Monique Villa: Information is a form of aid

​Monique Villa (photo), chief executive of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, says she has transformed the company’s charitable arm to provide information when disaster strikes.

“My conviction is that information is a form of aid and that access to information is as important as aid when a disaster strikes,” she said in an interview with the Financial Times. “In, say, an earthquake or tsunami, you have the media covering the story and you have the humanitarian machine in full swing but nobody informing the affected population, in their language, about [things like] distribution and where to find a surgeon. I have transformed the foundation to provide that function.”

Asked how attitudes to charity differ across Europe, Villa said the French way of giving is more pragmatic, hard-nosed and less sentimental than the Anglo-American way.

“They give a lot in the US and UK but they lobby government a lot. In Europe, they tend to lobby less and focus on providing relief. French people created MSF [Médecins Sans Frontières], for example, who go straight to the front line.”

Villa said the foundation has built a network of 600 charities around the world, which it supports with information and legal aid.

She joined Reuters in 2000 after working as an AFP correspondent in Paris, Rome and London. A former managing director at Reuters Media, she was appointed the foundation’s CEO in April 2008.

Monique Villa’s interview with the Financial Times. ■