Radio Netherlands Worldwide is launching an extensive, interactive web dossier in seven languages on human rights and political prisoners today: www.rnw.nl/political-prisoners.
The dossier, which focuses on the families of political prisoners, is being launched during the ‘Human Rights & (New) Media’ conference in The Hague. It features a series of film portraits made in cooperation with IDTV.
The ‘Political Prisoners’ dossier is in seven languages. It includes powerful videos, insightful articles and discussions on human rights and political prisoners. In eight film portraits, family members of prisoners from Cuba, Uzbekistan, China, Iran, Eritrea, Indonesia, Azerbaijan and Colombia tell their stories. The web dossier is published in Dutch, English, Spanish, Indonesian, Chinese, Arabic and French.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide Editor-in-Chief Rik Rensen says: “The prisoners in the films are not normally in the spotlight and come, without exception, from regions where there is a lack of freedom of speech and the press. It is in precisely these regions that Radio Netherlands Worldwide is active and their personal stories deserve attention.”
The web dossier focuses mainly on unknown political prisoners. Why are they being held and under what kind of circumstances? How do family members experience the detention of their loved ones, with whom, in some cases, they have not been allowed contact for many years? Radio Netherlands Worldwide provides a platform using social media networks in which family, friends and organisations are able to exchange news and experiences.