Internships at ICFJ-TL

ICFJ’s program in East Timor is becoming increasingly popular with journalism students from Australia who are looking for internship placements – this of course benefits not only the students, but also journalists in East Timor. Claire Gallagher and Natalie Whiting, third year journalism students from Charles Sturt University in Australia, are among four journalism students from CSU who are currently interns at ICFJ TL. Claire and Natalie conducted a three-day radio training course at the Maubisse Media House in mid-September. Natalie did follow-up radio journalism training at the Maubisse media house in late September / early October. She focused on balance, lead writing and how to select the strongest sound bites for a radio story, and she also worked with the reporters on digital editing.

During their internships, the students not only conduct training sessions, they also mentor Timorese journalists. Intern Tom Shearman spent four days in Baucau training radio, TV and print journalists, and he also worked with The Dili Weekly and Timortoday.com. Peter Kesina, another third year student, has been assisting with stories for Timortoday.com and will conduct a broadcast and print training course in Suai in early October.

Training Courses

Retired Australian journalist Bob Howarth conducted a one-day training session on layout and design for newspapers. Participating media outlets included The Dili Weekly, Journal Diario Nacional, Business Timor and Timor Post. The aim of the workshop was to demonstrate ways to make the newspapers more appealing to readers.

Tom Shearman helped out at The Dili Weekly during part of his three week internship at ICFJ in Timor-Leste. Tom assisted The Dili Weekly reporters on their stories, helped with layout and design, and fined-tuned the English in the English language section of the weekly newspaper.

Training of Trainers (TOT) Program

ICFJ is putting the finishing touches to a training manual for journalism trainers. The project was lead by international trainer Chloe Adams, with input from trainer Budi Setyo as well as from participants in the TOT program. The manual has more than 10 chapters – with topics such as lead writing, newsworthiness, story structure, story development and clarity. One chapter is devoted to broadcast journalism.

The manual is already being used by the original group of TOTs: they are using it to teach a new group of TOTs. The training program is monitored by Chloe Adams and ICFJ staffer Frances Suni, who has a degree in journalism from a university in Australia.

Regional Media Houses

ICFJ’s six media houses continue to function normally, with National Coordinator Manuel Ximenes working closely with the UMR coordinators. In September, Manuel conducted two training sessions with the media house coordinators in Suai and in Maubisse.

Timortoday.com

The online news agency Timortoday.com was very busy in September!

When one of the vice prime minister’s resigned from office, the Timortoday.com staff had the story the same day. The story was downloaded more than 400 times within a four-hour period. The story had been put together by Timortoday.com reporter Marcelino Pereira and intern Claire Gallagher, one of the four journalism students from Charles Sturt University in Australia.

Intern Tom Shearman worked with the Timortoday.com staff on stories about the bike race ‘Tour de Timor’ – one of the stories focused on the economic impact the bike race has had on Timor-Leste.

Some of the other stories produced by Timortoday.com: problems with electricity cuts in Dili; Baucau residents are unhappy with the high price of rice; and a fungus that is attacking fruit trees in Timor-Leste. Please visit the Timortoday website to see the full range of recent audio and video news items!

Timortoday continues to attract more and more attention as a result of its timely news reports, its new Facebook page, the new English subtitles on video news reports, and the twice-weekly updates that are now listed on the widely-read ETAN – the East Timor Action Network.

According to Google Analytics, the most number of “hits” for Timortoday.com come from Timor-Leste, followed by the United Kingdom, Portugal, Australia and Indonesia.

Printing Press

Start the Presses! September 23 saw the launch of another of ICFJ’s projects -- the Independent Printing Press Timor-Leste, or IPPTL for short. More than 50 guests attended the launch ceremony at the newly renovated facility in the Fomento District of Dili. IPPTL is funded by USAID and UNESCO and is made up of three partners – Timor Post, The Dili Weekly and Kla’ak.

The Dili Weekly began using the press in early August, and Timor Post followed suit in mid-September. Kla’ak plans to start printing its weekly paper at IPPTL in October.

The Independent Printing Press Timor-Leste will operate as a for-profit, commercial business.

Media Law

ICFJ-IREX is continuing to make journalists and media representatives aware of their role, to ensure reporters are not restricted in the covering of news stories. ICFJ has assisted KOLKOS (the Timor-Leste ‘Commission for Social Communication Legislation’) in hosting a workshop entitled "The Role and Responsibility of the Media in Building Stability and Democracy". The aims of the workshop were: 1) to enrich the knowledge of the media in relation to a Code of Ethics for Journalists; 2) for journalists to gain an understanding of the role of the Press Council and to understand what journalists in Timor-Leste expect of this Press Council; and 3) to inform journalists on the existence and contents of the National Mass Communications Policy and what it means for them.

As a result of the success of this workshop, additional KOLKOS / ICFJ workshops are being planned for the districts of Baucau, Maubisse and Oecussi, to familiarize media representatives with the National Policy and to educate journalists on their rights of freedom of expression.

In addition, ICFJ's media legal adviser Sarah Harmelink has been invited to speak at a workshop to be hosted by the Secretary of State for the Council of Ministers on a proposed Code of Ethics for the media sector, to be held on October 21.