Stellenbeschreibung

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Junior Professional Officer Programme (JPO) Chiffre Nr. 2026-1-06

TERMS OF REFERENCE

1. General Information

Title:   JPO Media in Crisis Preparedness and Response

Organizational Unit: Section for Media Development and Emergency; Division for Freedom of Expression, Media Development and Media and Information Literacy; Communication and Information Sector (CI/FMD/MDE)

Country and Duty Station: Headquarter Paris, France

Duration of assignment: 2 years with possibility of extension for another year. The extension of appointment is subject to yearly review concerning priorities, availability of funds, and satisfactory performance

Please note that for participants of the JPO-Programme two years work experience are mandatory! Relevant work experience can be counted. In order to assess the eligibility of the candidates, we review the relevant experience acquired after obtaining the first university degree (usually bachelor’s degree).
 

 2. Duties and Responsibilities

Within this context, the JPO will:

• Undertake a variety of actions supporting UNESCO’s work on media in crisis preparedness and response, particularly climate change and disasters, among others. This includes development of documents or materials, organization of events, and execution of projects and initiatives.
• Backstop and monitor contracts as well as UNESCO Field Offices’ activities related to media in crisis preparedness and response. Help Member States conceive and implement projects, tools, and resources supporting media in this thematic area.
• Help reinforce media institutions to safeguard their editorial independence and journalistic ethics and standards, achieving balance, impartiality and diversity in media content, even in contexts of emergency.
• Contribute to resource mobilization and partnership building. Identify interest in supporting media in crisis preparedness and response, through bilateral funding sources, private sector, in-kind contributions, high net-worth individuals and other. Follow fundraising trends, opportunities and risks, and maintain mutually beneficial relations with donors. Identify potential partners, liaise with existing partners, and create mailing lists.
• Contribute to the Section’s communication and visibility and knowledge management actions in the area of media in crisis preparedness and response.
  

3. Required Qualifications

Education: Master’s degree in the field of communication and information, media, journalism, or broadcasting.

Work experience:

• A minimum of two (2) years of progressively responsible experience of direct work with or for media, particularly in crisis, emergency or conflict situations.
• A minimum of two (2) years of proven experience in fund-raising, particularly for media-related projects.
• Experience in managing social media content and web platforms as well as tracking and processing data related to websites, live streaming, social media performance, and image rights (downloads, hits, video and audio plays, and unique page views, etc.).
• Experience in organizing international events desirable.

Competencies and skills:

• Good communication skills, including writing news items, articles, social media materials and reports.
• Capacity to ensure accuracy of documents paying close attention to detail, and correct use of reference sources, quotes, and evidence-based recommendations.
• Knowledge of graphic design, multimedia or audio and visual productions (use of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere, Final Cut Pro, QuarkXPress, Affinity Publisher, and/or Hindenberg Pro, etc.), and competencies to assess deliverables resulting from professional recordings desirable.

Languages:

• Excellent knowledge of at least one of the working languages of the Secretariat (English or French) and very good knowledge of the other language.
• Knowledge of a third official UNESCO language would be an asset (Arabic, Chinese, Russian and/or Spanish).

4. Learning Elements

Throughout this assignment, the JPO will be trained to work in an intergovernmental system and help Member States achieve the Sustainable Development Goals through the reinforcement of free, independent, pluralistic media. These goals are defined in the 2030 Agenda, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015. The incumbent will have the opportunity of getting insider professional experience in the United Nations.

In particular, he/she will:

1. Obtain competences to work in an inter-cultural framework, in a team with colleagues from all regions of the world.
2. Put into practice the organized body of theoretical knowledge acquired at university or formal training.
3. Develop judgment in analyzing and evaluating problems as well as in decision-making involving discretionary choices between alternative courses of action.
4. Provide assistance to countries to develop their media landscapes, particularly media in crisis preparedness and response. More specifically, the JPO will gain experience in enabling an environment in which media can comfortably deal with climate change, migration, terrorism, violent extremism, hunger and/or other crisis or emergency situations.
5. The JPO will liaise with representatives and partners from the 194 different Member States and 12 Associate Members of UNESCO.
6. Implement action in the five geographical regions of the world, with particular attention to SIDS and developing countries, and be able to assess and get acquainted with their diversity of media settings.

5. Background Information

Crises, their tragic context and urgency with the demand for coordinated responses and life-saving content, are not incompatible with the rights to information and freedom of expression. Despite the emergency context, be it epidemics, natural hazards or other, humanitarians and authorities should not seek to influence editorial decisions in ways that compromise media’s professional ethics. Nor should they request disclosure of journalists’ sources. Audiences have to continue to trust the media’s impartiality and be confident that the media is not being used for dis- or misinformation. At stake in crisis situations is to differentiate between strategic/persuasive communications (behaviour change) on the one hand, and independent journalism (reporting) on the other hand. They are complimentary, but media can lose its unique credibility and power to sustain democracy if it is conflated with other kinds of communication. Even during emergencies, the media’s agenda needs to still be the aspiration to produce verifiable information and informed debate in the public interest, conveying not only what citizens need to do, but also what they have the right to know.

The Section for Media Development and Media in Emergency is responsible for programmes aimed at promoting media pluralism and diversity, as well as media in crisis preparedness and response, including media and terrorism, migration and forced displacement, climate change, epidemics, among others. It mostly provides institutional capacity development, both assisting governments and independent media and their associations to safeguard their editorial independence and journalistic ethics and standards, to function in the public interest, and be able to hold the powerful to account.

Bitte senden Sie Ihre JPO-Bewerbung direkt an das Büro Führungskräfte zu Internationalen Organisationen (BFIO) unter Angabe der Chiffre Nr. 2026-1-06 auf dem Bewerbungsbogen

Alle Informationen finden Sie unter www.bfio.de