Ahmad Fawzi

TV Real Weekly, September 17, 2008

Director of the News and Media Division

United Nations Department of Public Information

From its headquarters in New York City, the News and Media Division of the Department of Public Information at the United Nations (UN) provides coverage of a broad range of UN activities, putting together television and radio programs and Internet reports. This programming serves as a worldwide window into the dialogue and global actions concerning some of the most pressing issues facing our world today.

“We provide live, daily feeds of the Security Council, General Assembly, meetings, conferences, special events, the Secretary-General making remarks at headquarters,” explains Ahmad Fawzi, the director of the division. “These feeds are used regularly by the three main syndicators: APTN, Reuters, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) as well as all the many individual broadcasters that are accredited to the United Nations.They get these live feeds from us and then package them in stories.

“We also have UNifeed, which is an international feed that goes out via the APTN satellite to about 600 broadcasters around the world, including EBU as well. In addition, we produce a monthly 26-minute news magazine called 21st Century. 21st Century puts the spotlight on the world’s forgotten stories, if you will—stories that broadcasters just don’t have the time, or the budget, to cover. So our cameras offer unique and often unseen, unparalleled access to people and places.” UN in Action is another television product that the News and Media Division produces. This program features short—up to 3-minutes—stories about the actual dealings of the UN around the world.

There are some 40 members of the UN family, including the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), the World Food Program (WFP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO). All these agencies, funds and programs produce their own information products, and these are often repackaged for 21st Century or UN in Action.

Beyond TV screens, new media provides a great opportunity to connect the world with the UN’s international activities. Webcasting is a key tool for live presentations of open meetings like a Security Council session or the Secretary-General speaking at the General Assembly. The division is launching its own YouTube channel, bringing packaged stories and raw footage to the web in broadcast quality. Fawzi says, “This is a breakthrough for us, [having content that] is available in broadcast quality on the web. We no longer have to worry about satellites or certain deadlines. We can put up on the web, as it becomes available, broadcast-quality television coverage. Whether they’re packaged stories or raw footage, up on the web for broadcast and downloads.”

The division also works with partners in the international broadcast community to take on a range of worldwide issues that are of importance to the UN. And it has a wealth of content to offer them, with archives dating back some 60 years ago, from 1945. “We are the keepers of the history of mankind and it is remarkable when you see what’s in the archives,” says Fawzi. “It’s not all politics or humanitarian.

“We always encourage partnerships with broadcasters and we have, for example, 21st Century being broadcast already by nearly 50 broadcasters around the world. We look at co-productions. If a broadcaster is interested in doing, for example, a story about the UN’s work in one country or another, we would provide as much logistical assistance and archival and photographic material as needed to make the production a success. So we’re always looking for partnerships.”

Working with these various partners helps spread awareness of issues from other parts of the world, something that Fawzi has a long history in promoting. Before joining the UN, he was a broadcast journalist, working for Egyptian Radio and Television and then Visnews (now Reuters Television) in London, Prague, Moscow and New York, as well as most of the Middle East and Eastern Europe. He was the first Spokesman and Director of Information for the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and was also on special assignment as the Spokesman for the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi. Among other roles, Fawzi previously served as the Director of the United Nations Information Centre in London for six years, and as such was the representative of the Secretary-General in the U.K. and Ireland.

With this impressive history of working with some of the most important figures in international politics, Fawzi has taken away a great sense of pride that he is contributing to the greater good of the world we live in. “I think the greatest reward is you feel you are doing something worthwhile. I’ve had the privilege of serving with some of our great mediators. In field missions with these great negotiators, one feels one is part of something big and something important to human beings. I think that’s the greatest reward, the sense of fulfillment. The sense that what you are doing counts to somebody.”