CHAPTER IX
PUBLIC INFORMATION
270. New and developing situations of refugees and displaced persons figured prominently in the international press during the period under review, in particular the dramatic situation of groups such as Indo-Chinese escaping in small boats, young refugees fleeing apartheid and other forms of persecution in South Africa, and the hundreds of thousands of persons uprooted by events in the Ogaden. UNHCR's role of protection and assistance was thus given wide coverage by the media in many countries.
271. The election by the General Assembly of Mr. Poul Hartling as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was well covered in the news media. Mr. Hartling met with correspondents accredited to the United Nations both in New York and Geneva and has given a large number of individual interviews, as well as press conferences during his missions to countries in southern Africa, North America, Oceania and Europe.
272. Interest in the work of the Office by the press, radio and television was effectively sustained by UNHCR's Public Information Service in Geneva as well as by UNHCR representatives in many parts of the world. Numerous press releases were issued, and interviews, briefings and background sessions were organized both for individual journalists and groups. Assistance was also given to photographers and television teams travelling to areas where refugee situations exist, in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
273. The impact of press, radio and television publicity on the Office's fund- raising activities has been considerable, and UNHCR has facilitated the efforts of a number of voluntary agencies which regularly support its material assistance programmes to capitalize on this media interest by organizing sponsored press tours, notably to refugee settlements in a number of African countries. UNHCR has also kept these agencies regularly supplied with information material (films, photos, posters, etc.) to support their campaigns.
274. UNHCR continued to supply television outlets with film footage for world- wide distribution as well as to produce its own films on refugee problems. During the reporting period co-productions were made with voluntary agencies for fund- raising and educational purposes, including "No place like a home" made for the Australian AUSTCARE agency, which co-ordinates voluntary agencies' work on behalf of refugees in that country, and "My country and yours" with the Danish Refugee Council and the Danish Film Institute. Another co-production was undertaken with the Netherlands television chain TROS Television on the needs for resettlement of refugees from south-east Asia and Latin America. Refugees in southern Africa are the subject of two films produced in the period under review: "'Tswana Transit" and "No Time to Say Goodbye". Other productions included "Meheba: Refugee Settlement in Zambia" and a film on displaced persons from Viet Nam resettled in Switzerland. "I am a refugee", a half-hour fictional account of an individual refugee's difficulties upon seeking asylum in a mythical country and the role of UNHCR in providing him with legal protection, was produced in English and French. It is intended for television and educational use.
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