about IRIN services
IRIN's principal role is to provide news and analysis about sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia for the humanitarian community.
Photo: IRIN Radio  |
| IRIN Radio’s Somali journalism training workshop, Bossaso, Somalia, December 2009 |
The networks target decision-makers in relief agencies, host and donor governments, human-rights organisations, humanitarian advocacy groups, academic institutions
and the media. At the same time, IRIN strives to ensure that affected communities can also access reliable information, so they can take informed decisions about
their future.
IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) is part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, but
its services are editorially independent. Its reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations and its agencies, nor its member states.
Based in Nairobi, Kenya, IRIN was founded in 1995 to improve the flow of vital information to those involved in relief efforts in the Great Lakes region following the 1994
Rwandan genocide.
IRIN's area of geographical coverage has increased steadily since then. So too, have the range of subjects covered and the number of services offered.
The core news and analysis service is distributed free of charge to subscribers by e-mail, and via the website www.IRINnews.org.
This is now complemented by a range of other multimedia services:
PlusNews, a specialist news and analysis service on HIV/AIDS.
IRIN Radio, which is helping to develop the programming of radio stations in Africa and Afghanistan.
IRIN Film & TV, which produces short documentary films on humanitarian issues and news footage for media.
IRIN Photo provides a public gallery of photographs relevant to humanitarian crises. Print-quality photos can be downloaded free of charge.
IRIN has a growing worldwide readership of millions through these services.
Most of IRIN's output is in English, with a limited French service. PlusNews produces material in English, French and Portuguese. IRIN radio produces programmes on over a dozen languages. Plans for humanitarian news and analysis output in Arabic are well-advanced.
Areas covered by IRIN include parts of Asia, the Middle East and all of sub-Saharan Africa.
news & analysis
IRIN's reporting is underpinned by rigorous editorial standards. Strict controls are employed to ensure that its reports are accurate, fair, carefully sourced and
rich in perspective.
The regional desks in Nairobi, Johannesburg, Dakar and Dubai are staffed by experienced journalists, who travel frequently within the countries they cover
to report directly from the humanitarian frontline.
Their research and writing is supplemented by news reports and features from an extended network of staff in sub-offices and freelance correspondents in the field.
They give IRIN a permanent presence on the ground in every hot spot, and enable the networks to continue reporting directly from areas deemed too insecure for the
UN's international staff to visit.
Set up in 2003, the IRIN Analysis Unit examines key issues that often cut across national boundaries, by producing special in-depth reports and publications. Recently, these
have examined issues such as water crises, transitional justice, small arms and youth in crisis.
PlusNews, IRIN's HIV/AIDS news and analysis service
In 2001, IRIN saw the need for a specialist news service for people living with
HIV/AIDS in Africa and all those involved in fighting the pandemic - thus PlusNews was born.
PlusNews is edited by a specialist team of journalists in Johannesburg, and has its own website www.PlusNews.org.
The scope of PlusNews has been gradually extended to all countries and regions covered by IRIN and beyond. The service is now a recognised leader in HIV/AIDS-related
news and analysis. Since 2004, PlusNews has been available in French.
radio services
IRIN Radio produces a one-hour daily humanitarian programme containing original content in the Somali language, and broadcasts directly via short wave across Somalia and the Somali-speaking region and via local partner FM stations in Somalia. The programme consists of news, features, analysis, debate, drama and awareness-raising messages. IRIN’s local correspondents based throughout Somalia provide unique material from the ground and capture the voices and opinions of ordinary Somalis on issues of concern. The primary aim of the radio service is to enable Somalis to make better informed decisions about their lives and future. An independent audience survey conducted at the end of 2009 indicates that 71 per cent of Somalis listen regularly to the IRIN broadcasts. Information gathered by the radio service feeds into IRIN’s English language text reporting on Somalia, keeping the humanitarian community better informed. IRIN’s Somali programming is also available as a daily podcast.
film services
IRIN opened its Film Unit in 2003 with the aim of using film and video to shed light on humanitarian crises. Whether it be the consequence of conflict, poverty or natural disaster, the number of people affected globally by such crises keeps on rising.
Set against the background of a global economic crisis that has hit media houses and broadcasters hard and has resulted in relentless cost-cutting by private sector media, the world’s poor are slipping further off the global agenda.
To date, IRIN Films has produced more than 50 films. Varying in length from three to 45 minutes, these films have tackled issues ranging from the changing face of HIV to violence against women; from the human cost of climate change to the curse of unexploded cluster bombs in southern Lebanon.
Utilizing one or two person teams and digital technology, IRIN Films are produced at a fraction of the cost of mainstream media productions and are distributed free of charge to broadcasters, humanitarian agencies and advocacy groups.
Over the course of the last few years IRIN Films has forged partnerships with a number of broadcasters throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia who regularly air IRIN Films to supplement their coverage of world events.
Photo services
To complement its text services, IRIN has provided high-quality photographs to its humanitarian partners and the media through the creation of IRIN Photo in 2005. Alongside its news services, IRIN makes its photos available free of charge (mainly to non-profits) to enhance awareness of humanitarian needs and response and to encourage greater media coverage of forgotten and under-reported crises. IRIN photos are used widely by news websites, print publications, NGOs, blogs and UN organisations.
Contact Information
For further information, please send an e-mail or telephone the IRIN offices in:
Nairobi: +254 20 762 2147
Geneva: +41 22 917 1135
New York: +1 917 367 9228
Copyright information
Available at www.irinnews.org/copyright
Free e-mail subscriptions
Awards and prizes
In April 2009, an IRIN film, "A Cleaner Fix" was awarded Best Documentary at the International Drugs and Harm Reduction Film Festival. "A Cleaner Fix" takes a close-up look at HIV/AIDS and drug use in Indonesia, through locally-run interventions such as needle exchange programmes.
In the same month, four of five UN prizes for humanitarian reporting in Somalia went to IRIN's radio correspondents based in Mogadishu, Bosasso, Dusamarreb and Baidoa. Their individual entries on child rights, FGM, health in IDP camps and vulnerable children, were all programmes broadcast on IRIN's short wave radio service for Somalia.
In August of 2008, the Gender and Media (GEM) Awards honoured two IRIN PlusNews journalists, Kristy Siegfried and Kanya Ndaki, for their work on “sustained reporting on a particular issue” - in this case microbicides and HIV prevention trials in Southern Africa and “best practice HIV/AIDS reporting”. This year’s gender and media awards attracted 62 entries.
In October, IRIN photographer Julius Mwelu received the Young Reporter’s Award at the Bayeux-Calvados international awards for his photos of post-election violence in Kenya in early 2008.
In May he won first prize in the 2008 Friends of the Earth International Dreams, Hopes and Possibilities for a Better Future photo competition. His winning photo, entitled Building Towards the Future, shows a boy planting a flower after taking a swim in a pond in Kibera, a Nairobi slum.
In April, IRIN films received the Czech Republic Environment Minister’s Award for Slum Survivors - reality in Nairobi's Kibera - October 2007 at the festival TUR Ostrava.
In 2006, IRIN PlusNews journalist Kanya Ndaki received the GEM Award for the best print feature on gender and AIDS for South Africa: Virginity testing - absence of a small tissue becomes big issue.
In 2006, IRIN films received the third prize for Deadly Catch: Lake Victoria’s AIDS crisis - November 2005 from the Stories from the Field Film Festival, the annual UN Documentary Film Festival.
In the same year, IRIN films was also an official selection in the Jackson Hole Film Festival and Bologna Human Rights Festival. PlusNews received the Golden Lamp Award for Best Media Depiction.
In 2005, IRIN films was awarded the first prize for Our Bodies... their battleground: Gender-based Violence during Conflict - September 2004 from Stories from the Field Film Festival, the annual UN Documentary Film Festival.
In 2002, IRIN director Pat Banks received the UN 21 Award in recognition of an exceptional contribution in improving efficiency in the UN.
Evaluation reports, funding documents and surveys
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