Introducing the Minority Voices Newsroom – frontline new media meets marginalized communities
23 September 2010
Minority Rights Group International (MRG) launches today Minority Voices Newsroom, a pioneering online multimedia library that showcases the stories of minority and indigenous communities in developing countries and makes them available to the global media.
If you are a member of a minority or indigenous community, or a supporter, you can upload first-hand accounts, interviews, reports, pictures, and audio and video footage addressing issues of importance to you.
Journalists and others wishing to use these contributions or learn more can download and use the material from the website under Creative Commons licenses.
"One of the greatest obstacles faced by many minority and indigenous communities in their struggle to combat discrimination is their continuing invisibility," says Carl Soderbergh, MRG's Director of Policy and Communications. "This website allows journalists to investigate the situation of marginalized communities, even when these are living in the remotest areas."
The aim of Minority Voices Newsroom is to close the gap between journalists and minority and indigenous activists. The website is designed to enable journalists to identify stories quickly and develop useful media contacts - with a primary focus on minorities and indigenous peoples. Community activists and individuals can use this website to share their untold stories with the world's media. The communities featured on this website are some of the poorest and most disempowered, which otherwise have little or no opportunity otherwise to make their voices heard.
Cutting-edge web development is used to ensure that minority and indigenous activists who are sharing their material and journalists who are using it will find the website easy to use.
Please tell your colleagues about this exciting initiative and encourage them to participate. Together we can help the voices of minorities and indigenous peoples be heard in the media, and beyond.
MRG is a non-governmental organization working to secure the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide. We work with around 130 partner organizations in over 60 countries.
The Minority Voices Newsroom is just one of a number of ground-breaking initiatives by MRG that focus on empowering minority and indigenous communities. Alongside the website, we are providing community activists with the tools they need to disseminate their messages, including training in building websites, making films, using social networking tools, writing press releases and building lists of media contacts. The website and these courses have been made possible with the financial assistance of the European Union.
For more information contact:
Farah Mihlar
Media Officer
T: +44 (0) 207 422 4205
M: +44 (0) 7870 596 863
E: farah.mihlar@mrgmail.org