The U.S. Agency for International Development has approved a three-year grant renewal for the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ)'s Timor-Leste media development program. ICFJ will work with local partners to launch the first-ever university level journalism program and continue to run its media center, along with other initiatives.

Since its launch in 2006, ICFJ’s “Strengthening Independent Media Program in Timor-Leste” program has given resources and skills to print, broadcast and new media journalists in the country, as well as to media managers and those working in media law reform.

This program has already led to a number of firsts in journalism in the country. ICFJ supported Timor-Leste's first Media Awards ceremony that gathered over 400 civic leaders, journalists and aid workers, raising funds to run regional media houses outside the capital--the first regional center, in Baucau, opened in January, providing journalists in the country’s second-largest city with computer access and journalistic materials.

Among the award winners were Carlos de Jesus and Rita Almeida, who have become leaders in a training-of-trainers program established early during ICFJ’s previous two-year program, which has also received funding from the Australian Agency for International Development.

In June, ICFJ began helping students from the University of Peace (UNPAZ) produce a student newsletter. And in cooperation with the Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosoa’e (UNTL), ICFJ launched a campus radio station and pilot journalism-training course for students and faculty to operate the university’s radio station, Radio Akademika. Those steps are the first in ICFJ’s effort to establish the country’s first degree-granting journalism program.

Also, through a small grants program, journalists were able to equip newsrooms with new computers and video and radio equipment, rehabilitate four community radio stations, and purchase archival and database equipment at a weekly newspaper.

With USAID’s recent grant extension, ICFJ will do more to improve the ability of Timorese journalists to produce and disseminate high-quality news. Building better media will make valuable information available to all citizens of Timor-Leste.