News

In Mozambique, Surgery Helps Women Recover Both Health and Dignity

There is nothing like interviewing women with fistula to realize, in your heart and in your bones, what fistula does to women: the humiliation, marginalization, loss of self-esteem, and depression. Fistula is an orifice resulting from ruptured tissue between bladder, rectum and vagina that provokes permanent incontinence. Feces and urine flow through the vagina.

Obstetric fistula is caused by early and repeated pregnancies, long and complicated deliveries without proper medical care, delays in reaching hospital, clandestine abortion and violent rape.

Mobile News Service Breaks Story Alleging Police Crackdown in India

Himanshu Kumar runs a non-governmental organization in Chhattisgarh district, where Knight International Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary has created a mobile phone news network called CGnet Swara. When Kumar heard from colleagues who described a brutal police attack on several villages, he filed a report using his cell phone. He alleged the police had killed two people and raped five women.

Food Arrives for Hungry Children After Citizen Journalist Files Report On Indian Cell Phone Network

When government food deliveries provided for malnourished children in rural India suddenly stopped around the first of the year, Savita Rath and other indigenous workers who care for the children did the best they could to provide meals.

But with food supplies dwindling, Savita also picked up a cell phone and filed a report through CGNet Swara, a mobile news network created by Knight International Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary.

The Return of Jean Bertrand Aristide

"Li Ale, Li Toune, Li Ale, Li Toune Net" was just one of the chants throngs of supporters sang outside Haiti's airport early Friday, March 18: "He left, he came back, he left, he's here to stay." The "he" is Jean-Bertand Aristide, the only president in modern history to be deposed and returned to power, then deposed again and returned a second time. Only this time, as opposed to being able to finish his truncated 5-year term as he did in 1994, he's returning from seven years exile in South Africa, ineligible to run for president again.

In Sierra Leone, A New Broadcast Training Space Raises Hope

Training. Capacity-building. Resource development. Things that everyone from President E.B. Koroma and Board Chair Septimus Kaikai to Idrissa, a camera operator, and Emmanuel, a radio presenter, have yearned for at the year-old Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), the country’s first public broadcaster. The need for training is ever apparent and almost universally recognized here in Sierra Leone.

Haiti’s Presidential Election May Impact Press Freedom

On Sunday, March 20, Haitians will go to the polls to elect their new president. This second-round vote for the top two contenders from a field of 19 is a first in Haiti’s history.

Mrs Siti Zurina Hassan and the Bank Negara Malaysia - One Proof Point in the Local News Model

At MalaysiaKini’s start-up community news operation, KomunitiKini, we have been working on bringing three things together into a business model for local community news – trained community based citizen journalists (CJ’s), an online platform for communities to create their own local newspaper and finally local advertising.

Burns Chairman Given Commander's Cross

Frank Loy, chairman of the Arthur Burns Fellowships and former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, recently won the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. The award was presented by German President Christian Wulff on Nov. 2, 2010, at the German Ambassador’s residence in Washington, DC. The Order of Merit is awarded to Germans as well as foreigners for achievements in the political, economic, social or intellectual realm and for outstanding services to the nation in the field of social, charitable or philanthropic work.

Medcom -- Telemetro promotes Mi Panama Transparente

Rafael Candanedo, Vice President of the Forum of Journalists for Freedom of Expression and Information, made a presentation on Mi Panama Transparente in an interview in Telemetro Reporta, a very popular morning TV news show in Panama.

During the interview, Aracellys Leoteau, Telemetro Reporta's anchor said that Mi Panama Transparente is a program not only for citizens to send reports about crime and corruption, but also for journalists to play a role of social change.

Leoteau make reference to Panamanian journalists involved in producing stories based on the citizen reports as a way to h

Why Do People Laugh When You Tell Them You Are Studying Journalism Ethics?

-- Why do people laugh when I tell them I'm taking a journalism ethics course?--, I ask Flor when I see her smiling face.

-- Because I think you don't need it--, says Flor Ortega, a Panamanian journalist and ethics university professor.

I feel honored to hear Flor saying I don't need a journalism ethics course. She has been a university professor for a number of years and she has also been a founding member of the National Council of Journalism's Ethics Committee.

However, I think I need to keep studying journalism ethics.