Foundation provides $1m for Indonesian journalists

Foundation provides $1m for Indonesian journalists

Agencies, Jakarta

The board of trustees of the John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation has approved US$1 million in emergency funding to
three international journalism organizations to work together to
aid print and broadcast journalists in Indonesia in the wake of
the tsunami.

The grants will help rebuild infrastructure and facilities
destroyed by the killer tidal waves, as well as recruit new
staff, AScribe newswire reported.

The three organizations -- Internews, the International Center
for Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists -- all
have extensive experience working with and aiding journalists in
developing countries.

Internews will use its $500,000 grant to rebuild radio
journalism in the Aceh capital of Banda Aceh.

The Aceh province was the most devastated by the tsunami, with
122,000 dead.

Two production studios and three editing labs, capable of
producing radio for distribution across Indonesia, will be built.
Internews also will use the grant money to build two smaller
production facilities, hire several advisers and provide stipends
for local journalists who are willing to go back to work as well
as stipends for the families of journalists who were killed.

With Internews focusing on radio, a $400,000 Knight grant to
the International Center of Journalists will aid print and TV
journalists in Aceh. The center, which runs the Knight
International Press Fellowships for American journalists to train
overseas media, will use the grant for a special series of
fellows.

At least four fellows will serve in 2005 and 2006, with each
spending time in the field being debriefed by the outgoing
fellow, so that one continuous line of training is developed.

The Committee to Protect Journalists will use a $100,000 grant
to establish a special free press fund to protect Indonesian
journalists from government censorship and harassment. The CPJ
may, in turn, give over some of those funds to local groups to
allow them to rebuild their capacity to push for press freedom.

"We hope the independent journalism produced by the efforts of
all three organizations will play a part in rebuilding this
devastated area, as well as inspire a new generation of
independent journalists in Indonesia and help move the country
toward a freer, more vibrant press," said Mike Maidenberg, Knight
Foundation vice president and chief program officer.

Concern has grown in recent months that government officials
will use the tsunami as an excuse to exercise greater control
over the Indonesian media. A separatist rebellion in the province
of Aceh has been ongoing for the last three decades and has
killed 12,000 people.

These grants mark the first time Knight Foundation has
approved emergency funds to rebuild journalism infrastructure.