Swiss non-profit status gives wings to ex-UN news agency

The former United Nations-controlled news service IRIN says its rebirth as an independent agency should enable hard-hitting coverage of the billion-dollar global aid industry. “This is the culmination of 25 years hard work, stress, tears and adventure,” IRIN director Heba Aly told some 100 guests at the inauguration of its new Geneva headquarters in October. After nearly 20 years as part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), IRIN spun off to become an independent humanitarian media organisation in January 2015. In 2016, IRIN was reborn as a Swiss association. With its network of 170 freelance journalists in 70 crisis zones around the world, it hopes to become a key source for original field reporting and analysis of humanitarian crises and trends. IRIN says it wants to shine a spotlight on the humanitarian world, which it compares ironically to the Vatican in terms of transparency. “A handful of donors and a handful of giant aid ...