About AIBD:

Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) is a regional inter-governmental entity

serving countries of the UNESCAP in the field of electronic media development. The Institute currently
enjoys a membership of 26 countries, 75 affiliates and 50 partners worldwide.

Established as a UNESCO project in 1977, AIBD is mandated to implement training related to sustainable
development through electronic and new media as required by its members.

Government of Malaysia through the Ministry of Communications & Multimedia (KKMM) hosts AIBD in
Kuala Lumpur since its inception. The institute is ISO 9001:2015 certified.

AIBD & DRR related activities:

With the advent of technology in Fourth Industrial Revolution, our world has become a global village,
the canvas of journalism has expanded a lot during these years, but so has its challenges. According to a
U.N’s report, globally every five days, a journalist is killed on field, while bringing information to the
public. Working in natural disaster prone areas, war zones, and many other non-conflict situations
created by organized crime groups, militia, security personnel and even police at times, make local
journalists vulnerable.

Disaster reporting is becoming a significant genre for media, however, many Asian-Pacific broadcasting
organizations does not have an active safety policy. Due to such vulnerability, the reporters are exposed to
various threats like susceptible to toxic waste, injuries, infections or psychological stress.

In recent years, AIBD has organized various projects for its members to lead regional broadcasters with
new knowledge skills related to journalistic safety standards and better risk assessment. It has been
witnessed that many a time reporters or producers working in a hostile environment do not have a
safety plan and necessary preparedness. The aim of such activities is to advocate the broadcasting
organizations to be more proactive regarding the safety of their on-field crew.

Some of the recent past AIBD projects on DRR and CCA are as follows:

 AIBD/TDM Regional workshop on Climate Change Reporting Via Traditional & New Media 15-
17 January 2019 in Macau.
 AIBD -Hoso Bunka Foundation (HBF) Regional Workshop On Safety for Journalists 2 7 – 30
November 2017, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
 AIBD/UNESCO Regional Workshop ‘Connecting in a Crisis’ Radio, Social Media, Natural
Disasters & Climate Change held in Kuala Lumpur on November 6 – 9 2017.
 AIBD/IPDC/UNESCO Sub-Regional Workshop on Capacity Building on Safety of Journalists in
Central Asian Republics organized on 13 – 15 October 2014 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Apart from training activities, AIBD has always given priority to Climate change issues in its annual awards i.e.
World TV Awards and AIBD TV & Radio Awards.
Proposal for DRR-Related activities:

With the increasing concern by regional broadcasters, AIBD has devised modules for safety for journalists and
has proposed various DRR related activities to its members and also pitched to various partners to
collaborate with the institute regarding this. Some of the activities which we are:

1. Regional/Sub-Regional Workshops
2. Seminars on Broadcasting DRR related issues
3. Awards for the best programmes on DRR

AIBD & COVID-19

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 virus and information dissemination efforts of media, Asia-Pacific
Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD), recently organized a half-day In-Country Seminar on
‘Reporting on Health Crisis: Training Journalists for Emergencies and Outbreaks’. The Seminar was
organised with support from Ministry of Health, Malaysia & National Institute of Health (NIH), World
Health Organisation (WHO), National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and Asian
Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC).

Forty-five representatives from 18 organisations attended the Seminar among them were reporters,
bloggers, content creators, senior management from Ministry of Health, National Institute of Health
(NIH), World Health Organisations (WHO), National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH),
Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) AI FM, Department of Information Malaysia, KKMM, KL FM,
News Strait Times, Radio Klasik, RAKITA, RTM, Selangor FM, Sin Chew Daily, SPR (Radio), The Star, TRAXX
FM and UN University.

The event helped the journalists and content creators gain deeper knowledge on the COVID-19 virus and
explore methods on how to report on health issue to ensure greater public awareness.

AIBD is also pitching ideas to its partners and members to create a knowledge exchange hub on sharing
different case studies related to reporting COVID-19 challenge. Some of the proposed projects are:
1. Online training workshop on reporting Pandemics & Epidemics
2. Survey on safety of journalists in the times of COVID-19
3. Seminar on Health crisis reporting

History with U.N Related Orgnisations:

AIBD was established as a UNESCO project in 1977 to implement training related to sustainable
development through electronic and new media as required by its members. Therefore, the Institute is
responsible for all planning, coordination and implementation of the project. Over the years, AIBD has
done frequent collaborations with UNESCO and other UN related bodies. Some of the recent workshops
and projects with U.N organisations are mentioned below:

1. AIBD/UNESCO Research journal on combating disinformation, a 2-year long project launched in

2019.
 2. AIBD/UN Indonesia In-Country workshop on Reducing Inequalities (SDG-10) through
Broadcasting held from 21-22 November 2019 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
3. AIBD/UNESCO Regional Workshop on ‘Addressing Gender Bias in Media’ held on 27 -29 March
2019 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
4. AIBD/UNESCO Regional Workshop on Combating Disinformation / Fake News organised on 11
June 2019 in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
5. IPDC talks @ Kuala Lumpur, Benefits and Challenges of Access to Information in Malaysia held
on 24 September 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
6. AIBD/UNDP Responsible Business Forum held on 21-23 November 2017 in Singapore.
7. AIBD/UNESCO Regional Workshop ‘Connecting in a Crisis’ Radio, Social Media, Natural
Disasters & Climate Change held in Kuala Lumpur on November 6 – 9 2017.
8. AIBD/UNDP Knowledge Exchange Programme held from 02-04 October 2017 in Manila,
Philippines.
9. AIBD/ASEAN-China-UNDP Symposium on Financing the Implementation of the Sustainable
Development Goals in ASEAN held during 21 – 22 August 2017 in Chiang Rai, Thailand.
10. AIBD/IPDC/UNESCO Sub-Regional Workshop on Capacity Building on Safety of Journalists in
Central Asian Republics organised on 13 – 15 October 2014 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
11. AIBD/UNESCO-Hanoi project – Gender Sensitive Broadcasting executed from 28 – 29 September
2011 in Hanoi, Vietnam.
12. AIBD/IPDC/UNESCO/CFI Sub-Regional Workshop on Media and Good Governance organised on
31 October – 4 November 2011 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
13. AIBD/IPDC/UNESCO/CFI Sub-Regional Workshop on Media and Good Governance held on 8 -
12 November 2011 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
14. AIBD/FES/UNESCO Pre-summit workshop on Media Ethics in the Age of Social Media held in
Bangkok, Thailand on 28 May 2012.
15. AIBD/CBA/UNESCO Seminar on Public Service Broadcasting was organised on 28 May 2012 in
Bangkok, Thailand.

Contacts:

For more information, & feedback kindly contact:

Ms Philomena Gnannapragasam, Director, AIBD
philo@aibd.org.my