UNITED NATIONS AUDIO-VISUAL TEAM TO ATTEND WORLD’S LEADING TELEVISION MARKET, MIPTV 2004, IN CANNES, FRANCE

United Nations audio-visual team to attend world’S leading

television market, MIPTV 2004, IN CANNES, FRANCE

NEW YORK, 26 March 2004(UN Department of Public Information) -- The audio-visual team from the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI), along with many of its partners, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Bank, are joining forces at MIPTV2004, the world’s premier television market, held early in spring annually in Cannes, France, to promote the United Nations message through award-winning television series and productions and to set up innovative global media partnerships.

The United Nations team offers MIP participants significant value-added media products that appeal to international broadcasters developing new mainstream productions on key issues that concern the world today:

-- Information from the world authority about the facts and figures and issues which affect people everywhere;

-- Access to a great network of global contacts in, and unique footage from the field;

-- Knowledge of local, regional and cultural sensitivities; and

-- Human stories that bring home the issues in all parts of the world.

The United Nations is at the heart of every issue that affects the world.  For 60 years, the United Nations has stood for the hopes and aspirations of the peoples of the world for peace, security, and prosperity.  It continuously worked to make such a world a reality.  Audiences want to know the behind-the-scenes efforts, the grass-roots work, the success stories and it is crucial to engage those audiences with the United Nations’ unique perspective on world events that have global impact.

The United Nations has the global reach to deal with Problems without Passports.  Working in partnership with major broadcasters, the United Nations can help focus the world’s attention on stories about the issues that know no borders –- extreme poverty, displaced people, forgotten conflicts, humanitarian emergencies.  This year the emphasis is on encouraging broadcasters to air more innovative programmes on HIV/AIDS and the other Millennium Development Goals.

The United Nations is fully committed to partnering with the world media industry in Sharing the World’s Stories.  The United Nations audio-visual team is proactive and flexible, dedicated to working with other broadcasters, listening to and assisting them in communicating these important messages, providing free programming and in-kind services, promoting their work, and offering broadcasters the unique name recognition that only the United Nations can provide.

Other UN Highlights at MIPTV

MIPTV’s China Day on 31 March brings attention to the United Nations’ long-standing involvement in advancing the country’s development goals.

MILIA 2004, World Interactive Content Forum, will show the United Nations fully engaged in developments in new media, through the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the World Electronic Media Forum (WEMF), and the Secretary-General’s HIV/AIDS Global Media Initiative.

For more information:  Caroline Petit, Promotion and Distribution Manager at e-mail: petitc@un.org.

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