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Lake Geneva is one of world’s best locations for expert talent on key global issues. Only now are the Swiss and French – but also some of the UN agencies and international NGOs - grasping that they are sitting on a goldmine of information resources that could turn this region into the cutting edge for more informed international reporting.

Over the past decade or so, Geneva has largely fallen out of sight as a place for foreign correspondents to be based. Most of the political decisions regarding the UN take place in New York, which has the drawback of distracting from some of the real global issues at hand, such as the way international humanitarian aid is provided – or not provided – in some of the world’s conflict or disaster zones.

There are still about 200 accredited journalists at the Palais des Nations, the old League of Nations building where the UN is headquartered in Geneva. However, most of the mainstream media – the New York Times, NBC, Le Monde, The Guardian… - no longer deploy full-time reporters covering the UN and other global stories. Apart from the news agencies and some broadcasters and newspapers, many news organizations now rely on a smorgasboard of freelancers to do their bidding.

The quality of such coverage has been made worse by the increased isolation for security reasons of UN headquarters – and the standing press corps working there. Numerous NGOs and UN agencies with offices outside the Palais des Nations precinct complain that it is becoming increasingly difficult to interest journalists. To enter the UN, particularly for the non-accredited visiting reporter or NGO, has become laborious and time-consuming process. Many good stories are missed in this manner.

This UN-centricity also encourages a certain laziness among some journalists, who get into the habit of corridor reporting and cannot be bothered to undertake the necessary legwork outside the Palais. One proposal for re-establishing contact with the Geneva region is to create a new international press centre outside the UN security cordon but accessible to all.

All this, however, is beginning to change. Geneva already hosts various major media events attracting attention, such as the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights  www.fifdh.ch and the International North-South Media Festival www.nordsud.ch .

InfoSud, a Geneva-based non-profit newsagency now in its 20th year, also established the Human Rights Tribune (www.humanrights-geneva.info ) in English and French in March, 2006 to report on the Human Rights Council. The HRT has now become one of the leading human rights reporting internet magazine sites in the world.

Further up the lake in Lausanne, the Hirdondelle Foundation (www.hirondelle.org ) focuses primarily on providing radio and other media support to conflict and crisis zones, particularly in Africa.

Furthermore, a growing number of ‘outside’ journalists, producers and writers reporting humanitarian, environment, development, world trade, telecommunications, media, travel, world heritage and other global issues are establishing themselves in the Lake Geneva region precisely because of the region’s exceptional resources. This includes nearby French towns and villages in areas such as the Pays de Gex, Annecy and Chamonix, but also Montreux, Chateaux d’Oex and Sion on the Swiss side.

Sign of the times, too, many of these journalists do not bother to accredit themselves with the UN, but use the region as a base to travel elsewhere.

Geneva international airport is one the most user-friendly “village style” airports on the continent with rapid ticket processing, security and customs checks, and baggage pickup. EasyJet has made it possible to fly off to London for meetings in the morning on a cheap day return and back in time for dinner. It is not unusual to be out of the airport within ten minutes of getting off the plane.

Several minutes walk from the terminal is a Swiss rail station with direct trains to main cities elsewhere, including the TGV at the main Cornavin station in Geneva. One is constantly bumping into people – aid workers, scientists, business people, academics, journalists – heading off to or returning from other European cities or North America, Africa and Asia.

Rapidly emerging, too, are select new efforts to exploit but also enhance the region’s role as a  media and communications’ hub. One of these is the Media21 Global Journalism Network Initiative (www.media21geneva.com ) launched by InfoSud. Media21 is making a particular push to develop Lake Geneva as an international centre for global themes.

Given cutbacks on global coverage by many mainstream media, particularly in the United States and Europe, Media21 has decided to focus on helping provide experienced local or regional editors, journalists and producers from both the developing and industrialized world obtain a broader and more global perspective on these key issues. It does this by bringing journalists to Geneva for highly interactive 4-5 day workshops on specific themes (climate change, peacekeeping, global health threats, migration…).

These workshops involve representing representing a wide range of international aid agencies, NGOs, companies, governments and academia. The journalists, many of whom might never receive the chance to travel, then participate in 7-10 day field trips to Africa, Asia, Latin America or other parts of Europe to explore local aspects of a particular issue.

“We’re not providing training per se as these are all professional journalists,” noted InfoSud director, Daniel Wermus. “What we are offering is a way to facilitate more informed global coverage through better contacts and information.” Crucial, too, he noted, are the practically-oriented field trips which might prove too difficult or too expensive to organize for journalists on their own.

Much of the funding, particularly support for developing country journalists, comes from international donors, foundations and UN country offices. The problem, Wermus noted, is finding the core funding to properly develop the initiative on a long-term basis and to procure grants for western journalists, such as freelancers, who are unable to cover the costs on their own.

Each two-week Fellowship costs 3,000 CHF in tuition fees plus travel and accommodation. Some of these costs are kept down by in-kind sponsorship, such as on-the-ground logistical support by partners in the field. Often, too, partners are able to organize access, such as 4x4 vehicles plus fuel, in places where transport is virtually impossible to obtain for the individual journalist.

At the beginning of April, for example, NATO plans to organize a 10-day field trip to Afghanistan for a small group of journalists attending a Media21 peacekeeping workshop in Geneva, while Handicap International, a Paris-based NGO, is coordinating a trip to southern Lebanon to explore the impact of war ordnance on civilian populations since the last Israeli-Lebanese war. Other workshops in 2008 include global health threats and access to health in May in conjunction with the second Geneva Health Forum and Media21’s third Climate Change programme, this time focusing on the impact of global warming on coastal areas and island states.

Partner organizations include UN agencies and international organizations such as the World Bank, International Organization of Migration and the International Committee of the Red Cross, plus dozens of NGOs such as CARE International, World Vision, Medecins sans Frontieres, Mountain Research Initiative and WWF. A growing number of academic and media institutions such as the Reuters Foundation at Oxford University, Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Earth Institute at Columbia University, Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, Center for Investigative Reporting, Hirondelle Foundation and Geneva University also support the initiative. A growing number of companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, ABB, Novartis and Suez are becoming involved as corporate sponsors.

For the organizers, Media21 seeks to make use of the Lake Geneva region as an exceptional information resource. But the sessions also provide participating journalists with key contacts and sources for future stories. Another critical factor is that the journalists come together as a group by discussing issues and sharing reporting experiences in their own countries and regions. When they return home, the journalists remain in touch with each as part of the ever-expanding Media21 Global Journalists Network. One African journalist, for example, appealed for help when she come under pressure from her government to tow the line or shut up, while another – from China – asked that no emails be sent using the word “media” – as this only alerted the government censorship filters.

The network can also be accessed by partner organizations seeking to draw attention to a particular issue. During last year’s floods in Bangladesh, for example, CARE International, which had participated in one of the Climate Change panels, contacted a local journalist in Dacca who had taken part in the session. Together, they brought in other local journalists and international organizations to discuss how to improve coverage of the crisis. “This is precisely the way this initiative should work and is an example of why organizations need to invest in it as a long-term process,” noted CARE’s William Dowell.

But all this is not something that will happen overnight. Nor will it happen unless corporate, foundation and donor sponsors, particularly the Swiss and Geneva authorities, provide the initiative with the long-term support it needs to respond effectively.

While government donors are willing to spend millions on institutional monitoring or research projects, they often ignore the vital importance of media for keeping local populations, including beneficiaries, informed. Nor do they recognize the value of independent, quality media as one of the most effective means for monitoring international aid operations, and particularly, for holding both governments and aid organizations accountable.