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Organization: Good News Agency
The following information may be cited or quoted as long as the source is accurately mentioned and the words are not taken out of context.
Posted: Feb. 07 2010,08:39 If you wrote this report, you will find a button here that you may click
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Postal address of organization/institution

10 Via Antagora - 00124 Rome, Italy

E-mail address of organization/institution

s.tripi@tiscali.it

Website address of organization/institution

www.goodnewsagency.org

Telephone of organization/institution

+39 06 5091 7326

PRIORITIES: All of the organization's domains of culture of peace activity

EDUCATION FOR PEACE
FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

TOP PRIORITY: The organization's most important culture of peace activity

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

PARTNERSHIPS AND NETWORKS: What partnerships and networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the global movement for a culture of peace?

For seven years many Rotary clubs in Italy have personally introduced Good News Agency to the principals and professors of high schools and colleges, an initiative which has led to the direct “recruitment” of 150 schools so far. Furthermore, this synergy gave origin to three school competitions that involved 50 high schools. These competitions addressed three major social themes: Declaration of Human Rights, Learning and Practising Human Rights, and Water.

In 2008 the campaign “Let’s take Good News Agency to the schools!” was also launched internationally with a direct distribution to the 530 district governors who coordinate the 32,000 Rotary clubs in 200 countries and territories. Several positive feedbacks encourage us to persevere.

ACTIONS: What activities have been undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence during the ten years of the Decade? If you already made a report in 2005, your information from 2005 will be included in the 2010 report.

The main focus of our activities has been to promote a positive flow of information worldwide in order to educate public opinion and the youth and to encourage them to cultivate international understanding and a “global village” perspective based on unity in diversity and on sharing.

Thus we have concentrated our activities mainly on the production and distribution of Good News Agency, our e-newsletter that carries positive and constructive news from all over the world related to voluntary work, the work of the United Nations, non governmental organizations and institutions engaged in improving the quality of life – news that doesn’t “burn out” in the space of a day. An all volunteer effort, Good News Agency is published in English on one Friday and in Italian the next. Each issue includes about sixty articles of positive news. Back issues are available at www.goodnewsagency.org  

Our mailing list has increased substantially over the past few years and Good News Agency is now distributed free of charge, through Internet, to 10,000 media and editorial journalists of daily newspapers, periodical magazines, radio and television stations in 54 countries.  It is also distributed to 3,000 NGOs and 1,700 high schools, colleges and universities.

The Ethical Code of the Media, launched in 2001, has now been endorsed by over 150 eminent people and service groups from many countries.  The Code stresses that to give voice also to the events which indicate in the world the response of humanity to the greatest problems of our times is a responsibility of the media which can no longer be put off. In this way public opinion may be formed on the basis of a range of information corresponding to all aspects of the reality in which we live. The Ethical Code of the Media is posted on our web site in nine languages and its promotion is ongoing, although limited by the scarcity of our available resources.

PROGRESS: Has your organization seen progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain of action and in your constituency during the second half of the Decade?

As was the case in the Seventies with the expression “world goodwill”, the concept of ‘good news’ is now being recognized by the public opinion of today, a public opinion that has begun to perceive the lack of positive information and is now starting to express the wish for it. News items of a positive nature are starting to be included in the reports of the media, although they still represent a minority of the global flow of information that the media publishes each day.
As far as the NGOs are concerned: they continue to show strong appreciation for Good News Agency and many of them distribute it through their own mailing lists and/or post it in their web sites. On the basis of this “magic” of the Internet, we estimate that the total distribution of our e-newsletter has now reached the level of 200,000 copies, and this is probably still a conservative estimate.
And the distribution to schools has been favourably influenced by the increasing appreciation of Good News Agency on the part of many teachers, who find it most useful for discussion and further research with their students.
The demand for good news has produced a positive situation for our publishing activity. Started ten years ago with the work of three volunteers it has now attracted the voluntary work of an editorial team of fifteen people (four editors and eleven translators).

OBSTACLES: Has your organization faced any obstacles to implementing the culture of peace and nonviolence? If so, what were they?

The initiatives carried out so far did not face any major obstacles – actually, they prompted positive reactions which confirmed to us that we were on the right track. However, the scarcity of financial resources, if it persists, will negatively affect the plan indicated in the following paragraph.

PLANS: What new engagements are planned by your organization in the short, medium and long term to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence?

Official Development Assistance on the part of major western countries is still far from the 0.7% of the GDP that the North-South Commission indicated in the Seventies. We think public opinion in those countries must be nourished with a positive flow of information to give voice to the responsibility of sharing which is at the basis of a culture of peace and nonviolence. In this arena Good News Agency could play a stronger role if it was published also in French, German, Spanish and, in a second phase, also in Japanese, Chinese and Portuguese.
Although the basic work for the English and Italian editions will continue to be carried out on a voluntary basis, the other language editions will have to be produced at a cost that we cannot meet.

GLOBAL MOVEMENT: How do you think the culture of peace and nonviolence could be strengthened and supported at the world level??

In our opinion, the strongest prospect is represented by the innumerable and potent synergies that can be established among peace actors within civil society worldwide. In order to push this prospect forward, and to favour its materialization, it would be helpful to spread internationally as many examples as possible, laid down by field service and with the indication of tangible examples of  possible synergies and partnerships.
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Organization: Good News Agency

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