Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions Encourage people to act: If there is something people can do to promote or protect human rights, ask them to do it. Find simple ways to connect people to the NHRI, to partner organizations or to events taking place within their local communities. In a crowded media space, repetition is the key to ensuring that a message is heard and, ultimately, acted upon. Media engagement to promote human rights awareness cannot be a oneoff event. It requires consistent promotion, across multiple media outlets, over a sustained period of time. UN Photo by Devra Berkowitz. 2.2. WRITING AND DISTRIBUTING MEDIA RELEASES A media release – also known as a “press release” or “news release” – remains one of the most effective ways of providing information to journalists about an upcoming event or a newsworthy issue. A media release should clearly outline the “who”, “what”, “when”, “where”, “why” and “how” of a story. Hundreds of media releases will land a journalist’s desk every day so it is crucial to make sure that yours is written in a way that quickly grabs his or her attention. In other words, make it newsworthy. Your media release should be arranged so that the most important information is at the start, followed by supporting information or quotes. There is no guarantee that a journalist will read your release from start to finish – so communicate the key points quickly. Media releases follow a standard format, outlined below.11 11 The following template is included in “How to: Write a killer press release”, developed by Friends of the Earth; available at www. foe.co.uk/resource/how_tos/cyw_64_press_release.pdf. 20 | Chapter 2: Engaging with the media: Tools and strategies