Founding Partners

Internews Network

Internews Network, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that seeks to enhance tolerance and understanding by supporting non-governmental media in emerging democracies, by building politically independent networks of communication, by promoting respect for ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, and by encouraging these values in the reporting of news. The organization was founded in 1982 and incorporated in 1986 in the state of California. In 1997 Internews decentralized its organization to 14 national media organizations, operating under the umbrella of Internews International.

Internews currently operates programs in 19 countries, which promote democratic societies and conflict resolution through citizen dialogues, media production, distribution, training and infrastructure building. In East Europe and the former Soviet Union, Internews has trained over 7,000 television journalists and station managers, granted start-up and production equipment, and supported the formation of ten independent national television networks combining 120 non-governmental stations from Minsk to Vladivostok. It also produces programs for US and European broadcast, such as the Vis � Vis series on PBS and other pioneering interactive programs.

Independent Television Service (ITVS)

A pioneer in public media for under-served audiences, ITVS was created in 1988 by an Act of Congress in response to the lack of diverse programming and viewpoints in public television. ITVS works exclusively with independently-produced programs—programs that engage creative risks, advance issues and represent points of view not usually seen on television—to expand civic participation by bringing new voices and expressiveness into the public discourse.

In its first decade, ITVS producers have created more documentary programming than any other public broadcasting station or production group in America and have won every major journalism and documentary award in the process. With award-winning narratives, children's programs, mixed-genre pieces and interstitial shorts, ITVS has also become well-known for its reinvention of documentary for television.

ITVS has made available to WorldLink TV a special series of documentaries.

Internews Interactive

Internews Interactive (InterAct) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded in 1997, created to develop interactive citizen dialogue by making interactive, informative and educational programming that engages citizens in addressing community and national problems. Their innovative use of new tools for television and the Internet, broadcasting and cable, helps people overcome geographic, economic and cultural limitations.

InterAct is currently involved in using two-way media to link people in malls, universities, restaurants and other public places into television discussion programs. Projects include linking incarcerated prisoners to victims and victimized communities as part of the Restorative Justice movement; and linking typically disenfranchised voters, such as the economically disadvantaged and those from minority communities, to gubernatorial candidates.

The Center For Documentary Media

The Center For Documentary Media is a 501(c)(3) non-profit documentary production company. Its mission is to produce socially relevant, educational and informational programming for television, Internet and theatrical distribution. Among its productions: Paul Jacobs And The Nuclear Gang about the government cover-up of the effects of low level radiation, which won an EMMY and the George Polk Award for Investigative Journalism; The Uncompromising Revolution about Castro's Cuba and Stella Adler: Awake And Dream for PBS's American Masters series.