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After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Play the Game for Open Journalism

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In 2008, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the sports political institution Play the Game joined forces to launch a telephone helpline and website to support thousands of foreign journalists reporting on the Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Play the Game for Open Journalism is an online effort to provide resources, counsel, and a platform for discussion amongst journalists seeking to encourage democracy, transparency, and freedom of expression in world sport. The purpose of this initiative is to draw upon the window of opportunity provided by the Beijing Olympics for foreign journalists, who - reportedly for the first time - have been granted the right to work freely without interference from Chinese authorities.
Communication Strategies

Play the Game for Open Journalism is an information and communication technology (ICT)-based endeavour to support reporters in their quest to communicate openly with the public. The Play the Game for Open Journalism website offers a variety of types of information to journalists. For example, various reporters' guides available here - such as those produced by the Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) and Human Rights Watch - are designed to provide practical guidance, inform journalists of their rights, provide tips for countering internet censorship, and so on. This website also offers links to online resources designed for journalists interested in particular human rights issues raised by sporting "mega-events" like the Olympics, such as the violation of housing rights that residents in event sites may experience (e.g., through forced evictions), the increase in demands for prostitution and other forms of exploitation that may be stimulated, and the privacy concerns raised by new surveillance technologies meant for security purposes.

This initiative is also interactive. Online fora intend to initiate discussion, debate, and dialogue on the role of the media in China during and after the Beijing Olympics 2008. And the project's telephone helpline (available by contacting Ida Relsted Kærup at 8615010751408 through August 24 2008) provides emergency assistance to journalists who find themselves facing pressure from the authorities because of their work. Also, journalists with news of media rights violations were invited to contact the IFJ's Beijing media rights monitor (Serenade Woo at 86 150 108 48490).

Development Issues

Rights.

Partners

IFJ and Play the Game.

Sources

Global Voices website; Play the Game for Open Journalism website; and emails from Jens Sejer Andersen and Stine Alvad to The Communication Initiative on August 15 2008 and October 6 2008, respectively.

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