USAID/Timor-Leste: Newsroom

NEWS RELEASE

ICFJ Launches New Online News Service www.timortoday.com

Dili, Timor-Leste – Charges D’Affaires Henry Rector of the United States and Ambassador Peter Heyward of Australia will lead the inauguration of the first-ever TV online news service for Timor-Leste on March 13, 2009. The online news service, spearheaded by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), will provide timely news stories about Timor-Leste in a 30-minute weekly news format that can be viewed at Timortoday.com.

Timortoday.com will offer a variety of stories that impact the daily lives of the people of Timor-Leste. The stories will be available in video, audio and print, eventually in three languages: English, Tetum and Portuguese.

The news stories will be written and produced by journalists across the country, utilizing production facilities in the five Regional Media Houses in Timor-Leste. The Regional Media Houses are resource centers designed for journalists where they can get access to media facilities, training and other services provided by ICFJ. Three of the Media Houses are already open in Ermera, Dili and Baucau, while two more will open in April in Suai and Oecussi.

Once the stories are completed in the districts, journalists will be able to upload their video packages via high-speed internet from the Regional Media Houses to the media house in the capital Dili for final production before the package is made available at www.timortoday.com.

The journalists have undergone intensive training in the districts by journalist Lusse Cloutier. They will continue their training in Dili under the guidance of media trainers Gabriela Carrascalao-Heard and Casemiro da Cruz. Both are also leading a team of seven journalists -- including two ICFJ staff members -- training Timorese journalists on how to produce and package news stories. All of the participants will continue to participate in training even as they begin to produce stories for www.timortoday.com.

Many of the reporters working from the districts are women who took part in an ICFJ training workshop geared specifically for them as part of a gender mainstreaming program that encourages women to explore journalism as a career path.

This activity is part of the five-year, $5.5 million “Strengthening Independent Media Program” jointly supported by USAID and AusAID, with the latter contributing Aus $1.25 million to the program.

Through the “Strengthening Independent Media Program,” ICFJ is working to improve the ability of Timorese journalists to produce and disseminate high quality news and expand the reach of media-information products available to all citizens of Timor-Leste. ICFJ also emphasizes the training of future Timorese journalism trainers and the development of an enabling legal environment for Timorese media professionals.

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