13 November 2003 Edition
Sinn Féin's internet election special
BY JOANNE CORCORAN
Sinn Féin's subscription news service, Irish Republican Media (www.irishrepublicanmedia.com) launched its online Assembly Election web special on Monday 10 November in Belfast. The previous Friday, the party set up a new election site — www.sinnsein.ie/assembly — and the two are set to serve as comprehensive guides to the upcoming election.
The IRM site (www.irishrepublicanmedia.com) will be carrying exclusive footage including:
• Six behind the scenes video clips every week
• Live footage and interviews with candidates from the count centres
• Live results
• Continual newsletters and election alerts.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams is encouraging people to subscribe to the site and avail of this excellent service.
"We are very excited at this opportunity to provide our supporters around the world with this unprecedented coverage of the Sinn Féin team on its way to success in the election," he said. He also said that he hoped the two sites would encourage young people, many of whom were turned off by the cancellation of the election last May, to come out and vote.
"Since its launch during the summer, the Sinn Féin website has been going from strength to strength. In three months there have been more than three million hits on the site and hundreds of people from right across the country have joined Sinn Féin online.
He continued: "The election site will be critical to our campaign and will be an important tool in reaching people across society but in particular young people and voters who are following the campaign from abroad.
"The site contains extensive information on all aspects of our election campaign, including candidate profiles, constituency information, campaign literature, party political broadcast and policy information. The election newsroom is updated several times daily. People can also join the party or help local election teams during the campaign.
"During the course of the campaign we will also have exclusive behind-the-scenes video clips which will be carried on the Irish Republican Media news service.
"We will also have extensive coverage when we go to the polls on 26 November and from the count centres across the North on 27 November. This will include regular updates from senior party figures, candidates and party activists at the count centres."
The IRM news service began on 23 July 2003 with the launch of Sinn Féin's new website, www.sinnfein.ie. The IRM offers email news updates three times a week, breaking news alerts, exclusive interviews with leading republicans, video clips and An Phoblacht available for download every week.
The IRM replaced the RM Distribution service, previously available from the old Sinn Féin site. Those who had a subscription to RM Distribution will get four months free when they subscribe to the IRM.