An interesting report from the Christian Science Monitor on how the Tunisian government has stopped a US-government backed program to promote objective journalism. It's used in the article as one example illustrating the difficulties the State Department has had promoting reform efforts. It's also an example of how even a little student journalism exchange program scares the Tunisian regime:
MEPI's student newspaper project, in partnership with the Institute of Press and Information Services (IPSI), the government's journalist training center at Manouba University near Tunis, was halted after only a year because of "bureaucratic problems.""This is not a political problem ... I don't know why [it was halted] exactly," says Mohamed Ali Kembi, one of two professors at IPSI who participated in the program that included exchanges with Ohio's Bowling Green State University. "It was really a successful program."
In a weekly newsletter called "Perspectives," a dozen students covered university news, dorm life, sports, and foreign news. There were exchanges between Tunisian journalism students and professors and their American counterparts.
The goal was to teach objective journalism. In a country whose media is tightly controlled and journalists need government approval to work, getting IPSI on board for the project for the first year was seen as a major victory, says the US official at MEPI.
But as preparations were made for a second year, IPSI unexpectedly "made it clear it would be on hold indefinitely," says the US official.
Or maybe they'll request Everyday is Like Sunday: "Come, come, nuclear bomb..."
Posted by: dr dre beats headphones | December 01, 2011 at 08:42 PM