Here’s a handy tool we just came across: a media guide to civil society experts around the world. You can search by topic, region, country, and language. Called Civil Society Gateway, it was developed by the World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS) and the Inter Press Service (IPS).

I’m often surprised when training overseas how little NGOs are used as sources by journalists in some countries. A number of NGOs, including certain human rights and environmental groups, have quite good research departments, and a few of them have sophisticated investigative capability. Of course, they’ll have their own agendas, but that’s no different from dealing with governments or companies. Hope this helps…