Media development action with informed and engaged societies
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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Minority Voices Newsroom

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Launched in September 2010 by the international non-governmental organisation (NGO) Minority Rights Group International (MRG), Minority Voices Newsroom is an online multimedia library that showcases the stories of minority and indigenous communities in developing countries and makes these stories available to the global media. The website is designed to enable journalists to identify stories and develop useful media contacts - with a focus on minorities and indigenous peoples.
Communication Strategies

Members of a minority group or an indigenous community, or their supporters, can - after having completed a free registration process - upload first-hand accounts, interviews, reports, pictures, and audio and video footage addressing issues of importance to them. Journalists and others wishing to use these contributions or learn more can then download and use the material from the website under Creative Commons licenses. The idea is that community activists and individuals - even those in very remote areas - can use this website to share their untold stories with the world's media so that journalists can investigate their situation. According to MRG, the communities featured on this website are some of the economically poorest and most disempowered, who otherwise have little or no opportunity to make their voices heard.

Development Issues

Rights, Media Development.

Key Points

The Minority Voices Newsroom is part of a 3-year development and training project being run by MRG that also involves: providing community activists with training in building websites, making films, using social networking tools, writing press releases, and building lists of media contacts. The overall aims of the Minority Voices programme are to increase the inclusion of minority and indigenous peoples' perspectives in the European Union (EU) media, particularly in coverage of development issues relating to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and increase awareness among development policymakers of the specific needs of minority and indigenous communities in meeting the MDGs.

Partners

Funding provided by the European Union.

Sources

"Introducing the Minority Voices Newsroom - Frontline New Media Meets Marginalized Communities", press release, sent from Mohamed Matovu to Soul Beat Africa on September 23 2010; and Minority Voices Newsroom, February 8 2011.

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