Providing News for Quake Survivors
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
F A L L 2 0 0 6 Pakistan, looking back a year after the earthquake Providing News for Quake Survivors hen Pakistan’s worst natural Within days of the disaster struck on October 8, quake Internews organ- 2005, over 80,000 died—in- ized a team of radio re- W cluding 30,000 children in porters from the North classrooms. More than 100,000 West Frontier Province to were injured, and 3.5 million produce comprehensive lost their homes. coverage of the humanitar- With transmitters down and radios ian situation and the relief lost in the rubble, survivors had little effort, helping people to access to credible information. Rumors make critical decisions were rampant. Many in cut-off moun- about their future. The DAVID SWANSON/IRIN DAVID tain villages realized too late that their journalists had received © best hope for survival would have been extensive training from A year after a powerful earthquake devastated northern Pakistan, some 100,000 still to trek out, their wounded on their Internews over more than live in tent camps as another winter approaches. Families like Nadia’s (above) continue backs, as bad weather meant no heli- two years in field reporting to rely heavily on radio news to stay informed about relief and reconstruction efforts as they rebuild their shattered lives. copters were coming to rescue them. continued on page 6 IN THIS ISSUE From firewood collection to Barack Obama FOCUS: HUMANITARIAN MEDIA Refugees from Darfur Get Their Own Radio Stations Short Takes: Clinton, Katrina, and Carlos ........2 hen fighting broke out in a re- station that serves refugees from Darfur gion of northeastern Chad and as well as the local Chadian popula- Q and A with Mark Frohardt ...........................3 medical staff were evacuated tion, let people know not to take their Editorʼs Note: Humanitarian Media .................3 W from a local hospital, Radio wounded there. Absoun, a community radio When relief agencies urged refugees Photo Essay: Local Media in Disasters .............4 to use solar cookers instead of hunt- ing for scarce firewood, Radio Absoun Rebuilding Media After the Tsunami ...............7 covered the story. The station’s report- Yogyakarta Station Fills Information Void .......7 ing helped refugees to voice their con- cerns—including objections that the Internews Turns 25! .......................................8 cooking did not taste as good without the smoke flavor—but also made them more aware that firewood collection was causing environmental damage GEORGE PAPAGIANNIS/INTERNEWS GEORGE and increasing tensions with local On a visit to Chad, US Senator Barack Obama was interviewed Chadians. by reporter Issaka Allafouza (left) for La Voix du Ouaddaï, one of INTERNEWS three radio stations Internews is building for Darfuri refugees. continued on page 6 S HORT T AKES FROM I NTERNEWS HEALTH TEAM JOINS CARLOS PASCUAL ON A I D S C O N FERENCE INTERNEWS BOARD The pivotal role of the news media Carlos Pascual has joined Internews in reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS Network’s Board of Directors. Pascual was the focus of an Internews delega- is Vice President and Director of the tion to the 2006 International AIDS Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Conference in Toronto, Ontario in Brookings Institution. August. Attended by some 20,0000 Pascual joined Brookings after a 23-year career in the US Department of State, the National Security CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE Council, and the US INTERNEWS AT Agency for International Development (USAID). CLINTON MEETING At the Department Former National Security Advisor of State, Pascual served Sandy Berger highlighted Internews’ as Coordinator for Humanitarian Media Assistance Project Reconstruction and at the Clinton Global Initiative in New Stabilization, leading US York in September. Berger presented a government planning to certificate to Internews Network Chief help reconstruct societies Operating Officer Jeanne Bourgault. in transition from con- CGI is an invitation-only, non-par- flict or civil strife. His tisan endeavor that joins leaders from a work focused on Sudan range of disciplines to devise innovative and Haiti, and creating solutions to global challenges. CARLA CARTER-HOPWOOD a capacity for civilian Internews made a commitment to Members of the Internews health journalism team working in India, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Thailand and the US participated in the 2006 International AIDS agencies to prevent and CGI to implement a humanitarian Conference in Toronto in August. Internews held a roundtable discussion on “African News respond to conflict. He media assistance program that builds Media and HIV/AIDS” with the World Bank. previously served as on its experience helping local media to Ambassador to Ukraine. provide critical information to popula- researchers, health experts, NGOs and tions affected by disaster. Internews is activists, the conference is the world’s MARKING K A T R I N A seeking funding partners to achieve this most important annual gathering deal- IN NEW ORLEANS commitment. ing with this critical health issue. In partnership with the World Bank, FIREBOMBED S T A T I O N Internews held a special roundtable WILL BE REBUILT discussion on “African News Media and HIV/AIDS.” Recognizing that At 2:30 a.m. on August 11, some- stigma and lack of information in one threw a firebomb through the sub-Saharan Africa deter many people window of Radio Istiqlal, a community from finding out their HIV status or radio station in Logar, Afghanistan. seeking treatment, the session explored Though no one was seriously hurt, the treatment of HIV/AIDS in African nearly all the equipment was destroyed. OLGA KRAVTSOVA/INTERNEWS RUSSIA Radio Istiqlal is one of 32 indepen- news media and offered suggestions for On the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Maxim Voronin African journalists’ engagement with from the TV station TV-2 in Tomsk, Russia filmed in New Orleans’ dent, Afghan-operated stations built HIV/AIDS issues. Lower Ninth Ward. Voronin was part of a group of five promising by Internews throughout Afghanistan At the conference, Internews also young Russian television journalists who toured several US cities under grants from USAID and Pact. provided daily online news updates in a 40-foot long mobile production studio. The journalists also Internews is helping the station to re- made an appearance on CBS’ The Early Show. The tour was place its lost broadcasting equipment from developing country journalists organized by Downtown Community Television Center in New who attended the conference. York, Internews Network, and Internews Russia. and to rebuild in a safer location. 2 Q and A with Mark Frohardt ark Frohardtʼs sixteen-year career in What are humanitarian relief has led him to coor- some of the dinate health services for refugees on the roles media play in a M Thai-CambodianM border; work for Doctors humanitar- According to the Red Cross, "Information Without Borders in Chad and the United ian crisis? Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Sudan bestows power. Lack of information can In the im- and Somalia; assist with the repatriation of Kurds LAURA STEIN/INTERNEWS mediate make people victims of disaster . People into northern Iraq after the first Gulf War; consult in aftermath Mark Frohardt, Humanitarian Media Director for Internews Network need information as much as water, food, Sarajevo during the Bosnian war; and manage UN of a natural human rights field operations in Rwanda following disaster, medicine or shelter. Information can save lives, the genocide. Frohardt, who joined Internews in people only know what they can see livelihoods and resources." 1999, serves as Africa Regional Director and Humani- of their immediate surroundings. Broadcast media, particularly radio, tarian Media Director. can provide a critical assessment of the This issue extent and severity of the crisis for the What drives your interest in using entire community. This helps families of Internews HUMANITARIAN media in crisis situations? to decide whether to pack up and move Report focuses MEDIA My initial interest arose from seeing or hunker down. how the lack of information in a com- on Internewsʼ Local media can play a key role in in- plex emergency could have enormous forming the response and the process work enabling negative consequences for people af- of reconstruction. Reporters who have fected by the crisis. local media to provide essential information been covering the community for years In a crisis situation, the sooner an ef- are well-placed to create a forum for during humanitarian crises, including the fective two-way flow of information discussion, giving voice to the commu- Asian tsunami in December 2004 (page 7), the can be established between the local nity in the reconstruction process. population and those providing assis- To what extent do relief agencies rec- massive earthquake in Pakistan one year ago tance, the sooner those affected by the ognize the role of media in disasters? crisis can become active participants in (page 1), the ongoing refugee crisis in Darfur Humanitarian organizations often find their own recovery. (page 1), and the May earthquake in Western it easier to communicate through con- In a crisis, isn’t media support a luxu- trolled information campaigns rather Java, Indonesia (page 7). ry compared to food and shelter? than local media, whom they perceive It is not a zero-sum game. Support for as overly focused on the problems in In a crisis, relief and recovery is most effective local media doesn’t detract from hu- assistance delivery. manitarian response; accurate informa- Support for local media can help when those affected by the disaster and tion dramatically improves the delivery reporters better understand the com- of assistance. the relief agencies that serve them receive plexities of delivering aid in an emer- Information abhors a vacuum. So the gency and form more constructive accurate, relevant information. Local media absence of reliable broadcasts or other relationships with humanitarian agen- can play a vital role as a two-way channel forms of information coming from cies.