Nachrichtenpool Lateinamerika

An international information network project:

"poonal" – Pool de Nuevas Agencias de América Latina -
                  weekly press service of Latin American press agencies
"npl"       – Service for up-to-date news articles from Latin America
"onda"    – Agencia radiofónica Latinoamérica-Europa - Radio agency Latin America - Europe

Purpose

The goal of our project is to give Latin Americans a voice in the North from their own perspective. Our "target group" is not just limited to grass roots movements. Instead, we try to appeal to a broader audience.

Introduction

Nachrichtenpool Lateinamerika (NPLA) provides its readers/listeners with information from alternative media sources, mainly from Latin American and Caribbean countries. In this regard, NPLA serves as a go-between for German speakers and as a means of further distributing information through various media outlets. Three projects are currently underway to accomplish these goals:
1. Since 1991 NPLA has been working together with poonal, an alliance of Latin American press agencies, in order to further distribute their news and information.
2. Since 1997 we have been managing an article service for independent Latin American journalists, primarily for distribution in daily and weekly newspapers in Germany.
3. In 1999 we began devoloping a German language radio news program produced with news from correspondents in Latin America.

Poonal

Poonal is an alliance of more or less ten independent press agencies from Latin American and Caribbean countries. Poonal belongs to the Federation of Latin American Journalists (FELAP) and has its headquarters in Mexico. In 1988 it initiated the first network of producers of Alternative Information in Latin American and Caribbean Countries.

Agencies like CERIGUA UND ACTUALIDAD COLUMBIA report on the social and political processes in their particular countries. FEMPRESS and SEM report supra-regionally from a feminist perspective. ALAI, NOTICIAS ALIADAS as well as the networks PULSAR and RECOSUR offer background information and analysis on contemporary issues in different countries.

When NPLA started cooperating with Poonal, its work consisted mainly of translating articles and announcements from the Poonal agencies and subsequently sending them to Cologne. In those days before internet we relied on the then new technology of data transfer. In Cologne, the information from Poonal was edited and forwarded to Berlin, where a weekly information sheet of 8 A-4 pages was sent out under the title `Poonal- German Language Press Service from Latin American Agencies.’

Taking advantage of the wider distribution possibilities through the internet and due to the cost factor, NPLA’s German-language Poonal Press Service has been available electronically since September of 1995: as an email subscription, through newsgroups or conferences ("apc/reg/samerica" and "cl/suedamerika/allgemein") and on NPLA’ s web page (www.npla.de). In addition to the regular release, the entire archive of more than 450 editions is available on our website and can be browsed using keywords.

An email subscription of the Poonal Press Service is available by contacting us via email. A single token fee of 20 Euro is charged for subscribing. The Poonal Press Service release consists of news, press releases, background information, interviews and analysis from Latin America of approx. 40 kilobytes. Current contributors include some 15 alternative press agencies from various countries in Latin America. Further reproduction and distribution of Poonal articles is welcome as long as full reference to NPLA is made. Commercial companies must compensate for the further use of information.

In addition, the solidarity bulletins ILA (Bonn) and `Lateinamerika Anders’ (Vienna) regularly feature news columns from the Poonal Press Service. All in all, Poonal provides a solid and regular base of information
to non-government, non-profit organizations, grassroot groups, and people and institutions with an interest in Latin America.

npl

In late 1997 NPLA started an additional project in order to broaden the distribution of news from our co-operating agencies. The "npl-Article-Service" offers several specially adapted articles to German-language daily and weekly newspapers throughout Europe on a weekly basis. The authors belong to POONAL agencies as well as to a newly established network of independent Latin American journalists from over 10 Latin American countries. German authors are only employed as an exception to round off the news offered.

onda

Since 1999 NPLA has also been exploring radio. The development of media use in Latin America served as a model: there, community radios and radio journalism are far more dynamic than the alternative print sector. Unfortunately, there is often a lack of contact between Latin American and German radio stations - this is where onda comes into the game.

The onda concept is the same as the other NPLA project: Radio agencies and independent correspondents send us audio information and footage specific to Latin America. This primarily consists of interviews, which are then translated and dubbed as audio files and scripts until a German-language radio program is complete. Alongside the Poonal Press Service, "Onda Info", a regular (soon to be weekly) radiomagazine (10-15 minutes) for German-language community radios is available over our audio databank on the internet. Aside from the npl-Article-Service, we also offer specially selected radio programs to public radio broadcasters in order to increase our presence in the media and provide monetary compensation to the correspondents.

Future Goals

The good experience and satisfaction gained in creating this network has inspired us to continue realising other projects. One possibility is to use our infrastructure and links with press agencies and correspondents to translate the information of Poonal, npl and onda into other languages. In the future we would also like to not only transfer words and voices, but also cooperatively produce and publicize video information.

Our most important next step, however, is to further the dialogue with the peoples of Latin American by compiling alternative news and background information about and from Europe and translating it into Spanish (and other languages) for distribution through Latin American news networks.