Stories from 7 October 2009
[Video] Interview with David Hoffman of Internews
David Hoffman is the founder and president of Internews, one of the first media development organizations. In this video David explains how Internews got its start by coordinating a two-way satellite link-up between Soviet youth in Moscow and Americans at the 1982 US Festival sponsored by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak. He goes on to describe more of the history of the media development field, how funders can both help and hurt, and the role of citizen journalism in media development and civic participation.
Drop-In Center: The Anti-Methadone Backlash
Pavel Kutsev, a leader of the harm reduction movement in Ukraine, writes about a war against substitution therapy programs, which includes banning methadone programs in municipal hospitals, anti-methadone campaigns in the mass media and police searches of methadone sites.
[Video] Interview with Ramsey Tesdell of 7iber.com
Ramsey Tesdell is the founder of 7iber.com, a citizen journalism community and training project based in Amman, Jordan. We met up with him at the Strengthening Independent Media program in Austria, which aims to map the new era of international media development. Ramsey explains the goals and activities of 7iber, his latest training efforts in Gaza, and the current state of donor investment in participatory media projects.
