Invest in the Journalism Center. /Independent Cuban Journalist Sentenced /North Korea to Put Two Arrested U.S. Journalists

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Dear Colleagues,

As journalists, we all know the slightly panicked feeling of being confronted with a challenging story, one that needs to be told with sensitivity and authority, and wondering where to begin. Time and again, the Journalism Center on Children & Families has provided me with the grounding I‘ve needed to plunge in.

Whether it’s been scanning the daily news summary for ideas, interviewing the center’s expert sources or attending a Journalism Center conference packed with information and story ideas that I actually used, the center has informed much of my best work.

All that background came into play last year when I wrote a lengthy narrative piece that put a national discussion about youth gun violence into an intimate context. The result was an award-winning story that helped keep a teenager in school, instead of sending him to state prison.

My official beat has often changed but whatever I’m covering – be it child welfare, juvenile justice or nontraditional families – I regularly turn to the Journalism Center for context or research, and I expect to do so long into the future.

I tell you all this to encourage your support for the Journalism Center’s current fundraising effort. By raising $20,000 from individual donors like you and me, the center will meet a goal set by the Challenge Fund for Journalism. At a time when we’re all being more careful than ever with our charitable dollars, this match doubles the impact of our investment.

These are tough times for journalism -- and for journalists. But I believe that pulling together to aid an organization that does so much to help us affect readers’ lives is one intelligent way to weather the storm. I encourage you as former fellows, medal recipients and summary subscribers, to consider making a donation.

Join me and invest in the center:


Sincerely,

Claudia Rowe
Reporter
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Read other letters of support
The Challenge Fund for Journalism is a joint capacity-building initiative of The Ford Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, McCormick Foundation, and Ethics & Excellence in Journalism Foundation.




J-Community

JOURNALISM IN THE AMERICAS
Independent Cuban Journalist Sentenced to Three Years in Jail for "Disrespect"

Cuban independent journalist, Albert Santiago Du Bouchet Hernández, was sentenced this week to three years in prison for charges of "disrespect," the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports.
Du Bouchet Hernández, director of the Havana-based independent news agency Habana Press, was arrested in April. Police claimed he was shouting anti-government slogans in the street, CPJ reports. Du Bouchet Hernández was previously jailed for one year in 2005 for a similar charge.
His family has been unable to visit him, and he has not had access to a lawyer, CPJ adds.
Twenty-one independent reporters and editors are currently jailed in Cuba, which trails only China in the number of journalists behind bars, CPJ notes.
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Columnist Urges U.S. Media to be Less Race-Biased in Covering Homicide Cases

In his column this week for The New York Times, Bob Herbert encourages the media to cover more homicides in the U.S., and not to limit its coverage to victims who are attractive and white.
Herbert begins with a personal story from his time working at The New York Daily News. A story was pitched about a baby who was killed and the editor asked "What color is that baby?"
"Everyone understood what he meant," Herbert said. "If the baby was white, the chances were much better that the story was worth big play."
Herbert then jumps to a current case: the extensive coverage of a university student killed in Connecticut, allegedly by a man who had attended a summer course with her a few years ago. Herbert said this story undoubtedly deserves to be covered, but most of the media is paying less attention to an equally important story about dozens of school children who have been killed by Chicago gang violence this year. The young woman who is being heavily covered by the media is white, while most of the children who have died in Chicago are African-American or Latino.
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North Korea to Put Two Arrested U.S. Journalists on Trial June 4

The two reporters for San Francisco-based Current TV, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, have been held for two months on charges of illegal border crossing and “hostile acts.” The Korean Central News Agency did not elaborate on the condition of the reporters or the charges they face, The Korea Times and The New York Times report.
Observers of North Korea said the government would likely follow a similar process of trial, conviction and release that Iran took when releasing U.S. journalist Roxana Saberi, The Korea Times suggests.
“Under the North Korean law, a person convicted of hostile acts against the state can be sentenced to up to 10 years in labor camps while illegal trespassers can face up to three years in the camps,” Kim Sue-young writes for The Korea Times (of Seoul, South Korea).
When the reporters were first arrested (see background here), analysts said North Korea would probably use them as bargaining chips to try to obtain political and financial concessions from the Obama administration, the Washington Post’s Blaine Harden reports. The U.S. has no diplomatic ties with North Korea, and a Swedish diplomat met with the two reporters on behalf of Washington on March 30, but the North has cut off access to them since then, Harden adds.
Throughout the reporters' ordeal, several observers have noted the silence of their employer, Current TV--led by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore--which has not placed even a hint on its web site about what has happened to the reporters. "After nearly two months, Current TV for me has now reached a level of moral bankruptcy. I simply don’t believe them any longer," communications strategist Mark Vanderbeeken posted this week on Putting People First. See this earlier post by Hearst Newspaper executive Phil Bronstein.
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Press release - For Immediate Release - 15 May 2009

Climate Change Media Partnership invites applications for the 2009 fellowship programme

The largest group of developing-world journalists returns to boost media coverage of climate change in a critical year of negotiations.

The Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP) has today opened its 2009 Fellowship Programme. It encourages all journalists in developing countries who report on climate change to apply.

This programme comes during a critical year of negotiations that ends in December with the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen where a new global deal could be struck.

Forty journalists will be awarded fellowships which will give them skills training and access to world class experts to enhance their knowledge. They have until midnight UK time (BST) on World Environment Day, 5 June, to file their applications.

The innovative programme is organised by the CCMP partners Internews, Panos and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), along with numerous regional groups.

"Climate change will disproportionately impact developing nations, yet journalists from these countries rarely have the resources to attend the intergovernmental negotiations aimed at tackling the problem,” says James Fahn, Global Director of Internews' Earth Journalism Network.

Patrick Dambula, a former CCMP fellow from Malawi, highlights the importance of the fellowships: “There are so many journalists in Malawi who don’t know what climate change is all about and they go on to report the issue, which means there are chances they can misinform the people”.

The CCMP aims to address this by involving journalists from across the global South in a programme of activities over several months, including reporting on the Copenhagen summit. Here, in addition to receiving training and mentoring, they will take part in a media clinic and interview sessions with leading climate change experts and negotiators.

The CCMP has already brought a total of 74 developing country journalists from print, broadcast and online media to the last two UN climate summits, in Indonesia and Poland. At these meetings, the journalists produced over one thousand climate-change stories for media worldwide. At both summits the CCMP formed the largest single media group, providing politically independent journalistic scrutiny of the negotiations.

Comments from former fellows indicate the strength of the CCMP programme:

• “I do think this is one of the best training opportunities I've had,” journalist in Mexico
• “Simply an unparalleled experience for a journalist,” journalist in Nepal.
• “The benefits have been incomparable and immense,” journalist in Sierra Leone.

“Former CCMP Fellows include journalists who have gone on to become some of the world’s most knowledgeable reporters on the topic,” says Mike Shanahan of the International Institute for Environment and Development. “Nearly 400 journalists applied for places on last year’s programme and we expect that competition will be even more intense this time. However, even the unlucky candidates will still benefit by receiving CCMP briefings and other materials.”

For the first time, the CCMP will be working with journalists in the run up to the UN summit, and not just at the summit itself. The partnership will commission articles and run a regional workshop at the pre-Copenhagen climate change negotiations in Bangkok beginning in late September.

"The Bangkok workshop will be a crucial stepping stone on the road to Copenhagen," explains Po Garden, project director for Internews' Earth Journalism Network. "It will provide regional journalists and editors with a special opportunity to deepen their understanding of climate change issues and help them prepare their coverage for Copenhagen."

Governments from around the world have set themselves a deadline of December 2009 to agree a new deal for addressing climate change.

“Without media from vulnerable countries there to report on the talks, negotiators will be under little public scrutiny,” says Indi Mclymont-Lafayette of Panos. “The CCMP programme creates the opportunity for journalists to report in depth on the negotiations. They can also share their stories with millions of people especially those in developing countries who might not yet understand how climate change will affect them.”

This year the programme funding consortium is led largely by a grant from EuropeAid. The CCMP is seeking additional financing to expand the number of journalists it can bring to Copenhagen. .

To apply for a CCMP fellowship (DEADLINE midnight UK time (BST) 5 JUNE), visit
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=cX9w8ID8c7MXH8bAgMwBPg_3d_3d

To watch videos of former CCMP fellows talking about their experiences, visit
http://tinyurl.com/qej7ew
http://tinyurl.com/psg58u

For more information on the CCMP, visit:
http://www.climatemediapartnership.org/

Those wishing to support CCMP fellowships should contact:
CCMP@panos.org.uk


Mike Shanahan
Press officer
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
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Dear Reader,
If you've ever been to Utah, Colorado or Wyoming, you know how spectacularly beautiful those states are. Now imagine ten new, polluting, coal-fired power plants in those states just to develop oil shale, the dirtiest fossil fuel on the planet. For the sake of our future and the environment, our nation needs to move in the direction of clean energy. Tell the Bureau of Land Management to protect our air, water, land and wildlife by going slow on unproven, dirty oil shale development.

Don Hazen
Executive Editor, AlterNet.org
(‘The Monthly Muktidooth’ on behalf on AlterNet Org.)

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Press release: Poorest nations largely unready for health impacts of climate change

The world’s poorest nations are unprepared for the strain climate change will put on their public health systems, according to studies by the International Institute for Environment and Development and partners.

The findings come ahead of a major summit of health ministers from Commonwealth nations in Geneva that begins on 17 May. They show that in the most vulnerable countries very little has been done to assess or address the threats climate change poses to health.

Saleemul Huq, senior fellow in IIED’s climate change group says this in part reflects a failure of wealthy nations to meet promises to help the poorer nations adapt to climate change.

The research, by members of IIED’s CLACC network, found that health systems in many of the Least Developed Countries are already stretched to breaking point dealing with immediate concerns such as malaria and other infectious diseases.

There has been minimal research into how climate change will affect health and what can be done to reduce the threat, leaving hundreds of millions of people uninformed about the dangers.

The Zambian study showed that floods and droughts can increase disease levels in some areas by as much as 400 per cent. Dysentery appears to increase with droughts conditions, while pneumonia and malaria increase with rainfall.

“Zambia is vulnerable to droughts, floods, extreme heat and shifts in rainy season length,” says author George Kasali of Energy and Environmental Concerns for Zambia. “Almost all of these climate hazards will have a negative effect on health. Despite the increased frequency of these hazards in the last decade, Zambia has not yet developed any climate-informed policies for the health sector.”

The findings from Benin, Bhutan and Zambia are summarised in the new issue of Tiempo.

“There is very little awareness of the potential impact of climate change on human health within health sectors in the Least Developed Countries,” says Hannah Reid, a senior researcher in IIED’s climate change group. “There have been very few assessments of how climate change will affect food security, access to water, flood risks and diseases such as malaria.”

Saleemul Huq says that rich countries must provide funds to help poorer nations adapt to climate change.

“Under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, rich countries promised back in 2001 to support poor countries in their efforts to adapt,” says Huq. “Since then 39 of the 49 Least Developed Countries have assessed their adaptation needs. Many identified health issues that they will need to adapt to as climate change takes hold. What’s missing is the money that was promised to help them do this.”

To download the latest issue of Tiempo
http://www.tiempocyberclimate.org/portal/archive/pdf/tiempo71low.pdf

To contact Hannah Reid email hannah.reid@iied.org or call +44 (0)207 388 2117

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Helping Pakistani Women Have Their Say

Disturbed by the negative portrayal of women in Pakistani media, journalist Tasneem Ahmar launched the Uks Research Center in 1997 to foster fair and sensitive reporting on women’s issues in Pakistan. Under Ahmar’s leadership, the Islamabad-based Uks Rsearch Center has worked tirelessly to promote gender equality through radio productions on women’s issues, research and publications, advocacy and media monitoring.
Ahmar established the Pakistani Women’s Media Network, the first ever network for Pakistani women working in the media to encourage more positive portrayals of women, increase female representation at all levels, and improve conditions for women working in media.
Internews will honor Tasneem Ahmar at the Internews Media Leadership Awards in Washington, DC on June 2 for her leadership in improving coverage of women’s issues and bringing women’s voices and perspectives to Pakistan’s media.
What personally inspired you to start working for more balanced and accurate coverage of women in Pakistan’s media?
The continued negative, sensational and derogatory portrayal of women in the media was the driving force behind my starting Uks, which means “reflection” in Urdu. I wanted to reach out to Pakistan’s media managers—all male—and take up the case of gender sensitivity in the media.
My basic aim was to make the media realize that what they were doing—at times unthinkingly and unintentionally—was actually harming women’s development, as the news content was creating and strengthening the existing bias against women.
What are some examples of how Pakistani media currently portray women?
It is men who decide what news, views and visuals will be heard, read and seen. This male domination of our newsrooms becomes overwhelmingly in news coverage of violence against women.
The women in the cases of rape are the worst victims. A lot of newspapers report with a bias against these women and reinforce the existing unsupportive attitude of the society towards women. No wonder then that the official reaction to rape continues to be that of accusation towards the women.
In addition, women's magazines focus heavily on the domestic side of women, trying to prove that every woman needs to be a perfect cook, a tailor, and housekeeper and also be beautiful. The intellectual qualities of women are mentioned nowhere. Their abilities as equal partners in development are lost.
There is lots of hypocrisy in the media in Pakistan—it has no problem highlighting women’s physical and sexual features but is reluctant to bring forward issues of HIV/AIDS, sexual harassment, the sex trade, and trafficking on the pretext that such coverage would be obscene.
What are the challenges faced by Pakistani women who want to become journalists?
Media has traditionally been a male-dominated field. Whereas a woman’s image may adorn various media outputs only as an ornament, they have no meaningful participation in the creation of media. Newsroom staff, researchers and anchors have traditionally been men. Women, who make up 48% of the population of Pakistan, only make up a tiny fraction of the newsroom staff and news subjects.
Some factors responsible for the invisibility of women in media organizations are low hiring rates, sexual harassment in the workplace, late working hours without transportation, and no provision of maternity leave. In our research, Uks has found that women students are very keen to join the media but are handicapped by parental and societal pressures that still say that media is not a profession for women. On the other hand, there has been a marked increase in the number of women journalists, anchors, and producers in the electronic media, especially television.
What kinds of radio programs does the Uks Research Center produce?
We have produced several radio series, covering topics such as honor crimes, reproductive health rights, and the particular challenges facing women and girls who survived Pakistan’s massive 2005 earthquake.
These are on issues that people usually do not talk about, but once you take up an issue, the response is great. Through listener emails, phone calls and letters, we get the feedback that our thought-provoking programs are urging people to think about real issues that are all around them.
What advice do you have for young Pakistani women looking to improve their society?
You have to keep striving for a better and a more just society by continuing to work positively. Remember that equality is only possible when there is increased awareness, a transformation in attitudes, and a removal of unequal practices that are deeply rooted in society. For this reason you will have to communicate effectively that you are here to stay.