UNESCO in the Spotlight: Science and Communications

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas has completed an online course as part of an agreement with UNESCO to help journalism professors in Africa with training on digital media. More than 20 professors from Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe followed the course. All of them are from schools included in UNESCO's list of Potential Centres of Excellence and Reference in Journalism Education in Africa.


The course “Teaching Online Journalism” was taught, entirely on the Internet, by Prof. Mindy McAdams, the Knight Chair in Journalism Technologies and the Democratic Process at the University of Florida and an internationally recognized leading expert in digital journalism. 

The quest for gathering accurate information and protecting those who seek to disseminate it should always be a priority. This information, after all, can inspire countless numbers of individuals to understand their worlds, to promote knowledge societies, and to take action to improve their local and not-so-local surroundings. And--as history has consistently shown--the highest caliber of information often comes when individuals collaborate and constantly analyze what is distributed.

Given the importance of these practices, even a cursory look at UNESCO's initiatives encouraging collaborative, participatory media is encouraging. The initiatives are well worth reviewing. From the current World Summit on the Information Society to the Director-General's public condemnation of the murder of journalists and media professionals, UNESCO has striven to foster unhindered communication and best practices worldwide. More information on current initiatives can be found here.

One recent publication particularly worth noting is UNESCO's publication regarding the importance of civic education is one of the many ways the organization shows its realization that media shapes development around the world. See more information on this publication here.

This and other publications are valuable for anyone within or outside the media. Fighting for the right to gather and distribute information is important in any field, and being aware of what is being done to protect knowledge societies is essential if they are to be built or maintained.

Tomorrow is the last day to nominate candidates for the 2009 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. Organizations and institutions as well as individuals may be nominated, and the winner will be recognized in a ceremony in Quatar May 3, 2009, during the World Press Freedom Day Conference. The form and instructions to submit nominations can be found here.
The prize itself is awarded to those who have made significant contributions to progress or defend the freedom of expression and information, particularly if this involves risk. First given in 1997, it was created by UNESCO's Executive Board and is given annually. It is now supported by the Nicholas B. Ottaway Foundation, JP/Politiken Newspapers LTD, and the Guillermo Cano Foundation. Guillermo Cano Isaza, the prize's namesake, was a Colombian newspaper editor who was assassinated on December 17, 1986, for denouncing the activities of local drug barons.

Kangaroos and koalas have been enlisted to entice journalists to Melbourne - AAAS Meeting, San Francisco, February 2007
Photos: Richard Friebe

According to the U.S. Holocaust Museum there exists

a genocide emergency for Darfur, Sudan. To date about 2,500,000 civilians, targeted because of their ethnic or racial identity, have been driven from their homes, more than 300,000 people killed, and more than 1,600 villages destroyed by Sudanese government soldiers and government-backed militias, known as the "Janjaweed." More than 200,000 Sudanese are refugees in neighboring Chad. The crisis continues as thousands more die each month from the effects of inadequate food, water, health care, and shelter in a harsh desert environment.

UNESCO produced the 2006 film, "The Children of Darfur". It is a youth documentary film that will tell the children's version of what is happening in Darfur. Some of the strongest testimonies are told by the children and etched in drawings made in the support centres that have opened throughout Darfur.

The film, directed by Denmark’s Camilla Nielsson, received the International TV3 Actual Award, a 10,000-euro first prize for outstanding examples of investigative journalism, as well as the 25th Grand Prix for Documentary of the International Radio and Television University. The film is one of seven films released last year by UNESCO as a part of its advocation of human rights.