International Center for Journalists

Last updated
International Center for Journalists
Founded1984;40 years ago (1984)
FounderTom Winship, Jim Ewing, and George Krimsky
Location
Area served
Global
Servicestraining, workshops, seminars, fellowships, and international exchanges
Website icfj.org

International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is a non-profit, professional organization located in Washington, D.C., United States, that promotes journalism worldwide. Since 1984, the International Center for Journalists has worked directly with more than 70,000 journalists from 180 countries. ICFJ offers training, workshops, seminars, fellowships, and international exchanges to reporters and media managers around the globe.

Contents

History

International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) was founded in 1984 by Tom Winship, Jim Ewing, and George Krimsky, three U.S. journalists, to support other journalists abroad, especially those in countries with poor or non-existent free press systems. [1] They believed that the proper role of the news media was to expose, investigate, and articulate issues of concern to average citizens, and wished to propagate these ideals across the globe.[ citation needed ]

In 2006, ICFJ established the ICFJ Founders Award for Excellence in Journalism as a tribute to Winship, Ewing, and Krimsky. This award is presented to a journalist with a long-time commitment to the highest standards of the profession. Past recipients include CBS News' Bob Schieffer (2006), NBC News' Tom Brokaw (2007), The New York Times' John F. Burns (2008), and investigative journalist Seymour Hersh (2009). [2]

Flagship programs

Knight International Journalism Fellowships

The Knight International Journalism Fellowships program pairs global media professionals with partner media organizations in countries where there are opportunities for meaningful and measurable change. The program, launched in 1994 with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, now also receives support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. [3] [4]

International Journalists’ Network (IJNet)

The International Journalists’ Network (IJNet) is an online service that provides information on a wide range of training opportunities to a global network of journalists and media development organizations. The site offers social networking tools, discussion spaces, and forums. IJNet also sends weekly email bulletins in Arabic, English, Chinese, Persian, Portuguese, Russia, and Spanish to more than 71,000 media professionals.

IJNet keeps track of media training and other assistance efforts in 150 countries, enabling donors and journalism training organizations to maximize resources and avoid duplication. Support for IJNet comes from the Eurasia Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Open Society Institute, and friends of ICFJ. [3] [4]

Related Research Articles

The Nieman Fellowship is a fellowship from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. It awards multiple types of fellowships.

The Radio Television Digital News Association, formerly the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), is a United States-based membership organization of radio, television, and online news directors, producers, executives, reporters, students and educators. Among its functions are the maintenance of journalistic ethics and the preservation of the free speech rights of broadcast journalists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility</span>

The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) is a private, non-stock, non-profit foundation in the Philippines that has focused its endeavor on press freedom protection along with the establishment of a framework of responsibility for its practice. Its programs represent efforts to protect the press as well as to promote professional and ethical values in journalistic practice.

Global Press Institute is a Washington DC-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that builds and maintains news bureaus in some of the world's least-covered places, staffed by local women journalists whose social, historical and political context distinguishes them from foreign correspondents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Women's Media Foundation</span> Organization for womens rights

The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), located in Washington, D.C., is an organization working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media. The IWMF has created programs to help women in the media develop practical solutions to the obstacles they face in their careers and lives. The IWMF's work includes a wide range of programs including international reporting fellowships in Africa and Latin America and providing grant opportunities for women journalists, research into the status of women in the media, and the Courage in Journalism, Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism, and Lifetime Achievement Awards. The IWMF advocates for press freedom internationally and often forms petitions asking international governments to release journalists in captivity and offer protection to journalists in danger.

The Online News Association (ONA), founded in 1999, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Washington D.C., United States. It is the world's largest association of digital journalists, with more than 2,000 members. The founding members first convened in December 1999 in Chicago. The group included journalists from WSJ.com, Time.com, MSBN, TheStreet.com, and FT.com, among other outlets.

Bharat Dutta Koirala, the winner of the 2002 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts, is one of the most prominent senior journalists of Nepal with a professional career of over four decades. He started his career in journalism as the chief reporter of The Rising Nepal in 1965 and became editor of Gorkhapatra and executive chairman and general manager of Gorkhapatra Corporation. He is also the founder of many organizations such as Nepal Press Institute, Nepal Forum for Environmental Journalist, Media Services International, and Radio Sagarmatha, the first independent private FM radio station. Awarded the Knight International Press Fellowship Award by the International Center for Journalists in Washington, D.C. and the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation in Manila, Philippines, he also pioneered the publication of a Nepalese Wall Newspaper, and is credited with introducing reporting on development of rural Nepal. Presently, he is the Secretary General of Nepal Press Institute, Chairman of Media Services International, and Chairman of Himal Association. He is a prominent media teacher in Nepal who produces many professional journalists.

Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) is Canada's largest international media development organization. Based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, JHR was founded in 2002 by Benjamin Peterson and Alexandra Sicotte-Levesque in 2002. JHR's mission is to inspire and mobilize media to cover human rights stories in ways that help communities help themselves. The organization's vision is for everyone in the world to access their human rights.

The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma is a resource center and think tank for journalists who cover violence, conflict and tragedy around the world. A project of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, the Dart Center also operates Dart Centre Europe, based in London; Dart Centre Asia Pacific, based in Melbourne; and a research node at the University of Tulsa. The Dart Center's mission is to improve the quality of journalism on traumatic events, while also raising awareness in newsrooms of the impact such coverage has on the journalists telling the stories.

The Association of Health Care Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues. Its mission is to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care reporting, writing and editing. There are more than 1,500 members of AHCJ.

Media development involves capacity building for institutions or individuals related to freedom of expression, pluralism and diversity of media, as well as transparency of media ownership. Media development plays a role in democracy and effective democratic discourse through supporting free and independent media.

Alison Bethel-McKenzie is an American-born journalist who is founding editor-in-chief of State Affairs. She was previously vice president of corps excellence at Report for America. She was the first woman and first person of African origin to head the International Press Institute.

The Knight-Wallace Fellowship is an award given to accomplished journalists at the University of Michigan. Knight-Wallace Fellowships are awarded to reporters, editors, photographers, producers, editorial writers and cartoonists, with at least five years of full-time, professional experience in the news media.

The Thomson Foundation is a media development not-for-profit organisation based in London, United Kingdom but operating worldwide. It was founded in 1962 and was the first charitable foundation with the specific aim of training journalists in developing countries. It celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2022/23.

TAPinto is a network of more than 95 independently owned and operated local news and digital marketing platforms in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Florida. Based in New Providence, New Jersey. TAPinto.net is one of the largest online local news gathering operations in New Jersey. It was founded by New Providence residents Michael and Lauryn Shapiro in October 2008 to provide independent local news. In the past two decades many local hardcopy newspapers have been acquired by national conglomerates that have slashed the newsroom. Other hardcopy newspapers have gone out of business leaving news deserts in their wake. In the coverage vacuum, hyperlocal online media such as TAPinto are often the only local news coverage that many communities get.

Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab Wilhelm is a Mexican investigative journalist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2013 along with David Barstow.

The Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) is "an international association of nonprofit organizations that support, promote and produce investigative journalism." The association is headquartered in the United States, and its membership is open to "nonprofits, NGOs, and educational organizations" that are active in investigative reporting and data journalism.

James D. Ewing was an American newspaper publisher, government reform advocate and philanthropist. He spent nearly 40 years as publisher and co-owner of The Keene Sentinel in Keene, New Hampshire.

Hannah Ojo Ajakaiye is a Nigerian journalist. She won the Nigerian Academy of Science's media award as the Print Science Journalist of the year 2017.

Justin Arenstein is a South African journalist, co-founder, and CEO of Code for Africa; Africa's largest network of digital/data journalism labs that exists in 21 countries. Arenstein is recognized internationally as an expert in data-driven journalism and related new media technologies and a Knight fellow of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).

References

  1. "Founders". ICFJ. Archived from the original on May 20, 2015. Retrieved May 23, 2015.
  2. "Seymour Hersh Wins Founders Award for Excellence in Journalism". www.adweek.com. 2009-06-24. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
  3. 1 2 "International Center for Journalists". Knight Foundation.
  4. 1 2 "OPP1034975". Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.