The support of IFJ unions has been marvellous and there are still offers of help coming in.
I shall be leading a delegation from the IFJ Pacific Office, the International News Safety Institute and the UK NGO the Rory Peck Trust on a mission to Indonesia next week.
I intend to present to our AJI colleagues a sum of money to provide immediate help to the families of victims from the special relief fund established through the IFJ International Safety Fund. Our focus is on providing assistance to the media people hit by the disaster and their families.
You may know that a lot of money is being directed by groups such as Internews and IMS (Denmark) towards assisting media, particularly radio, to get back on then air.
We also want to provide som help to colleagues in Sri Lanka that have been affected. Some 58% of 2121 provincial Sri Lankan journalists are from the 14 Tsunami affected districts. Two Journalists are missing, 23 Journalists are injured, from the most affected southern and Eastern in the Sri Lanka.
In addition the homes of 48 Journalists were destroyed with a massive loss of personal and professional equipment. Some 1000 members of 121 families of provincial Journalists were displaced and put in camps or with their friends or relatives. At the current time 78 journalists families are still staying in Camps or with friends/relatives.
CAN I ASK YOU ALL AS A MATTER OF URGENCY TO CONFIRM WHAT AT THIS STAGE YOUR UNION MAY BE CONTRIBUTING TO THE SPECIAL FUND. IT IS MY INTENTION TO TAKE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION FROM THE FUND FOR DISTRIBUTION ON THE SPOT TO OUR COLLEAGUES IN INDONESIA.
Please let me know by Monday next week so that we can arrange to have the money prepared. Colleagues from many countries have responded to our appeal and I know that some money has been sent directly, at least 20,000 Euro from what has been pledged so far.
When in Indonesia I intend to follow up on our concerns over attempts by the Indonesian authorities to limit the freedom of movement of journalists as well as aid workers in the Aceh area. This is exactly the sort of problem that we anticipated in the letter the President sent to Kofi Annan in the days following the disaster.
I will prepare a full report on the special appeal and the payments made when I return next week.
Finally, once again, many thanks to all for the generosity and speed with which your unions have responded to the crisis and our appeal.
Aidan White
Aidan White
General Secretary
International Federation of Journalists
International Press Centre Residence Palace, Block C
155 Rue De La Loi B1040 Brussels Tel 0032 2 235 2200 Fax 0032 2 235 2219
