ICFJ Knight Fellowships

Text-and-Mobile News Network Opens Coverage of Rural Indonesia

In a rural corner of Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, indigenous people can now send out the important news in their communities, thanks to a groundbreaking cell phone-based network officially launched this month by Knight International Journalism Fellow Harry Surjadi.

The new service – which opens up a part of the country previously cut off from news coverage – had its public debut at a press conference on February 15 in the provincial capital of Pontianak.

CNN: Phone Journalism Gives a Voice to India's Rural Poor

When Shubhranshu Choudhary began working as a Knight International Journalism Fellow in India in 2009, he realized that even the most remote villages of the Chhattisgarh region where he was based had access to cell phones. Those phones offered an opportunity for him to build a cellular news network that allows the villagers to communicate with each other as well as with activists, government officials and mainstream media.

Knight Fellow Looks at What's Ahead in Health Journalism

Knight International Health Fellow Mercedes Sayagues talked with IJNet recently about the challenges that exist for health journalists all over the world. At the top of the list, she says, are topics that are taboo - difficult to report because editors are often worried about publishing or broadcasting content that might be offensive. But she also sees hope in digital innovations that can make it easier to get important information out quickly.

Help is Just a Phone Call Away, Thanks to Network Developed by Knight Fellow

A simple phone call can bring needed assistance to people who live in the remote regions of India, says a report by the Public Health Global Network. Reporter Augustine Veliath wrote about villagers who called CGnet Swara, the cellular network created by Knight International Journalism Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary.