Professional career David M. Hoffman

david m. hoffman @ internews media leadership awards, 2007

hoffman founder , president emeritus of internews, global non-profit organization fosters independent media , access information worldwide. internews founded hoffman in 1982 partners kim spencer , evelyn messinger. hoffman led internews first 30 years.

building on groundbreaking us-soviet spacebridges developed kim spencer , evelyn messinger, hoffman organized series of 7 satellite television exchanges between leaders of congress , counterparts on supreme soviet. produced in association abc news , gosteleradio, capital-to-capital live broadcasts lasted 1987 1990 each program reaching audiences of 200 million people. hoffman , members of congress helped organize series recognized emmy award. programs moderated peter jennings , leonid zolatarevsky.

in 1995 hoffman co-founded internews europe kim spencer, patrice barrat , jeanne girardot. following year @ chateau du vert bosc in normandy, france, helped create internews international, association of autonomous internews organizations , affiliated members including 11 full member organizations , 19 affiliated members, offices in 34 countries. member organizations have signed articles of association, state in part: association has purpose of contributing tangible or intangible means creation , development of worldwide network of members in order facilitate production, dissemination , circulation of, , access to, independent information.

when international tribunal former yugoslavia (icty) opened trial of dusko tadic on may 7, 1996, hoffman organized live broadcasts of proceedings transmitted satellite , rebroadcast on 5 commercial television channels in bosnia , herzegovina on state channel, bih tv, blanketing airwaves 11 hours day. live coverage distributed on satellite television channels in croatia , serbia.

the following year, 1997, when international criminal tribunal rwanda (ictr) opened in arusha, tanzania, hoffman organized filming of proceedings. internews showed monthly edited versions of genocide trials in village meetings , prisons throughout rwanda. questions , comments taped , shown judges , prosecutors @ court in arusha , responses relayed in further town hall events, creating rudimentary, effective, feedback loop. rwanda project led wanda hall.

hoffman developed , raised first funding global internet policy initiative (gipi), network of non-profit, non-governmental organization s supporting adoption in developing , transitional countries of legal , policy framework open , democratic internet.

in 2000 hoffman 1 of founders of link tv , secured initial funding. link tv non-commercial direct-to-home satellite television channel provides unique perspective on international news, current events, , diverse cultures, presenting issues not covered in media. carried on directv , dish networks.

recognizing local media effective source communicating sensitive public health issues, hoffman initiated internews efforts train local journalists in coverage of hiv/aids , other critical public health issues , produce television, radio , print articles. on thousand journalists have been trained in africa , asia.

hoffman , jane safly rogers collaborated launch earth journalism network (ejn) empower , enable journalists developing countries cover environment more effectively. under leadership of executive director james fahn, ejn has trained thousands of journalists cover many environmental concerns including climate change, biodiversity, water, environment health, , oceans , coastal resources.

in june 2003 athens media framework created draft of democratic media laws later adopted post-war iraq. hoffman envisioned framework , raised funding bring 80 media experts around world unprecedented effort. draft legislation produced, coordinated george papagiannis, guaranteed media freedom , abolition of censorship. other recommendations included plan developing journalistic ethics, internet policy , creation of independent public broadcasting authority in iraq.

hoffman instrumental in creating internews emergency response capabilities responding humanitarian disasters , secured initial funding. specially trained journalists worked surviving local media provide life saving information during relief efforts in aceh , sri lanka after 2004 indian ocean tsunami, haiti following january 2010 earthquake, philippines in 2013 following typhoon haiyan among other humanitarian crisis. other humanitarian interventions have established radio stations refugee populations fleeing fighting darfur, sudan, somalia, syria , other conflicts. in january 2010 hoffman assisted formation of cdac (communicating disaster affected communities), headquartered in london, coordinates emergency media response actions of bbc media action, care, un , other humanitarian , media development organizations.

hoffman founder , first chairman of global forum media development (gfmd). launched in 2005 in amman, jordan, brought media development sector first time. gfmd practitioner-led process open sides of community involved in media development around world, mission make media development integral part of overall development strategies. serves chairman emeritus.