IRIN Evaluation Report - March 2003
by Graham Mytton & Sharon Rusu

Domestic (IRIN Coverage Areas)

33. Some local media in areas where IRIN is active make little or no use of its services, at least not directly. In Kenya, for example, the three major local media - KBC, the Daily Nation and East African Standard appear to use IRIN rarely, if at all. The BBC Swahili Service, whose target audience is the Swahili speaking population of East Africa, seems to be the same, even though other parts of the BBC make extensive use of IRIN.
34. The Kenyan media and the BBC Swahili Service staff in Nairobi are chiefly interested Kenyan and East African stories. IRIN is not viewed as a major source for such stories by these media. Senior editorial staff at both Kenyan daily papers confirmed that IRIN was seldom used. One of them conceded without much enthusiasm that IRIN 'might be useful on a poor news day'. Both newspapers were interested in some of the topics covered by IRIN -food security in countries in the Horn, for example, and items about refugees and conflict in the Horn, especially as these affected Kenya. But for the most part they relied on Reuters and AP. For emergency and humanitarian stories they tended to call the appropriate UN agency direct. One BBC Swahili reporter conceded that IRIN did sometimes have useful stories on the Great Lakes region. But, he said, IRIN was in his experience, 'often out of date'. This opinion is quite widespread among both regular and occasional users and is a point that is returned to later.
35. The view of the editor of the BBC Somali service was very different. For him and his colleagues, IRIN was a very important source, perhaps the single most important one for news of the Horn, and was used every weekday. The Somali language service provided by the BBC is probably the most widely listened to radio service heard throughout Somalia.

    'Any loss of IRIN would be difficult to replace. It is indispensable for Somali news and very good also for other areas. IRIN is reporting many stories that others never would have. Even when it speculates it is more reliable than other Somali sources. The only problem is that it is sometimes a day late.' Editor BBC Somali Service.

36. Channel Africa's Swahili service, in contrast to that of the BBC, makes significant use of IRIN especially for DRC and Great Lakes news. Channel Africa uses IRIN as a news agency. Similarly two Zambian editors of privately owned independent papers said that having IRIN was as good as subscribing to a wire service. Neither can afford to subscribe to any commercial wire service, although both receive PANA via the Ministry of Information. Both of them appreciated the humanitarian focus - it was the right tone for the region and its press.
37. Another Zambian journalist when asked to describe IRIN, gave a definition very close to IRIN's stated intention. The focus, he said, 'is on the human factor in development and in the crises and problems of poverty and deprivation.' IRIN tries to answer the question: 'What happens to people's lives as the result both of developments and cut backs?' The human factor is always emphasised and he appreciated that kind of journalism.

    Domestic (Other Areas)

38. A BBC correspondent working in the same office responsible for reporting from East Africa, mainly to audiences in the UK in English, said that she used IRIN a lot. Several recent BBC TV and radio stories, involving on the spot investigation, filming and/or recording have been instigated by stories first reported by IRIN. One example given of this was the story first run by IRIN about the volcanic eruption near Goma in the DRC. This had led to on the spot coverage on both TV and radio the next day from a BBC East Africa correspondent who had flown to Goma after seeing the story on IRIN. The foreign news editor of the Swiss Basler Zeitung typically scans the weekly emails in her email inbox and looks at IRIN archives on the web when working on a humanitarian story concerning Africa.
39. She did not use the Central Asian material, and it was noticeable that this category of IRIN coverage was only rarely referred to by the media users we contacted. This may be because of the media included in this study, and it may also arise from the fact that this service is still relatively new.

    GAPS/Geographic Distribution

40. Many users spoke of IRIN's unique coverage of many areas, but some also wanted more:

    'IRIN is where we cannot be. They do not cover some areas very often - Lesotho for example. They could look at what has been under-represented and look for gaps that could be filled.' South African journalist

41. Some regard IRIN's coverage as uneven. Most praise was given to stories on the DRC, Sudan and the Horn, while many would like more comprehensive coverage of some other areas. One editor thought that IRIN should extend coverage to North Africa in order 'to complete the African picture'.
42. Some said that the motivations that had led to the establishment of IRIN applied equally in areas that it did not at present cover. Examples given included Iraq, Chechnya, Indonesia, Central America, Kosovo, and the Caucasus. If IRIN provides humanitarian news that other news agencies usually don't cover, this should apply to all such stories not only those from Africa and Central Asia.

    Lack of Awareness of IRIN

43. There are many problems to be overcome if IRIN is to be used more. These mainly have to do with three problems or barriers. The first is the lack of knowledge or awareness of IRIN's existence and availability among many in the media. The second is the problem of gaining access to IRIN, dependent as it mostly is on access to email and/or the Internet. The third barrier or problem is the lack of awareness among many users of IRIN of the different ways in which they can receive it.
44. The Zambian Institute of Mass Communication (ZAMCOM) is the country's top media skills training centre, and it has a good reputation for training in a broad range of relevant communications and journalism skills. Its new Zambian Director had recently been teaching journalism teaching at Durban University. He had not heard of IRIN. ZAMCOM is where most Zambian journalists go for training. It is very well placed to promote IRIN to Zambian and other journalists who are trained there. Another training institute of growing importance is the University of Zambia's Department of Mass Communications. The most senior journalism lecturer there had also not heard of IRIN. Some active promotion to journalism training centres, especially in areas where IRIN reports, would pay dividends.
45. Awareness of IRIN is also not helped by the fact that in neither Nairobi nor Johannesburg is IRIN seen as part of the local media scene. IRIN journalists are not generally invited to the same events that other journalists are invited to. Awareness of IRIN as a legitimate and active news source would perhaps be improved if they were more a part of the press community.

Continued?

Top of the Page?