Media Handbook for National Human Rights Institutions • Knowing what government, opinion leaders, business, civil society and others are saying about human rights issues and determining what response the NHRI should make • Using the information gathered to refine advocacy efforts, by identifying what needs to happen next and what messages need to be developed or refined. The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, through its Public Relations Division, constantly monitors local, regional and international news concerning the Commission and key human rights issues. Daily news updates are provided to the Commission’s Members and staff on issues relevant to the Commission and regional and international human rights bodies, as well as on key human rights issues. The secretariat of the Public Relations Division will also alert the Commission’s Members if there is a specific issue of immediate concern to the Commission and identify whether or how the Commission should publicly respond. Paid media monitoring services can track all mentions of the NHRI, a spokesperson or nominated key issues across all forms of media. While NHRIs may consider such services to be too costly, the staff time involved in monitoring mainstream media coverage and social media may be an inefficient use of internal resources. The benefits of paid media monitoring include: • Expert assistance with refining search terms to ensure relevant coverage • Regular email alerts and instant notification of breaking stories • The ability to create information-rich reports and charts. If a paid media monitoring services are not affordable or available, it is important to review all major newspapers daily and print out or cut out relevant articles, noting the name, date and page of the publication. Put the articles in a file folder organized by issue or chronologically. Google Alerts is a simple and free media monitoring tool. Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google search results of online news sources, based on selected search terms. Users can nominate words or phrases to be monitored and the frequency that email alerts are provided. Google Alerts can even track mentions on leading blogs and Internet sites. While Google Alerts is a useful tool for NHRIs and other human rights organizations, it does not provide a comprehensive media monitoring solution by itself. Once you have established a media monitoring program, whether paid or free, it is important to create process for distributing media clippings – or even a summary of key headlines – to NHRI Members and the management team on a daily basis. Media monitoring principles • Monitor all news stories, Letters to the Editor and Opinion Editorials on a daily basis. • Set up separate Google Alerts for your NHRI, your NHRI Members or spokespeople and key human rights issues. Make sure to include common misspellings for all search terms. • Keep refining your search terms to ensure the coverage received is relevant to your NHRI. (i.e. not too broad and not too specific). • Be aware that links to online news articles can expire or become inaccessible due to “paywalls”. Chapter 1: Working effectively with the media | 17