Very interesting development by the Thomson Reuters Foundation – its Emergency Information Service (EIS), launched today, will send units of journalists to scenes of major natural disasters to “seek out, collate and disseminate life-saving information to disaster-struck populations, filling a critical gap in the chain of crisis information”.

The foundation is working with the Red Cross in the initiative to act as a delivery partner in disaster zones.

Journalism.co.uk will be speaking with Thomson Foundation CEO Monique Villa tomorrow to find out more. But earlier in the year Villa told us that the EIS would address the problem of the vacuum effect that happens in disaster zones: media attention is initially intense but is often rapidly withdrawn as another breaking news event occurs. EIS will seek to fill this gap, she explained.

The foundation and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) have also released a multimedia film to back the launch of EIS – “Surviving the Tsunami: Stories of Hope” – and to mark the fifth anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. The trailer is below: