Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions NHRIs can use media coverage to pursue a range of interconnected goals, including: • Exposing systemic discrimination or human rights violations and building community awareness of the issues • Challenging negative stereotypes that exist within the community, particularly in relation to vulnerable or marginalized groups • Advocating for changes to laws, policies and practices and explaining why this is necessary • Encouraging the public to take action on a particular issue or to contribute to the work of the NHRI. An NHRI – be it new or established – may also seek media coverage to explain its role, functions and priorities to the community. For example, it can describe the type of human rights complaints it is able to receive, how individuals can make a complaint and the process it follows to resolve those complaints. Regular media coverage can also help strengthen the reputation of the NHRI within the community as an independent, authoritative and trustworthy contributor to public discussions and debate. While the media plays a central role in reflecting and shaping community values, it is important to recognize that it is only one part of a complex system of social exchange that contributes to social and attitudinal change. In other words, while the media can raise issues, tell stories and promote public debate, media coverage can only do so much to change the “hearts and minds” of individuals and communities. As such, NHRIs should see media engagement as one part of a broader, integrated human rights education programme. Photo by Helmand PRT Lashkar Gah is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. vi | Introduction for users