The development sector doesn’t always have an easy relationship with the media.
Some nongovernmental organizations complain that journalists provide insufficient coverage of their work but are increasingly critical of their activities, while some journalists argue NGOs are not always media-savvy, can be opaque about their work and are often slow to respond to queries from reporters.
These and other issues were the focus of a forum organized last month in London by Bond, a network of U.K.-based international development NGOs, which brought together representatives from both sides to hammer out new strategies to enable NGOs to communicate better with the media and make sure their stories are told as widely, accurately and positively as possible.