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09. 03. 10. - 15:00

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09. 03. 10. - 15:00

Media Insider - Journalism Without Borders

An Austrian-based journalist, an Austrian charity and an Austrian marketing company have teamed up to offer help to those in the media spotlight once the media has moved on.

The idea started eight years ago when the Sunday Telegraph sent Vienna-based reporter Michael Leidig to a remote part of Romania to cover the story of Ana Crisan.

Born in 1988 she was identified by the doctors in Sibiu as disabled under a government that claimed deformities were a Western problem.

She was confiscated and placed in one of the country's giant state-run orphanages with the expectation that she would not live long. Her mother Ildiko was told that her daughter had died.

Ildiko said: "They always refused to give me a death certificate -- I went back to the hospital every week for 2 years before I finally gave up."

But against all the odds Ana had survived - and after the collapse of communism when the giant state run orphanages started to be dismantled - Ildiko discovered in a phone call late one evening from health officials that her daughter was alive.

The story was reported all around the world and at the Sunday Telegraph it generated requests from readers who wanted to make a donation to help Ana and her family.

Michael Leidig said: "I had discussed the case with the foreign desk manager Lucy Wolseley who had been moved by the story and we both wanted to do something to help -- but newspapers can't collect money directly for the people they write about and also it was impossible to find a charity especially at short notice to arrange it.

"It was frustrating because the family were already very poor and suddenly they were handed back a severely disabled daughter who had seemingly received nothing in the way of care and was severely institutionalised - and needed pretty much round-the-clock attention.

"Then after the report was published I had Lucy calling me asking if I'd found a charity that could accept donations from four or five readers - money that the family desperately needed - and there was no way to get it to them.

"In the end Lucy pulled a lot of strings and somehow manage to cash the money at the Telegraph - she then went out and wired it to me - and I drove across the country to deliver it in person to the family.

"What surprised me the most was that when I went back to the family Ana's mother said that despite the coverage - with dozens of media outlets including TV stations all over the world that had covered the story - not one had come back with any sort of assistance.

"That was when I started to turn over if there was some way to make it simpler -- and came up with the idea for journalismwithoutborders.com."

Leidig, 44, is currently vice-chairman of the National Association of Press Agencies and worked together with fellow agency bosses to fine tune the concept.

NAPA contacted the Austrian charity Helfen Wir which is based in Vienna where Leidig lives and they agreed to accept donations and make sure they went to the people concerned -- and managed to find a local PR company Klasan (http://www.klasan.at/) that was happy to design the site for free.

www.journalismwithoutborders.com has now been online for just over a week and is already notching up thousands of unique visitors a day.

Leidig said: "We had a few of our archive stories on there to start off with just to fill up the page and the first story we did was one that was published in Closer magazine - they were our first official backers. Since then in the last week alone we have had links from the Sun and Mirror, Express and Telegraph.

"We already have pledges to solve the problems of both of the first two appeals we have done since we went live, and as far as I'm concerned that's a good result."

The site accepts submissions under certain conditions from any journalist but will not accept anything from the general public including suggestions for stories.

Leidig said: "We want to make sure that people know this is not just a way of gathering news in the guise of charity, so we only accept published material. The editorial side is completely separate from the charity side so that we can't control what they do with the money - although we are aware of it - and they can't tell us what to write about.

"We want this to be a platform that journalists can use. It is certainly not going to be earning any money -- in fact it will cost us because the photographs we put online are free for publication. We are happy to accept donations for picture usage but again all of this will go to the charity."

As to Ana Crisan and her mother, Leidig admits he does not know what happened after he visited them with money from Telegraph readers.

He said: "I worked out what we gave them was probably equivalent to about six months wage - they said they were going to use it to fix the roof of the lean-to they had converted into a room for their daughter. But after that you move on -- I would've liked to have kept in touch but they did not even have a telephone. I don't even know if the little girl is still alive and that's one of the things that is frustrating in the job. I hope that journalismwithoutborders will be able to pick up the pieces after a media frenzy and make sure people like this aren't simply forgotten about."

Charity boss Hannes Urban agrees. He said: "We want to try and make sure that we help if there is an immediate need if we can but also not simply then to move on but to keep an eye on people. And of course we have a duty to make sure those who've made donations see how their money has been spent."

Journalism without Borders is now online and accepting submissions from anybody with a cause that they wish to promote. Terms and conditions are included on the page submissions are accepted from journalists, news agencies, publications and broadcasters that want to help those they report about.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/mar/09/charities-news-agencies

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