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Council Minutes
March 2006
8th March 2006
Minutes of the Communications Committee
Wednesday 8 March at 2 pm in CRC Boardroom
Present: Maureen Hetherington, Frances McCandless, Maureen Mackin, Robin Wilson, Michael Wardlow
In Attendance: Ray Mullan, Ellana Tomasso, Jacqueline Irwin
1 Apologies
Duncan Morrow, Maurna Crozier, Pol O’Muiri
2 Minutes
The minutes of the last meeting were agreed.
3 Matters Arising
The Media grant that was approved by the Committee for Westway Films has been ratified by full Council.
Eamonn McCartan and Maurna Crozier met with Anna Carragher and Mark
Adair from the BBC to discuss BBC programming and reporting. Concern was expressed in particular about limited coverage of positive community relations initiatives.
The Communications Committee suggested that CRC should respond to the regional consultation by the BBC on the renewal of its Charter.
At CRC’s Policy Conference on 26 April the broadcaster Kenan Malik is speaking and there is a possibility that a media workshop could be organised for journalists from Northern Ireland for the afternoon.
4 Publications Grant Scheme
With one month of the financial year left £21,170 has been awarded and paid. £6,663 has been committed but not yet paid. This leaves a balance of £2,000 which can be transferred to the Community Relations and Cultural Diversity Grant Scheme which is currently over subscribed.
The application from Lion and the Lamb has been agreed but only on an issue by issue basis. Yes Publications will resubmit their application when their publication on Mediation been revised in line with our external reader’s comments.
5 Media Strategy
Press articles were being planned to raise the profile of A Shared Future.
The Belfast Telegraph will be running an article on Ali McAllister as CRC’ s Shared Future Officer, hopefully in March. Ray Mullan is writing an article on Building A Shared Future for Scope in April. Michael Wardlow has already had articles published on this theme in various press outlets. Community Relations Week in April would produce numerous additional opportunities.
The Policy Development Programme of CRC has commissioned a series of research reports on various Shared Future themes. These will be the basis of consultation seminars in March and a Policy Conference in April. It is hoped that this material could be the basis for further media coverage and be used to brief media champions that will allow more themed media coverage of A Shared Future.
6 CR Week
JPR (formerly John Laird PR) have won the tender to promote CR Week this year.
The theme for the Week is Building A Shared Future.
The programme should be available after week beginning 13 March. There are 90 projects so far lined up during the Week which will be launched at an interface area. About half of the District Councils so far are taking part. Belfast City Council are organising a Celebration of Diversity event in partnership with CRC.
It is hoped that the Minister will make an announcement during the Week about Triennial Action Plans to implement A Shared Future. There was a possibility that Lord Rooker might attend the Policy Conference during the Week.
It was suggested that each day during the week should have a sub-theme and press releases should be released each day reflecting the different themes eg. housing, education etc.
The Committee made a number of suggestions to help raise the media profile. These would be discussed with the JPR.
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7 Date of Future Meetings
15 June 2006 at 2 pm
21 September 2006 at 2 pm
7 December 2006 at 2 pm.
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