An international media organisation based in Glasgow is to become an official content provider for The Guardian.Founded in 1994, INSP supports 120 street newspapers in 40 countries with a combined readership of six million per edition.
Its members have access to the INSP news service which provides stories and pictures to enable editors around the world with limited resources to publish stories at no cost. Through the news service, papers share each other’s content as well as access exclusive INSP-produced material.
INSP journalists report on issues relating to homelessness and social justice and can often gain unique access to stories in their home nations through their local knowledge and contacts.
For the past two years INSP has also been providing stories to the mainstream press in Europe as part of a project funded by the EU. Major issues covered by INSP journalists include the on-going plight of the marginalised in India’s booming IT capital Bangalore and the problems faced by Somalians in Mogadishu as they try to recover after war. INSP reporters have also filed stories from - among other countries - South Sudan, The Gambia, Zambia and Afghanistan.
Media who have published INSP material include the BBC, Al Jazeera, Scotland On Sunday and the Sunday Herald. INSP’s news agency was nominated for ‘Best Specialist Site for Journalism’ at the Online Media Awards earlier this year. With a growing number of homeless people as a result of the global financial crisis, the charity seeks support to continue its work.
The Guardian’s Global Development website has published a number of INSP stories including a report on human trafficking in Malawi and a photo essay on the sex trade in Burkina Faso. As a result of this successful collaboration and the quality of journalism provided, the Guardian has asked INSP to become an official content partner for its Global Development site.
Lisa Maclean, INSP executive director, said: “I am delighted that INSP’s quality journalism has been acknowledged by the Guardian through our new content partnership with the Guardian Global Development site. INSP and street papers produce independent content that brings important social justice issues and unheard voices into the spotlight. By forming partnerships like this one, the Guardian is supporting the dissemination of these issues into the wider public domain.”
