UN to Offer Green Stories and Projects at MIPTV

NEW YORK, April 13: At
MIPTV, the United Nations (UN) audiovisual family will offer green-themed
documentaries and series to international broadcasters, including Running
the Sahara, about three elite
marathon runners who crossed the Sahara Desert to raise awareness of the world
water crisis and poverty.

The UN Department of
Public Information and seven UN agencies—UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF—and
World Bank as well as the Millennium Campaign will be present at MIPTV. This
year, the UN will offer the award-winning current affairs series UN in
Action, which recently included
stories on the future of the Aral Sea, the prevention of natural disasters in
Kazakhstan, and the cleaning up of radioactive waste in Serbia.

At MIPTV, the UN will also
offer documentaries such as Running the Sahara from the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), and Two Poles-One Planet
from the UN’s World Meteorological Organization, to mark the celebration of the
2007 World Meteorological Day and the launch last month of the International
Polar Year. The UN will also highlight 21st Century, a 26-minute fast paced human-driven monthly
magazine that was launched on UN TV this year. The magazine, which combines
narrative storytelling and solid reporting from the field, features stories
from all over the world and is adaptable into any language.

Continuing its “green”
theme, the UNEP has partnered with green.tv to address issues ranging from
alpine glaciers to illegal “pirate” fishing to the problem of electronic
wastes. The UN has also partnered with various broadcasters on “green”
television series, including a UN-supported film on coral reefs that launched
the current season of the BBC's flagship environmental show, Earth Report. Fox Network Latin America also teamed up with the
UN for its Billion Tree Campaign,
which will launch on April 22 with an event marking Earth Day.

"We
invite TV broadcasters to discover the wealth of material and media services
which exist within the United Nations system, that they can use to produce a
variety of formats from the small screen to mobile devices," said Caroline
Petit, the promotion and distribution manager who will represent the UN
Department of Public Information at MIPTV.