Stories of resilience, hope and new beginnings resonated with Russian-speaking audiences as THE WHY’s documentary films, re-versioned and published by BBC News Russian, reached almost 6 million views on YouTube in 2020.

As part of a partnership agreement, a series of documentaries curated  by THE WHY Foundation were translated and voiced over by BBC News Russian.  Published on the service’s YouTube channel, the documentaries were watched for a total of 1.27m hours, engaging thousands of people in debates about human rights.

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Partnerships for more informed public

Based on an agreement reached in 2017, the international broadcaster has access to the foundation’s high-quality documentaries available for re-versioning for audiences around the world. Translated, voiced-over and published by BBC News Russian, the documentary In the Name of Your Daughter had the highest number of views in 2020, followed by Putin’s Forgotten Children and Dancing Boys of Afghanistan.  

Partnerships with broadcasters, educational institutions and non-profit organizations secure access to reliable information for everyone. Spreading the word about humanitarian and political injustices around the world provides people with knowledge to help them make more informed decisions. 

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WHY STORIES reveals challenges of today

WHY STORIES is an annually curated series of compelling and thought-provoking documentaries about the world we live in. With 20 new films per year, the series is distributed by THE WHY Foundation on a global scale. 

The fifth season of the series has reached an estimated audience of 200 million people per film. One of the biggest aims of the series is to ensure that local broadcasters in underserved regions have dubbed versions of the film – in their local languages. 

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Free content on a global level

THE WHY has a vision of making investigative documentaries free and available for audiences, no matter what education they have and in which country they live. The core of THE WHY’s projects is to promote and advocate for human rights. 

Documentary films have a great potential to uncover human rights violations in a comprehensive and engaging way. Starting a critical global debate can result in many positive changes in society.  

THE WHY is proud to provide access to reliable information to 600 million people across 191 countries and territories around the world.