MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release
30 August 2006
PNG MEDIA COUNCIL GIVES FUNDING SUPPORT TO CIVIL SOCIETY
Ten civil society and NGO groups from around the country have successfully secured funding assistance of five hundred thousand kina through the Media for Development Initiative (MDI), an AusAID funded project managed by the Media Council of PNG.
The organisations, including Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA)-Goroka Branch, Education Milne Bay Ltd, and Family & Sexual Violence Action Committee-Southern Highlands signed agreements in Port Moresby last week.
The grants, ranging from K35,000 to K70,000, will be used to make high quality, locally produced program content available to media networks and community groups at minimal cost, and will address issues of governance, gender, health, HIV and AIDS, agriculture development, rural environment, child care, and law & justice.
President of the PNG Media Council, Peter Aitsi, said he was pleased with the progress of the Media Development Initiative.
“We are particularly pleased with the response to the project from the various stakeholders that we have initially engaged. However we are mindful the project has really just started, having been in operation for just over one year, and this is the first step as we fund these 10 projects; and the task for all of us is to ensure their successful outcome.”
A community grants funding mechanism is established in which media and civil society organisations are encouraged to submit proposals for activities under the four target areas.
Head of AusAID in PNG, Margaret Thomas, emphasised the importance of the media in the pursuit of good governance, stating that: “The goal of the MDI is to support an open and democratic media that gives voice to all Papua New Guinean citizens, provides nationwide access to information and culture and delivers development content for the benefit of the people. The main aim of MDI is to assist in addressing development and governance challenges through improved media: access; content; and voice”.
Media contact: Anna Awasa, Media & Communications Ph:693 1097 or 325 9333 ext 304
Notes to Editor
• The Media for Development Initiative is a 5-year project funded under the Australian-PNG development assistance program.
• Component 1 of the MDI program involves Media Capacity Building Activities that focus on four target areas which are: Improved Program Content, Rural Networks and Innovations, Media Research and Analysis and Learning and Development.
• Component 1 is managed by the Media Council of PNG and Component 2 involves an assistance partnership package between the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Organisations that received funding under MDI’s Improved Program Content function are:
• Partners with Melanesians
• Young Women’s Christian Association-Goroka Branch
• AT Projects
• Transparency International- PNG
• Nala Times
• Foundation for Rural Development
• CDI Foundation Trustee
• Education Milne Bay Ltd
• New Ireland Vanilla growers Association
• Family & Sexual Violence Action Committee-Southern Highlands.