Media Diary

Journalists from developing nations between the ages of 25 and 35 are invited to apply to a fellowship programme that will send recipients to New York for approximately two months to cover the United Nations General Assembly.

Deadline for the submission of entries is Apr 9, 2010.

Applicants to the fellowship, called the Dag Hammarskjöld Scholarship Fund for Journalists 2010, must be currently employed by a legitimate media organisation. Fellowships will pay travel and accomodations in New York for approximately two months as well as a per diem allowance.

Applications will not be accepted from Egypt, Pakistan, Philippines and Ghana, as those were the winning nations of 2009.

For more information, visit the Web site here. For specific questions, e-mail info@unjournalismfellowship.org.

The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) has launched the 'WACC Photo Competition 2010', with the theme 'Communication and Poverty'.

Amateur and professional photographers are invited to submit photos that demonstrate that poverty includes communication poverty. The competition is open to men, women, and children of all ages and from all countries.

Each entrant may submit an unlimited number of photographs, but no entrant may win more than one prize in the contest. Winners will be awarded cash prizes, including 500 U.S. dollars (1st prize), and 200 dollars for each of the five commendations.

Entries may be submitted through the web-based service Flickr.com, with images being loaded to the Flickr group website. Those who do not have an account on Flickr will need to create one.

Entries must be licensed under 'Creative Commons', and this can be added under 'Additional Information' next to each photograph.

Entries should also have a short description of what the image shows and why it is relevant.

For more information, visit the Flckr WACC Photo Competition website at http://www.flickr.com/groups/wacc2010/.

The deadline for the submission of entries to the Breaking Borders Award, a new prize created by Google and Global Voices and supported by Thomson Reuters, has been moved to Feb. 15, 2010.

The aim of the award is to honour outstanding web projects initiated by individuals or groups that demonstrate courage, energy and resourcefulness in using the Internet to promote freedom of expression.

The prize will honour work in three categories: tools that promote freedom of expression, outstanding work on policy and activism or journalism that contributed an important voice or argument — each awarded with 10,000 U.S. dollars.

For more information, visit Breaking Borders.

The World Bank invites youths submit an essay that expresses their ideas on how to tackle youth unemployment through youth-led solutions. The 4,000-word or less essay must answer the following questions:

• How does youth unemployment affect you, your country, town or local community?

• What can you do, working together with your peers, to find a sustainable solution for job seekers through youth entrepreneurship? Think specifically about the barriers youth face in the labour market  and how to tackle difficulties in accessing capital for business startups.

The competition is open to all nationals of all countries worldwide, students and non-students aged 18-25 on May 15, 2010. Ph.D. students, however, are not eligible to participate.

All work must be submitted by individuals, group work is not allowed. One participant may submit one work per category. One participant may submit work in both categories — essay and video.

All submissions must be made online via the Essay Competition website. Videos are submitted via YouTube.

For the Essay category, only .doc and .pdf documents will be accepted. Participants may be asked to provide a 250-word summary.

Videos, meanwhile, must not be longer than two minutes. To submit a video, one must create a YouTube account and upload the video on the YouTube website. Applicants are required to submit a form via the Essay competition website.

Deadline for the submission of entries is midnight, Mar. 16, 2010.

For more information, visit http://www.essaycompetition.org/content10_89_1.

Investigative journalists who have made innovative use of the Internet (crowdsourcing, collaborative journalism, mashups, Web 2.0, etc.) in reporting are invited to submit works to the 2010 Digital Heretics Award, to be awarded at a journalism festival in Italy. Deadline is Feb. 28, 2010.

Submissions can be in the form of video, audio, text, photographs, animation or a mix of the above. Submitted works should be in English or Italian and the authors must be under the age of 35. They should have been published online between Jan. 1, 2009 and Jan. 31, 2010.

The first prize is 2,800 U.S. dollars, which will be awarded during the 2010 International Journalism Festival in Italy.

Submissions must be in Italian or English. To participate, send an email to eretici@festivaldelgiornalismo.com by Feb. 28 with the following information:

• Name and surname, date of birth, nationality, sex, academic qualifications of the author(s)
• Full postal and email address and telephone number
• URL of the reportage
• Title of the reportage and a brief summary of the work (maximum of 1,800 characters)

Each candidate can submit only one reportage.

For more information, contact eretici@festivaldelgiornalismo.com.

To raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity and the consequences of its loss, and in commemoration of the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is organising a two-day media workshop in Bali, Indonesia, from Feb. 22-23, 2010 as part of the 11th Special Session of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC/GMEF) on Feb. 24-26, 2010.

The media workshop aims to draw the connection between biodiversity and people's daily lives, the disappearance of both plant and animal species and the larger environmental, economic and social impacts on humans, and the interdependence with the natural world.

Participants will represent print, broadcast and electronic media. All travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses will be borne by the organiser.

Media participants will get an opportunity to participate in ministerial consultations, meet with leading experts in the environment and participate in press conferences and events that will take place during the 11th GC/GMEF. They will also get an opportunity to interact with laureates of the 2010 UNEP Sasakawa Prize, awarded every year to individuals or institutions that have made a substantial contribution to the protection and management of the environment.

Applicants should send a brief CV, as well as soft copies of two published articles, or news clips that have been broadcasted within the last 12 months. Alternatively, they can also send outlines of two stories which deal broadly with some aspect of biodiversity, or applicants could state how they would propose tackling biodiversity as a media story.

Deadline for submission of applications is on Monday, Jan. 25, 2010. Please apply by email with these attachments to:

arryl D'Monte, Consultant, Media Workshop
UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
Chairperson, Forum of Environmental Journalists of India (FEJI)
International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ)
Kinara, 29-B Carter Road, Bandra West,
Mumbai 400 050, India
Tel 91 22 2642 7088, 2645 9286
Cell: 98203 68872
Fax c/o 91 22 2645 8870
E-mail: darryldmonte@gmail.com

Also send a copy to: Ms Tanawan Sarabuddhi, sarabuddhi@un.org at UNEP, Bangkok

EarthRights International's Mekong School is now accepting entries for its 2010 programme.

Ideal candidates are individuals who have been active on environmental, human rights, or community development issues, who are enthusiastic about partnering with other activists from the region and who have the capacity to become effective community leaders and/or advocates. The training takes place in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from June to December of each year, and includes a two-month practicum in which students return to their home countries to conduct field work. Housing, transportation, and a modest living stipend are provided to successful candidates.

The seven-month long training programme focuses on the impacts of large-scale infrastructure projects, particularly hydropower dams, and how citizens are engaged in advocating for more equitable development in the Mekong region. At the school, students investigate community complaints regarding negative impacts from Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank, and privately funded projects. Through a series of field visits, students examine the threats posed by various projects, such as the series of hydropower dams currently planned and under construction along the mainstream of the Mekong and its tributaries, to migratory fish stocks, local livelihoods, and regional food security.

The deadline for applications is March 10, 2010. For more information, visit www.earthrights.org. To request an application form, contact the Mekong School Coordinator at mekong@earthrights.org.

'Himal Southasian', a regional political view magazine, is looking for an associate editor, who will be responsible for envisioning monthly issues of the magazine, and collaborating in the production of all editorial content.

Applicants must have at least 10 years experience as an editor or writer, a broad understanding of print and online magazine publishing and marketing. Staff and project management experience is also desirable.

Said post is a full-time position based in Kathmandu, Nepal, starting April 2010.

For more information, send email to: editorial@himalmag.com.

The International Fellowships Programme, the largest single programme ever supported by the Ford Foundation, is now open for applications.

The programme is especially designed to support candidates from groups that have historically lacked access to higher education. Eligible candidates who belong to marginalised and excluded groups and communities, such as scheduled castes, schedule tribes, other backward classes, religious minorities, women, physically challenged and those with other kinds of socio-economic deprivation are encouraged to apply.

Fellows will be chosen on the basis of their academic achievement as well as for their leadership potential and commitment to community service.

Fellows may enrol in a master's level programme and may pursue any academic discipline or field of study consistent with the interests and goals of the Ford Foundation.

Forty fellowships are available for 2010. Once selected, fellows may enrol in universities in any part of the world, including universities in India. The IFP will provide university placement assistance.

Deadline for submission of the IFP Pre-Application Form is on or before Dec. 15, 2009.

For the complete requirements and forms, visit www.ifpsa.org.

Applications for the 2010-2011 Fellowships for M.A. Journalism are now being accepted by the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University (ACFJ).

The fellowships are awarded to full-time Asian journalists who have excellent professional and academic record, strong commitment to good journalism and leadership qualities. A grant covers tuition and other expenses for the two-year M.A. Journalism programme, which is offered by the Ateneo de Manila University with ACFJ's support.

Since its inception in 2003, 90 journalists from 15 Asian countries have received grants.

Ateneo's M.A. Journalism is distinctive for its innovative use of online and conventional learning methods. The master's programme covers 12 courses, which are conducted using a mix of online and conventional methods. Six are purely online courses, three are held in the conventional classroom, and another three are hybrid courses that take place alternately online and on-campus.

The programme's design allows working journalists and other media professionals to study at their own pace and time, and in their own homes or workplaces. Courses in ethics, media law and news writing are at the core of the programme. Journalism courses that are regional and cutting edge in content comprise the electives. Lecturers come from Asia as well as Australia, the U.K. and the United States.

ACFJ, a joint project of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and the Ateneo, was founded in June 2000 to promote good journalism in Asia by providing training opportunities primarily for working journalists.

Application forms for the fellowship grant may be downloaded from http://www.ateneo.edu/acfj or requested by e-mail at newsroom@admu.edu.ph. ACFJ may also be contacted by phone at (+632) 9263253 or (+632) 4266001 (local 5296), or fax at (+632) 9263254.

Deadline of application is on Friday, Feb. 12,  2010.

For admission to the M.A. programme, a separate set of application forms are required. These are also available from ACFJ or Ateneo's Office of Graduate Studies (OGS).