Stephen Douglas launched the country’s first media training center at the new Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), and served as its interim director. He coordinates all journalism and media management training funded by groups such as Deutsche Welle, Journalists for Human Rights, BBC World Service Trust and the United Nations. Courses range from media law and basic radio reporting to journalism ethics and TV camera operation.

Knight International has made huge inroads in health coverage in Uganda. Over the past 2.5 years, Knight Fellow Christopher Conte has developed a vibrant community of journalists who now have the expertise to tackle tough health issues including the AIDS epidemic and health-care spending.

The Kenya Alliance of Health and Science Reporters (KAHSR), a journalism association Rachel Jones launched in November, now offers regular training workshops and resources on topics such as new vaccines, children’s health and agricultural research. The association is supported by a grant from the London-based Wellcome Trust. At Alliance workshops, journalists can interact with the country’s leading medical researchers and scientists.

In a country where radio helped incite genocide, Knight International helped produce balanced broadcasts on the recovering nation. Knight Fellow Sputnik Kilambi improved newscasts in French and Kinyarwandan and launched the first news programs in English at the country's first privatized independent radio station, Contact FM.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Launched English-language news service that is used by government leaders and is attracting new sponsors.

• Raised the station's profile: Before the U.S.

Knight International worked with newspapers and radio stations to create weekly environmental reports in Indonesia, a country facing deforestation, over-fishing, mining and pollution.

In a country where a stable government is slowly starting to emerge after years of conflict, Knight International worked with radio journalists to monitor political leaders. Knight Fellow Vianney Missumbi also helped improve election coverage, despite repeated postponements of the vote. He revived a journalism association and enabled reporters to break stories that are prompting local officials to address important issues.

Sylvia Vollenhoven created a weekly radio show that has transformed coverage of social issues and poverty in Ghana. On the popular “Hotline” show, Joy FM, the country’s top English language station, reporters have produced NPR-quality documentaries on topics ranging from the plight of illegal miners and the threat of erosion on fishing villages to the consequences of chronic flooding that kills dozens and leaves thousands homeless every year.

In East Timor, Knight International helped radio journalists provide for the first time an independent, national weekly newscast to listeners in all 13 districts of the country. Knight Fellow Maria-Gabriela Carrascalão Heard, East Timor’s first woman journalist, trained news teams in each district to produce weekly segments. She created the first university-level journalism program in the capital as well as the first student radio station.

Knight International Journalism Fellow Klarreich established an investigative team at Le Nouvelliste, Haiti’s leading newspaper, which regularly produces stories on the misuse of aid sent to Haiti after the catastrophic January 2010 earthquake. The team has broken stories about a land dispute that stopped work at a critically important sanitation plant near a refugee camp. After reading these reports, Haitian President Michel Joseph Martelly intervened and construction resumed.

Knight International helped radio stations serving indigenous rural communities in Guatemala to build NoticiasdemiGente.com, a Web site for sharing content. Led by Knight Fellow Maria Martin, rural radio reporters now can upload stories and disseminate them across the country.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Raised the quality of local news reports produced by rural journalists.
• Linked the radio stations via a digital platform, expanding the menu of programs reaching rural communities.