The aim of this call for applications is to select 12 media organizations from ASEAN countries, and for each of them, support the realization of a data-driven project (article/data story, data visualization or other interactive), through a workshop and training programme taking place between May and October 2017. After the end of this programme, you must have set up at least one digital project, attract new public (widen the target audience) with data driven articles and increase your audience using data visualization. Read More “Data journalism training for media organizations in ASEAN countries”

Photographers across the globe are invited to submit three images that best demonstrate their photographic ability in 11 categories,
for the chance to be named a Hasselblad Master. The Hasselblad Masters is one of the world’s most prestigious professional photographic
competitions and gives acclaimed professionals, as well as aspiring newcomers, the chance to make their mark in the world of
high-end photography.

 

The winners will not only receive the coveted accolade but will take home a state of the art medium format Hasselblad camera and have
their work published in the Hasselblad Masters commemorative book, to be launched in 2018.

Open for entries 24^th January – 10^th June 2017.

Read the full details on Masters 2018 Rules & Regulations

The topic of the 2017 Citizen Media Award was chosen parallel to the slogan of the then just mentioned upcoming year. Citizen media make people from all over the world more sensitive for a global association and an active engagement. With the announcement and choice of topic the supporters and sponsors of the Award want to inspire citizens to produce and broadcast TV and radio products concerning the topic “Cultural Heritage”.

Thereby, the focus is on the topic, the quality of the medial implementation, the authenticity, the pertinence of research and the originality. The characteristics of the productions get adequate consideration by the jury.

The winners of the International Citizen Media Award will be awarded on Saturday the 6th May 2017 in the Citizen Media Centre Bennohaus (Münster, Germany). The award show will take place in the scope of this event. Private producers of non-commercial audiovisual products have the chance to send in their submissions in the categories video and audio until the 28th February 2017.

More to click: Citizen Media Award

Knight Science Journalism Fellowship program in 2016-17 will open on January 1 and we welcome science journalists from around the world to apply for this unique and career-enhancing opportunity.

The Knight Science Journalism (KSJ) program, founded at MIT in 1982 with a generous endowment from the James S. and John L. Knight Foundation, has hosted more than outstanding 300 mid-career journalists, specializing in coverage of science, medicine, technology, and the environment, since its inception. Fellows receive a $70,000 stipend, spend an academic year in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying at both MIT and Harvard University, and enjoy a rich offering of science seminars, training workshops and field trips offered by KSJ.

Apply anytime from January 1-February 29, 2016 

More to click: Knight Science Journalism Fellowship

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), in partnership with the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) and Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal, is recruiting for Early Childhood Development Reporting Fellows.

ICFJ will recruit 10 Early Childhood Development Reporting Fellows from Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania. During the year-long program, the Fellows will receive training, mentoring and financial support to produce stories on nutrition and early-childhood development.

Entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m., U.S. Eastern time, Sunday, February 26, 2017. Apply here.

More to click: Early Childhood Development Reporting

Journalists are invited to apply to join a fellowship program to attend and report on the 28th International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB) in Cartagena, Colombia in July 2017.

The Earth Journalism Network, with support from the Arcadia Foundation, invites working journalists, particularly those from developing countries, to apply. Deadline: February 24, 2017 at 5pm EST.

More to click: EJN Fellowship

DHAKA, Jan 11 2017 (IPS) – Journalism is a profession that attracts both sexes, but social taboos and hostile office climates have kept the numbers of women working in Bangladesh’s media sector dismally low. Still, a new generation of women is stepping up, with the support of their path-breaking colleagues.

According to an October 2016 report by senior female journalist Shahnaz Munni of News 24, a private TV channel in Bangladesh, women journalists in Bangladesh’s media industry account for only 5 percent in print and 25 percent in electronic media.

Braving these odds and obstacles, young female graduates are increasingly joining the profession. Wahida Zaman, for example, recently joined United News of Bangladesh (UNB), an independent wire service, as an apprentice sub-editor.

“Unlike many other classmates of mine, both male and female, I chose to study journalism by choice. Before being a journalist, I was actually a photographer. Nothing thrills me more than the thought that journalism can give me all these opportunities in one package,” Zaman told IPS.

“I can go to places, meet new people, get to know new stories — stories of both successful and unsuccessful people, and of course take lots of photographs. That’s how my dream of being a journalist started blooming.”

But, she said, being a woman and a journalist at the same time is not so easy in real life. “You have to face some obstacles, some real challenges. And they start straight from your own home,” Zaman added.

There is often resistance among family members, who want their women to be ‘safe’, she said.

“First of all you’ll have to convince your family that journalism is not a ‘risky’ profession at all for you. In our society, you’ll often get undermined for being a woman. You cannot go far because you’re a woman, you cannot move alone because you’re a woman, you cannot work at late night because you’re a woman, you cannot be brave enough to do investigative reporting because you’re a woman — and excuses keep coming.”

Nadia Sharmeen, a reporter at Ekattor TV, a private television channel in Bangladesh, came under attack in 2013 while covering a rally organised by Hefazat-e-Islam, for Ekushey Television, her previous workplace, in the capital Dhaka.

Sharmeen, who won the US State Department’s International Women of Courage Award in 2015, told the IPS that women in Bangladesh face challenges in all sectors. “Threats and intimidation have been part of this profession for women,” she said.

Hailing from Bagerhat, a remote southwestern district of Bangladesh, she said she enjoys the full support of her family in pursuing her career.

Sanchita Sharma, a news editor with Boishakhi Television, said the atmosphere for female journalists in Bangladesh is better now than at any time before and their numbers are growing — but are still not satisfactory.

Sharma said one problem is that women still focus on being news presenters rather than reporters or copy editors, which can help them get elevated to top positions.

Apart from social problems, a common challenge for women journalists is they have to manage both their homes and their offices. “It’s a double trouble for them,” she said.

Regarding the Bangladesh National Press Club, Sharma said the men who dominate its Executive Committee are reluctant to grant membership to women. “It’s very painful that women account for only 54 among the Club’s 1,218 members,” she said.

Echoing Sharma, Rashada Akhter Shimul, a Joint News Editor at Somoy TV, said male journalists misinterpret the successes and promotions of their female counterparts with concocted juicy stories.

She said their male bosses can be unnecessarily tough in putting their female colleagues on night shifts. “They (male bosses) can easily spare us from nightshift duty if there is no emergency, but they don’t. That’s why many promising girls are quitting the profession.”

Every profession has hazards, but in journalism this is disheartening, particularly for women. “Things are improving, but slowly,” she said.

Shimul said male bosses also undermine female journalists and ignore them when it comes to covering important and challenging news beats like that of crime and PMO (the Prime Minister’s Office).

Shahiduzzaman, Editor of News Network, a leading non-profit media support organisation of Bangladesh, said the atmosphere in Bangladesh for female journalists is still far from ideal.

Shahiduzzaman, also a Representative and Senior Adviser for South Asia with Inter Press Service (IPS), said it was the News Network that first came forward in the mid-1990s to provide journalism training to female university graduates by offering them fellowships.

He said News Network has so far provided training to nearly 300 young and upcoming women journalists with support from donors like Diakonia, USAID, The American Center, Free Voice, Free Press Unlimited, NORAD, DANIDA and Janata Bank, a public sector local bank. And 60 percent of them are now working in the country’s mainstream media. “Sanchita and Shimul are among them,” he mentioned.

Stressing the importance of gender equity in Bangladesh’s media industry, Shahiduzzaman said a very few of the 5 percent female journalists hold policymaking positions, which is necessary for to make far-reaching changes.

Regretting that there are hardly any female journalists at the country’s district level, the News Network editor said widespread training programmes are needed to encourage female young graduates to take up journalism as their profession.

“We can do even better if we can get support from donors as in the past,” he said.

Source: Inter Press Service

The Associated Press is offering paid 12-week general assignment journalism internships for the summer 2017  in eight U.S. cities (Chicago, Dallas, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.) and nine international locations (Amman, Athens, Bangkok, London, Mexico City, New Delhi, Prague, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo).

Interns will receive training and experience in video and at least one other format (text, photos or interactive/graphics.)

Successful candidates will be strong storytellers who can demonstrate solid news judgment and the ability to suggest story ideas and angles and incorporate them in video, still images and/or text. Interns should be comfortable interacting with a diverse group of co-workers and interview subjects.

Interns will be expected to keep up-to-date with news in the city or region and its relevance to national and international affairs. Reporting responsibilities will include conducting interviews, monitoring social media and covering breaking news stories, either by phone or going to the scene.  Assignments may cover general news, sports, business or entertainment.

Interns will assist in the production of video stories, including non-linear editing and writing story summaries and scripts.   They will assist in setting up news and feature stories and join location shoots, or do their own shooting.  Interns also may assist with content management and translations.

More info; http://chp.tbe.taleo.net/chp04/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=AP&cws=1&rid=5015

DHAKA, Dec 20 2016 (IPS) – Though highly hopeful about achieving the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) well ahead of the 2030 deadline, Bangladesh is upset over the procedures to access the Green Climate Fund, calling them ‘ridiculously complex’ and warning that they may slow down its drive to achieve the SDGs.

Bangladesh, one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, wants to emerge as a star performer in implementing the SDGs, repeating its success with the earlier Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). But officials say developed nations are not delivering funds to the affected countries as promised.

“The developed countries are mainly responsible for climate change. They’ve demonstrated goodwill in terms of financing climate change programmes all over the world, but Bangladesh is very unfortunate as it doesn’t get a fair share of it. The procedure of the Climate Change Fund is ridiculously complex,” said Bangladesh’s Finance Minister AMA Muhith.

Muhith was inaugurating a two-day media capacity building workshop titled ‘Reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’ in Dhaka on Dec. 18. The United Nations Foundation and Inter Press Service (IPS) jointly organised the programme under the theme ‘Working Together: Why and how should the media report on the SDGs?’ Journalists from leading media outlets participated in the workshop.

IPS Director General Farhana Haque Rahman also spoke at the inaugural session, while UN Resident Coordinator and U.N. Development programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Bangladesh Robert D. Watkins presented the keynote paper. IPS South Asia Representative Shahiduzzaman moderated the session.

More info; http://www.ipsnews.net/2016/12/complex-climate-fund-procedures-hindering-development/