The IWPR works on free media projects in conflict zones, as a way of promoting peace and democracy. Staff are spread out in offices in ten countries, from where they support local journalism initiatives in getting news out. The website fits into the picture as part of IWPR’s role as an “electronic samizdat,” supporting local reporters under siege and utilising new technologies to disseminate their reporting in country, regionally and internationally.
The site was initially built in 2004 using ActionApps. The nature of the site’s readers and writers required us to develop a system that could support content in any number of languages and scripts. The subsequent system development work led to the creation of the now widely used ActionApps Multi-lingual Extensions (MLX) for publishing content in different language versions. To date the site is publishing articles in 17 languages including Russian, Persian, Arabic, Pashto, Shqip, Kurdish, Bulgarian, Turkmen, Uzbek, Azeri, Armenian, Georgian, French, Tajik , Kyrgyz and Dari.
Other features include audio and video streamed content, and an elaborate subscription facility enabling users to select which news streams they want to receive.
The graphic design for web pages was provided by the IWPR in-house designer Srdan Pajic.
