The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) has offered two online courses in English and Spanish on covering personal finance for Hispanic journalists and US journalists covering finance issues for minority and immigrant communities. These courses started on July 1 and will end on August 18.

The courses were open to Spanish-speaking and English-speaking journalists from ethnic media.

At a pivotal time for the Middle East, Knight International Journalism Fellow Amr El-Kahky is launching teams of investigative reporters at news organizations across the region. His efforts have helped journalists gain more access to government documents than ever before, particularly in Jordan and the West Bank. His investigative unit in Jordan uncovered a vote-buying scheme ahead of the November 2010 parliamentary elections. Jordanian reporters also tackled the issue of childhood alcohol addiction—a controversial topic never covered in the past.

Zarina Geloo launched the country’s first weekly health page in the Times of Zambia, the country’s largest daily newspaper. She trained a team of a dozen reporters to cover issues such as AIDS prevention, malaria, measles and cancer.

A front-page story on a measles epidemic led to a government vaccination campaign targeting 1.6 million people. A series on typhoid cases from contaminated drinking water in the capital triggered a government investigation and a new water treatment program.

Joachim Buwembo helped to create Kilimo Kwanza (Agriculture First), now a financially vibrant weekly publication focusing on agriculture issues. The eight-page supplement is published in English and Kiswahili by the Guardian Newspapers, the country’s top independent newspaper group.

Since it began, the supplement has featured more than 200 stories. Some reports led to new bank loans for farmers to buy imported tractors that lay idle as well as to increased government investment in dairy equipment and irrigation.

Mia Malan launched the first weekly health program at Soweto TV, the largest community TV station in Africa, with more than 1 million viewers. She trained a team to produce high-quality feature reports for the show with a special focus on HIV/AIDS. The half-hour show features topics such as the use and abuse of antiretroviral drugs, male circumcision, attention-deficit disorder and organ transplants.

In addition to the new half-hour weekly show, health stories on Soweto TV’s daily news reports have increased threefold as a result of Malan’s efforts.

Knight International enabled journalists in Ghana to generate balanced reports on their country's 2008 presidential election. Knight Fellow Alison Bethel produced a first-of-its-kind election handbook that journalists used to focus on important issues and avoid stories that fuel partisan strife. The handbook was widely distributed to journalists throughout the capital.

In a country where independent television is proliferating, Knight International worked with broadcast journalists at a leading network to make their reports more timely and compelling. By adding more stories from the field and reducing reliance on single sources, Fellow Adnan Adil Zaidi revitalized the newsroom at ARY OneWorld, now renamed ARY News.

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

About the Program

Plagued by the twin challenges of a slow economy and digital disruption, many U.S. news organizations are cutting back on foreign coverage and are shrinking their editorial staffs.

But journalists can play an essential role in raising awareness around international social justice issues, including women’s rights, corruption, human trafficking, poverty, religious tolerance, environmental issues, migration and education.

It is with this in mind that ICFJ announces the Social Justice Reporting for a Global America Program, sponsored by the Ford Foundation.