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Central New York Witness for Peace Delegation: Dominican Republic

Media Report

Background: A Witness for Peace delegations was organized to visit Haiti from Central New York. At the last minute the travel ban changed the delegations plan and the trip was rescheduled to the Dominican Republic. Meetings were arranged with Haitian refugees and solidarity groups working in the DR.

A number of delegates dropped out due to the change in plans. The delegation consisted of six people; four from Syracuse and two from adjoining towns. There were two school teachers, a nurse/midwife, a social worker, a retired psychiatric nurse and a journalist. Media coverage was arranged by GW Associates.

Media Coverage: Media coverage was excellent. In addition to numerous local news interviews and radio and TV talk show appearances, we were able to arrange a syndicated radio talk show interview which was broadcast to 125 stations. The journalist on the delegation was able to place articles in two national publications and has two magazine articles pending at the time this report was written. Thirty six interviews/articles were arranged with a few interviews still pending.

News interviews were generated a number of months prior to departure; while in the Dominican Republic and after they returned.

Benefits: The coverage helped in fundraising and recruitment for the delegation. It significantly raised the profile of the national organization, Witness for Peace and achieved the delegation's goal of educating people in their community as to the history of US involvement and the current situation in Haiti. Relationships were also strengthened with local reporters who appreciated the opportunity to pursue a national breaking story through a local angle.

Pre-trip interviews:

• Newspapers - Three articles
• Radio - Four interviews
• Total: 11

These news interviews were generated around announcement of the travel ban, a fundraiser, our weekend training session and departure from the airport.

In country interviews:

• Newspapers - two articles
• Radio - One five minute live feature interview Total: 3

These interviews were generated by phone calls from the Dominican Republic. They were arranged prior to departure.

Post-trip interviews:

• Newspapers - Seven articles
• Magazine - One article published
• Radio - Three interviews, four talk shows
• TV - Three news interviews, four talk shows
• Total: 22

The newspaper articles included the two daily papers in Syracuse, a local minority oriented paper, the Catholic diocesan newspaper, two newspapers from cities where delegates lived outside of Syracuse and a national Catholic newspaper. The magazine article was published in The Other Side

The radio interviews ranged from brief 30 second sound bites to five minute feature interviews. the radio talk shows were 60 minute, call in formats on both AM & FM stations. The syndicated talk show, Common Ground reaches an audience of 7000,000 on 125 stations.

TV news interviews were broadcast prime time on both 6 and 11 PM news. Talk shows ranged from 30 to 60 minutes on network, public and cable stations.