations from the ground up.

Media law and policy. To allow independent media to fulfill their “watchdog” function, Internews has worked for the adoption and implementation of fair media laws and policies in 21 countries.

As part of its work fostering independent media and access to information, Internews has developed special global programs in health journalism, environmental journalism through the Earth Journalism Network, humanitarian media, information and communications technology, and governance and transparency.

Internews Network is primarily supported by grants, with over 80 percent of their funding coming from the US government.^[4] According to the Internews 2011 999 filing, 100% of their funding comes from public sources, making them completely dependent upon government funding, meaning that none of the private funding sources cited below any longer support Internews. Funders have included the AOL-Time Warner Foundation, the Beagle Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Gregory C. Carr Foundation, the Coxe-Otus Fund, the Ford Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the GE Foundation, the Government of the Netherlands, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Science Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the RealNetworks Foundation, Rockefeller Financial Services, the United Nations Development Programme, the US Agency for International Development, the US Department of State, the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Foundation, and others.^[5] The US Agency for International Development and the US Department of State provide the overwhelming (99.98%) of funding for Internews operations per Internews 2009 990 filings.^[6]

Repressions

In April 2007 Russian police raided the office of the Educated Media Foundation, a section of Internews which trains journalists and fosters an independent media, as part of an investigation into its president, Manana Aslamazyan, who was accused of bringing too much cash into Russia from a visit to France.^[7] Russia's Constitutional Court ruled on May 26, 2008 that charges against Manana Aslamazyan were illegal. In line with the ruling, Russia’s Interior Ministry dropped the charges and a warrant for Aslamazyan’s arrest.^[8]

Internews Azerbaijan

Internews Azerbaijan opened its representative office in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1997. Internews produces its own television programs and distributes them free of charge to local stations. Internews also organizes training seminars and legal assistance for local journalists, and offers support to independent media outlets through loans of equipment such as cameras, editing systems and computers. While originally focused on assisting Azeri television stations, Internews Azerbaijan has recently expanded into print and radio. Working in partnership with local media outlets, Internews offers objective and unbiased information to people across the country.

Internews Azerbaijan Public Association (IAPA)

Internews Azerbaijan Public Association (IAPA) was officially registered by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Justice in May 2002. Until late 2004, IAPA worked primarily as a local partner of the American non-profit organization, Internews Network, implementing diverse media projects funded by USAID.Since January 2005, Internews Azerbaijan works independently as a local organization, designing and carrying out its own projects financed directly by a variety of U.S. and European funders. Today, Internews Azerbaijan is a self-sustainable and independent local organization that continues to work with the Azerbaijani media in an effort to contribute to their development and to the industry growth in the country. “Internews – Azerbaijan” is a Public Association with 35 staff. The organization aims offering support towards development and activity of media outlets operating in Azerbaijan at no cost, including broadcast, print and radio communication systems. The activity field is as well focused on education, culture and also science. The Internews-Azerbaijan is teamed up with highly qualified specialists possessing both professional and creative backgrounds/experience in mass media field.

Internews Pakistan

Internews Pakistan is training radio journalists and station managers in the standards and practices of professional journalism and assisting journalism curriculum development. It is also lobbying for media law and policy development all aimed at fostering a vigorous and diverse mass media as an essential cornerstone of a progressive society. Internews Network is implementing a media assistance program in Pakistan, supporting the fledgling non-government radio stations and other media-representative bodies with technical, editorial and management training.

Goals:

• Internews recognizes the efforts of the Government of Pakistan in opening up the broadcast media sector in particular and looks to strengthening this endeavor.
• Internews will engage key non-government media being built and strengthened so they may fulfill their new role as alternative voices in a country that is experiencing an open and plural media in the broadcast sector for the first time in its history.
• The overall goal of the Internews program is to ensure skilled, independent and financially viable media outlets exist, particularly in the broadcast sector, and are able to provide citizens of Pakistan with quality information and education programs.
• Internews assists the Pakistani broadcast media to serve as a principal conduit for dialogue, as the people increasingly seek to communicate with their local, provincial and national leaderships
• On its own and in collaboration with selected partners in Pakistan, Internews seeks to strengthen the technical competence of targeted media institutions to ensure their long-term sustainability through its program.
• The Pakistani broadcast sector, especially the private sector radio stations that have been issued licenses to operate, face the challenge of standardizing skills and strengthening their capacities to function effectively in the improving broadcast media environment.

Activities:

Internews is implementing a number of activities that will meet these urgent needs and is assisting the building of a viable independent media as Pakistan progresses in opening up its broadcast sector.

Internews activities that seek to address these challenges in Pakistan include:

• Technical support and hands-on training for journalists and radio stations.
• In-house mentoring for radio stations by international experts.
• Seminars and support for community radio.
• Legal resource assistance to the stakeholders, including the broadcast sector regulator, in improving the broadcast media environment.
• Technical and legal assistance to stakeholders in media policy development.

Through these undertakings, Internews will be playing an important role in helping improve the regulatory environment and the media broadcast sector in Pakistan.

Internews is an international organization that operates in about 40 countries to promote open media worldwide.^[9]

Internews Center for Innovation & Learning

Based in Washington, D.C. and operating globally, The Internews Center for Innovation & Learning experiments with, captures and shares innovative approaches to communication from around the world. The Center seeks to strike a balance between local expertise and global learning in order to develop a comprehensive approach to innovative information exchange. The success of Internews’ programs springs from the expertise of its local field teams and an innovation advisor in each region helps support local experimentation, research and learning. The Center has committed to capturing the technological discoveries of field offices to enrich the knowledge base of the international development community as a whole.^[10]

Recent projects of the Innovation Center with local partners around the globe include: text-message news reporting in Pakistan; pioneering "Radio over Internet Protocol" (ROIP) in Afghanistan; social media projects for Egyptian youth; crowd-sourced conflict resolution reporting and mapping in Kenya; and, the first-ever Twitter campaign to cover elections in Ukraine.

In its first year, the Center has deployed a team of regional new media advisors to explore digital tools and potential partnerships with local institutions. The advisors worked with project teams throughout Asia, Eastern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East on experimentation, adaptation, and customization. Information and analysis gathered from these pilot projects will be shared through an online information platform, research papers, and presentations to development practitioners and the wider public.

"The speed of new players and new technology entering the field of development is rapidly changing," said Bob Boorstin, Director of Corporate and Policy Communications for Google. "Internews has deep experience applying cutting-edge media tools and is extremely forward-thinking in sharing these solutions broadly." Google has supported the center with a challenge grant of $150,000 to jumpstart the Center's funding effort.

Internews' current Media Map project is the research cornerstone of the Center. In partnership with the World Bank Institute and the Brookings Institution and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Media Map project analyzes and publishes data on the interrelations between information access and outcomes in democracy and governance, economic growth, poverty reduction, human rights, gender equality, and health. Building from this foundation, Internews will seek support for the Center from a variety of private sources, including the technology sector, academic and research institutions, foundations, and individuals, to make the Internews Center for Innovation & Learning a dynamic public-private partnership that leverages resources and expertise to benefit communities throughout the world.^[11]

Leadership

Internews is led by Jeanne Bourgault. The Board of Directors includes senior leaders from media, business and government, such as Chris Boskin, Simone Otus Coxe, founder David Hoffman, Lorne Craner, Anja Manuel, and Cristiana Falcone Sorrell.^[12] National Security Adviser Susan Rice served on Internews' Board before rejoining the U.S. government.^[13]

References

External links

• Internews Network