David M. Hoffman

David Michael Hoffman (born January 18, 1945) is an American author, political commentator, television project director and media activist.

He is the Founder and President Emeritus of Internews, a global non-profit organization supporting independent media and access to quality information worldwide. Experts of post-Soviet media "call Hoffman the nonprofit Ted Turner".

Professional career David M. Hoffman at the Internews Media Leadership Awards, 2007 Hoffman is Founder and President Emeritus of Internews, a global non-profit organization that fosters independent media and access to information worldwide. Internews was founded by Hoffman in 1982 with partners Kim Spencer and Evelyn Messinger. developed by Kim Spencer and Evelyn Messinger, Hoffman organized a series of seven satellite television exchanges between leaders of the US Congress and their counterparts on the Supreme Soviet. Produced in association with ABC News and Gosteleradio, the Capital-to-Capital live broadcasts lasted from 1987 to 1990 with each program reaching audiences of 200 million people. Hoffman and the members of Congress who helped organize the series were recognized with an Emmy Award.

When the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) opened with the trial of Dusko Tadic on May 7, 1996, Hoffman organized live broadcasts of the proceedings that were transmitted by satellite and rebroadcast on all five commercial television channels in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as on the state channel, BiH TV, completely blanketing the airwaves 11 hours a day. The live coverage was also distributed on satellite television channels in Croatia and Serbia.

The following year, 1997, when the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) opened in Arusha, Tanzania, Hoffman organized the only filming of the proceedings. Internews showed monthly edited versions of the genocide trials in village meetings and prisons throughout Rwanda. Questions and comments were taped and shown to the judges and prosecutors at the court in Arusha and their responses were relayed back in further town hall events, creating a rudimentary, but effective, feedback loop. The Rwanda project was led by Wanda Hall.

Hoffman developed and raised the first funding for the Global Internet Policy Initiative (GIPI), a network of non-profit, non-governmental organizations supporting adoption in developing and transitional countries of the legal and policy framework for an open and democratic Internet.

In 2000 Hoffman was one of the founders of Link TV and secured its initial funding. Link TV is a non-commercial direct-to-home satellite television channel that provides a unique perspective on international news, current events, and diverse cultures, presenting issues not often covered in the US media. It is carried on DirecTV and the Dish networks.

Recognizing that local media are the most effective source for communicating sensitive public health issues, Hoffman initiated Internews' efforts to train local journalists in their coverage of HIV/AIDS and other critical public health issues and produce television, radio and print articles. Over a thousand journalists have been trained in Africa and Asia.

Hoffman and Jane Safly Rogers collaborated to launch the Earth Journalism Network (EJN) to empower and enable journalists from developing countries to cover the environment more effectively. Under the leadership of its Executive Director James Fahn, EJN has trained thousands of journalists to cover many environmental concerns including climate change, biodiversity, water, environment health, and oceans and coastal resources.

In June 2003 the Athens Media Framework created a draft of democratic media laws that were later fully adopted by post-war Iraq. Hoffman envisioned the Framework and raised the funding to bring 80 media experts from around the world together for this unprecedented effort. The draft legislation they produced, coordinated by George Papagiannis, guaranteed media freedom and the abolition of censorship. Other recommendations included a plan for developing journalistic ethics, an internet policy and the creation of an independent public broadcasting authority in Iraq.

Hoffman was instrumental in creating Internews' emergency response capabilities for responding to humanitarian disasters and secured its initial funding. Specially trained journalists worked with surviving local media to provide life saving information during relief efforts in Aceh and Sri Lanka after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Haiti following the January 2010 earthquake, the Philippines in 2013 following Typhoon Haiyan among other humanitarian crisis. Other humanitarian interventions have established radio stations for refugee populations fleeing fighting from Darfur, Sudan, Somalia, Syria and other conflicts. In January 2010 Hoffman assisted the formation of CDAC (Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities), headquartered in London, that coordinates emergency media response actions of BBC Media Action, CARE, the UN and other humanitarian and media development organizations.

Hoffman was Founder and the first Chairman of the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD). Launched in 2005 in Amman, Jordan, it brought together the media development sector for the first time. GFMD is a practitioner-led process open to all sides of the community involved in media development around the world, with a mission to make media development an integral part of overall development strategies. He currently serves as Chairman Emeritus.

Awards 1996, TV and Radio Award for Broadcast Commitment from ECHO (European Commission) otherwise known as the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) 1989, Emmy Award for Capital to Capital, a series of live debates on ABC between the U.S. Congress and the USSR Supreme Soviet CUNY Graduate School of Journalism Press (2013) (Book)