2 April 2008
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen launched a new web-based television channel meant to improve understanding of the Alliance roles, operation and missions at the NATO Summit in Bucharest.
The new TV channel is the result of close cooperation between the NATO Public Diplomacy Division and the Danish Government to improve the way the Alliance communicates its work and image to the general public.
“When it comes to video, we are frankly in the stone age. NATO has no ability to gather video from the field to show people what is happening,” NATO Secretary General said during a seminar on public diplomacy in NATO-led operations in Copenhagen in October 2007.
This new channel will help address that challenge.
The Danish government provided NATO with a video production facility, two camera teams and an internet-based TV channel on NATO’s home page.
The Danish prime minister stressed the importance of communication to the public on NATO’s operation in Afghanistan. “We owe it to the many men and women in NATO operations, as well as their families to show the results and challenges of their work in mission areas,” he said.
The NATO channel will enable NATO to provide regular news updates and video reports from the different regions where NATO is engaged. Footage will also be available in broadcast quality for journalists and media networks to download.
As of 2 April, the NATO channel will be available at www.natochannel.tv.
