IFEX Clearing House Media Rebuilding Sierra Leone Media Training Thailand Indonesia IFEX Clearing House Following a meeting of the world's leading press freedom groups in Montreal in 1992, hosted by the Canadian Committee to Protect Journalists (later CJFE), the organization won the right to manage the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX) Clearing House, established in an earlier meeting. The IFEX Clearing House exists to defend journalists and others around the world by shining a light on abuses against them and against the universal human right of free expression. IFEX is a virtual network of more than 50 organizations that monitors the state of free expression and transmits the information it collects to individuals and organizations in more than 120 countries. "Were it not for the dozens of Alerts sent out by IFEX throughout the world … many Congolese journalists would still be forgotten in prison." - Journaliste en danger, Democratic Republic of Congo Funding comes from individual contributions, along with grants from foundations and government agencies around the world that share IFEX's ideals. Subscribers can receive daily Action Alerts by country and/or region and the weekly Communiqué. To receive a free e-mail subscription, please contact ifex@ifex.org. Media Rebuilding Sierra Leone CJFE is currently engaged in a major project to help rebuild key parts of the media in Sierra Leone. The main focus of the initiative is the West African country's print media. Sierra Leone's newspapers were devastated following years of brutal civil war and severe economic decline. Many newspapers remain in a state of crisis, unable to provide adequate daily news coverage. Since the project's inception, CJFE has taken a lead role in revamping the print media in Sierra Leone. With the purchase of a printing press and a local co-operative to run it, the country's major newspapers are now able to put out quality publications on a regular basis. Moreover, CJFE has ensured that all papers that use the press abide by a code of ethics in order to improve the quality of news coverage. "CJFE and all the brains behind [the project] need to hold their heads up high because of the major transformations our papers have gone through within a short time." - Sierra Leonean media consultant and media trainer Mike Butscher The project, whose co-ordinators are in Canada and the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown, has benefited from the expertise of Canadian and foreign consultants who have conducted in-house training at the newspapers on subjects such as editorial quality, advertising sales and circulation development. There is also an innovative project to instruct reporters on the use of digital cameras provided by CJFE. The project is supported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), the World Press Freedom Committee and UNESCO. To see a collection of photographs of CJFE's work in Sierra Leone, click here. Media Training CJFE conducts journalism training programs in developing countries in co-operation with local partners and the financial support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Canadian journalists with experience in media training and cross-cultural communication are contracted to teach the courses. A goal of every project is to teach local journalists to be trainers themselves. Thailand Thai radio journalists in Bangkok receive instruction in drafting of copy for the radio reports. Read new article: CJFE Training in Thailand adapts to journalists' needs Broadcast journalism in Thailand has experienced a period of increased independence and structural change. Prior to the new Constitution of 1997, all electronic media outlets and airwave frequencies belonged either to government agencies or to the armed forces. The new charter, which explicitly promotes freedom of expression, mandated that a National Broadcasting Commission be established to re-allocate frequencies in the public interest. As a result, there has been a burgeoning of new community and private radio stations trying to deliver information programs for the first time. In order to assist the process, CJFE has collaborated with the Thai Journalists Association on a radio-skills training project to help prepare dozens of radio journalists to realize the potential of their craft under a new, freer broadcasting regime. The project has strengthened the capacity of broadcast journalism in Thailand to promote democracy and communicate important issues to the public. Indonesia Indonesian journalists in Jakarta take in instruction from Canadian trainer during radio skills workshop. During the past several years, Indonesia has experienced the dramatic growth of broadcast journalism. This is important for the country, made up of more than 17,000 islands spread out over a geographical distance the size of continental Europe. CJFE has worked for several years on what has proven to be a fruitful and successful training experience. A key partner in the organization's work in the South Asian country has been the Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information (ISAI), a leading free expression group. Through the training efforts of CJFE and consultants, over 70 radio journalists from a variety of radio stations throughout Indonesia have learned new skills on radio reporting and program development. Some have gone on to participate in the "Train-the-Trainer" program. The impact of CJFE's work in the country has been in the passing of knowledge by students to hundreds of their colleagues. "I knew only a little about radio journalism after I graduated from the department of communications at university, and even after working for Radio 68H. Now, I know a lot about radio production, interviewing techniques, how to write radio news stories and also how to present a radio news story before the microphone." - Helamyanti, a female journalist with Radio 68H in Jakarta who took part in a Radio Skills course in Jayapura

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CJFE | 555 Richmond St. West, Suite 1101, P.O. Box 407 Toronto, ON M5V 3B1 | Phone: 416-515-9622 | Fax: 416-515-7879 | cjfe@cjfe.org | www.cjfe.org