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HMF Mission:

The Media has extraordinary power to focus attention on issues of humanitarian importance; however, this power is not often used effectively.

The Media--in all its forms--has the power to inform, reflect, and influence issues of international importance. The media's role does not and should not just illuminate the plights of human populations in crisis; it should also illuminate the underlying politics and spheres of influence involved in international conflict by governments, corporations, and other independent actors and stakeholders in which such crises are the inevitable result.

The mission of the HMF, launched May 1, 2008, has concentrations in two major areas: advocacy and policy.

The Advocacy arm of the HMF seeks to tap into the power of media and information—film, both documentary and narrative; art and music; print, web, television, and photojournalism; social and new media; and new information dissemination technologies—and extend their influence more broadly, so that humanitarian issues are not just covered in brief articles, commercials, profiles, or soundbytes, but can be explored and given context, so that their importance is more widely known. To this end, the HMF will be enlisting the support and partnership of news agencies, journalists, filmmakers, writers, artists, international NGO's, figures in international policy, and international philanthropy--among others--to bring attention to areas of humanitarian importance and to act as a conduit among them, so that collaborations and exchanges of ideas might more easily take place.

As importantly, the Policy arm of the HMF explores the nexus of all forms of media and information--including both aggregation and dissemination--with international and humanitarian affairs. This includes information aggregation and dissemination to crisis-affected populations, defining international media and information policy, the role information plays in PKO and humanitarian interventions, and how information influences and affects populations before, during, and following crisis.

The Humanitarian Media Foundation (HMF), a non-partisan, non-sectarian Foundation in the United States, utilizes and advocates multiple forms of media (film, television, journalism, photojournalism, new media, social media, art and other dissemination technology) to explore aspects of domestic and international humanitarian crises, issues and histories; raise awareness for humanitarian matters; encourage collaboration among media entities and international stakeholders; and facilitate change in areas where it is most needed.

Initiatives:
The initiatives of the Humanitarian Media Foundation (HMF) include the HMF Consultancy, the HMF International Film/Media Festival & Conference, HMF Films, HMF Publishing, and the International Media and Information Policy Journal (MIPJ) (to be launched in early 2010).

Scope of Humanitarian Matters:
Including, without limitation: refugee crises, medical relief, human rights, war, genocide, debt relief, cross-cultural and political conflict, other war crimes and international criminal tribunals, indigenous populations and conflicts within and without their communities, and humanitarian needs during natural disasters.