News

The latest news from the International Center for Journalists.

April
1
2016

New Data Tools Simplify South Africa's National Budget Issues for Taxpayers

Ordinary people often struggle to get their heads around a country's budget, and they fail to understand what the government is doing with the hard-earned money they pay in taxes.

Code for South Africa set out to address this issue after South Africa's Minister of Finance presented his 2016 budget in Parliament on February 24.

April
1
2016

Code for Africa's Dodgy Doctors Tool Spurs Societal Change in Kenya

Five years ago, reports of people masquerading as doctors were common in Kenya. It became so 'normal' that such stories either never made it into the media or if they did, they appeared as briefs in the newspapers and never made a blip on radio or television.

Today, that situation has dramatically changed. It is not that quacks or daktari bandia (Kiswahili for 'fake doctor') have gone the way of the dinosaur. There are still cases where unqualified people try to pass themselves off as doctors.

March
29
2016

Latin American Investigative Journalists Multiply Impact Through Collaboration

Latin American investigative journalists are collaborating in new ways to overcome obstacles such as fearful media owners, threats from drug traffickers, and crippling cyber-attacks, according to panelists at a recent International Center for Journalists event.

March
28
2016

ICFJ Knight Roundup: impactAFRICA Launches Contest for Water, Sanitation Reporting

As part of the Knight International Media Innovators blog, the ICFJ Knight team will round up stories focused on how their fellows are making an impact in the field. Find out more about the fellows' projects by clicking here.

March
24
2016

Push App Helps Azerbaijan's Meydan TV Go Mobile

Azerbaijan is a pretty terrible country to be a journalist in these days. The Committee to Protect Journalists named it last year as one of the 10 countries iin the world where the media face the most restrictions.

Meydan TV, the last independent news outlet in the country, is trying to do something about that. According to their internal statistics, Meydan TV reached one-sixth of the country's population last month. One-third of every person in Azerbaijan on Facebook has "liked" them.

March
23
2016

Washington Post's Emilio Garcia-Ruiz Shares Tips for a Successful News Business Model

The vision of Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is that a news organization has to make its work available free, everywhere. Bezos is urging the publication's journalists to adopt the principles of retail sales that he has learned over the years in running Amazon, America's largest online retailer of practically everything.
March
16
2016

Training the Next Generation of Tunisian Media Professionals

Building on the success of the 2014 program, ICFJ will continue hosting a one-year program that allows Tunisian students seeking their master’s degree in journalism the opportunity to train and report in the United States. The participants will learn practical skills to enhance their reporting, meet with experts working in their field of interest and immerse themselves in U.S. culture.

March
16
2016

Iraqi-U.S. Journalist Exchange Program

The Iraqi-U.S. Journalism Exchange program took place over a 12-day period. Part of the “Iraqi-U.S. Journalist Exchange” program, five Iraqi commentators embarked on a study tour that featured meetings with experts and visits to newsrooms and innovation centers in Washington D.C., and New York City. The program aimed to help these leading Iraqi commentators gain a better understanding of U.S. foreign policy towards Iraq, U.S.-Iraqi bilateral relations and the role of think tanks.

March
15
2016

ICFJ Announces Breakthrough Program for Cuban and U.S. Journalists

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As relations between the United States and Cuba normalize, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is launching a groundbreaking program that will bring independent Cuban journalists to work with their counterparts in Miami-based newsrooms to create a peer-to-peer learning network. Supported by $110,000 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a private United States-based foundation, the fellowship program will help Cuban journalists and bloggers foster engagement with U.S. journalists to strengthen their journalism.

March
15
2016

How an ICFJ Program Will Bridge the Information Gap With Cuba

Last August, I made my first trip to Cuba as part of a group touring farms and gardens. I’ve traveled to dozens of countries as a journalist and manager of media training programs, but this island nation just south of Florida held such fascination that I latched onto a chance to see it as a tourist, on an officially approved people-to-people cultural trip. Secretary of State John Kerry preceded me by a week, opening the U.S.