Media Handbook for National Human Rights Institutions Tips for developing human rights spots for radio and television • Have one key message. • Grab people’s attention immediately. • Repeat the main message as many times as possible. • Ask people to do something (e.g. visit a website or call a phone number). • Use language that is appropriate for the audience. • Have a presenter who is credible and respected by the audience. • Use a positive, rather than a negative, appeal. • Emphasize the solution as well as the problem. Developing “media ready” content for journalists It is imperative that NHRIs are aware of the changing media environment in their respective countries and the opportunities this provides to develop “media ready” content for news outlets, which are increasingly operating on smaller editorial budgets. Affordable, accessible and easy-to-use technologies – such as digital cameras, smart phones, video cameras, audio recorders and editing software – allow NHRIs to prepare broadcast-quality material for journalists to include in their reports, such as: • Video footage of a particular event or its aftermath • Video or audio interviews with human rights victims, experts or NHRI spokespeople • High-resolution images of people or events. This approach also provides NHRIs with a degree of editorial input that can further promote and protect human rights; for example, by ensuring that images taken of people who have experienced human rights violations are edited or shot in a way that protects their privacy and does not expose them to retaliation or further discrimination. While some journalists and editors will accept and use this material, others may be wary of accepting pre-packaged resources from NHRIs or other human rights groups. They may have justifiable concerns that the material provided is “biased” towards the NHRI’s advocacy or interests. To address these concerns, the NHRI should be “transparent about its aims, about the provenance of the material it is distributing and about the standards it uses in its own information-gathering.”13 13 Carroll Bogert, Human Rights Watch; Whose News? The Changing Media Landscape and NGOs; January 2011; p. 7. Chapter 2: Engaging with the media: Tools and strategies | 37