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.
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, not 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 was founded in 2000, to work with radio stations in countries affected
by conflict and help improve their programming. It supports partner stations to
enable them to provide accurate and balanced information - and informed debate -
about key local issues.
This is done by training local journalists and making programmes with them. In some
cases, IRIN produces its own programmes, which are distributed to its partners for
broadcasting and are available online.
IRIN Radio gives a voice to vulnerable communities and provides them with information to make better-informed decisions about their own lives. We operate in East and Central Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa and Central Asia (Afghanistan). IRIN Radio produces high-quality programming in local languages on humanitarian issues, ready for broadcast by local stations. The service also provides hands-on training to journalists, developing their production and reporting skills, allowing local radio to serve communities more effectively.
It has worked with
over 80 radio stations in these countries, and has helped produce several hundred
news programmes that have been listened to by tens of millions of people.
Successful ventures include the production of a soap opera about life in a Burundian
refugee camp in Tanzania - which has been broadcast to both refugees and people
inside Burundi - and the development of national news-magazine programmes on Angolan
state radio.
film services
IRIN produced a short film in 2003 about the forgotten plight of people
terrorised by the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda, which was widely distributed
to the humanitarian community and the media on CD-ROM as part of advocacy efforts to highlight the situation.
In 2004, it established a permanent film unit based in Nairobi which now makes documentaries
to highlight under-reported issues and specific countries of concern.
Films produced so far have focused on issues such as: the crisis in Darfur, Southern
Sudan; the 2004 locust invasion of West Africa; sexual violence in the Democratic
Republic of Congo; female genital mutilation, opium cultivation in Afghanistan, cluster bombs and the fragile situation in Somalia.
Besides producing and distributing its own documentaries, IRIN also shoots news
footage of under-reported emergencies for distribution to the international media.
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 2422
Copyright information
Available at www.irinnews.org/copyright
Free e-mail subscriptions
Over 30,000 readers are subscribed to free, personalised e-mail delivery of IRIN material. For subscription, go to www.irinnews.org/SubscriberLogin or contact .
Evaluation reports, funding documents and surveys
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