The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative

After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. 

Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future. 

On the transfer, co-founder Victoria Martin expressed her pleasure to see this work continue under Wits' leadership, knowing that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction. 

As Wits, we honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades and look forward building from that strong base. This includes co-founders Warren Feek (1953-2024) and Victoria Martin as well as La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA), which continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com with links to The CI Global site. We are also eager to forge new partnerships and entertain new ideas as we consider how best to contribute to social and behaviour change in our rapidly evolving environment.

If you are joining the International Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Summit in Panama, please join Wits and CILA on Monday, 22 June, to share your thoughts and suggestion for the relaunch of the Communication Initiative. We will be in Pacifica 5 from 12-1:25 for the Refuel, Reflect, and Renew Lunch Series: The Communication Initiative: celebrating a driving force for Communication for Social Change and the way forward. We will reflect on the legacy of Warren Feek and family in creating the Communication Initiative, consider the contributions of CI over the years and then turn our attention towards the future in this dynamic session. 

If you are unable to join us in Panama, we still want to hear from you. Please contribute your thoughts by following this link: https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026 or reaching out to ci_surveys@commint.com. 

You can also follow the QR Code:

 https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026

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Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE) Newsletter

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  • Birgitte Jallov, Ed.

"One of the things that distinguishes community media from other media forms...is that we belong to the community - we are and represent the many communities within our community....This core distinguishing difference between us and any other media, means that our community generally trusts us. Our community listens to us and follows our advice." - CMFE

With a mission to advocate for and raise awareness around the importance and role of community media, the Community Media Forum Euope (CMFE) issues an online newsletter 11 times per year as a point of regular contact with members and others interested in press freedom, diversity, and media pluralism. CMFE newsletters cover action and news within the organisation's thematic goal areas: (i) legal, enabling environment - advocacy; (ii) communication and visibility; and (iii) action for cooperation and change. The purpose of the resource is to serve as a systematic, strategic platform for debate on the role and opportunities of community media in Europe.

Six times annually, the newsletter features thematic issues, providing CMFE experts, board members, and interested others with an opportunity to go more in-depth with some of the ever-changing issues of importance for the community media sector. For example, the April 2020 CMFE newsletter highlights resources in support of community media in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes advice on how to secure quality reporting - with an eye to gender issues - and tools to filter out disinformation. This edition shares information about platforms where abuses by governments under the guise of the coronavirus can be reported. Information on funding sources for media whose work is impaired by the coronavirus realities collected by the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) are shared, along with change stories from Bangladesh, Germany, Poland, and Switzerland.

In each edition, a final "classifieds" section offers information on relevant events, calls, and publications from within and of importance to the community media sector.

The CMFE was founded in 2004 to strengthen the participation of the "Third Media Sector" in European discussion and decision-making processes, out of concern that "freedom of expression and free access to information are increasingly endangered by the consequences of concentration in the media field."

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Emails from Birgitte Jallov to The Communication Initiative on April 21 2020 and April 22 2020; and CMFE website, April 21 2020. Image caption/credit: Rouby from Our Voice at Radio Dreyeckland Freiburg (Photo: Nadia Bellardi)