From 1997 to around 2008, Shelley was busy with the Shelley Hack Media Consultancy (SHMC), a media consultancy firm she owned that worked in pre- and post-conflict countries. It was a company that internationally specialized on projects that focused on the intersection between media and the development of civil society. She would go into war-torn countries and help them establish democracy through media, which was often done with the help of televised political debates. "I have a consultancy company, and I basically do institution building in post-conflict countries" Shelley told one reporter. And in 1997, she started by producing the first-ever televised presidential debates to be held in Bosnia. (For more, check out: Shelley Hack Media Consultancy)
Shelley said, "When I did the first televised debate in Bosnia, the candidates looked at me, like, 'Why should we debate?'" Since nobody knew what kind of questions should be asked, she solicited questions via a call-in radio show. "It's a huge, huge thing to do in a post-war country," Shelley said, "But if you move forward and enable people, people get it." Meliha Nametak-Long was Shelley's interpreter in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1998; and she recently shared a couple of rare pics of Shelley from 1998 at the Shelley Hack Fan Page on FB. One of the pictures was taken during her country's post-war election where Shelley was one of the supervisors. The other was taken in London a few months later. Meliha Nametak-Long said that Shelley "was great, kind and fun to work with..." We LOOOOVE Shelley Hack too, Meliha Nametak-Long, and THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!! for sharing the pics.
