Rally in Maguindanao provincial capital of Shariff Aguak protests the massacre

Two East-West Center media alumni were invited to cover a major political story in the southern Philippines. One was too busy, another was worried about security.

They both turned down the opportunity, decisions that may have saved their lives.

Thirty journalists who covered the story were killed in the deadliest attack on media ever recorded by the international Committee to Protect Journalists.

Malu Cadelina Manar, a 2007 Senior Journalists Seminar alumnus, has provided a report for MediaLine on the massacre, including the outrage it has sparked among journalists and human rights groups. Continue Reading »

Reza Zandi, a freelance writer who has covered oil and energy issues for Shahrvand-e-Emrooz (Today’s Citizen) weekly magazine in Iran, is the first Iranian journalist to join an East-West Center media program.

Reza Zandi in Nashbille, Tennessee

At the end of his participation in the Senior Journalists Seminar earlier this year, Zandi wrote down his impressions of America during his first trip to the United States. His personal reaction to America’s friendliness and beauty contrasts with the testiness of U.S.-Iran relations.

Yet, he also sees shortcomings, and appeals for closer ties between Americans and Iranians, particularly journalists. Continue Reading »

'Letter from the grave'

A slain Sri Lankan journalist who accurately predicted his own assassination and expressed hope that it would bring “a new era of human liberty in our beloved motherland” has little reason to be resting in peace 10 months later.

Despite the government’s declaration in May of an end to its war with the Tamil Tiger rebels, journalists continue to face dangers.

Lasantha Wickramatunga, founder and editor of The Sunday Leader and a 1995 Jefferson Fellow, was gunned down on Jan. 9, about two months after writing his last editorial predicting his own assassination.

Continue Reading »

A busy Hong Kong street

Dr. Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, and Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, secretary general for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), top the growing list of speakers at the Hong Kong International Media Conference April 25-28.

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Health journalists focus on infectious diseases in Vietnam

It’s been six months since the first cases of an unfamiliar respiratory illness were recognized, first in Mexico and then in the southwestern United States. We now know that those cases were the forerunners of H1N1 (swine) influenza, the first simultaneous global outbreak of a new flu strain in the 21st Century. The disease has spread fear and confusion, exposed the inadequacies of national and global pandemic preparations, and highlighted inequities in global sharing of resources.

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2009 Jefferson Fellows at shoe factory, Dongguan, China

Is Asia emerging as a more self-powered, interdependent region as it battles back from the global economic crisis, recovering faster than the West? And is China becoming the new center for Asian trade, investment and consumption?

“What’s happening is that Asia is discovering itself as a market in policymaking and is its own growth engine, so to speak,” said economist Peter Petri, an East-West Center senior fellow and professor at Brandeis University.

The year’s changing economic outlook in Asia was chronicled by journalists in five 2009 EWC programs. They blogged, tweeted and reported on the global economic crisis as it shook the region.

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Children play at tsunami shelter in Leone, American Samoa

Covering natural disasters is always a challenge for journalists. They have to overcome the emotions of witnessing human suffering, broken communications systems, transport disruptions, the danger of further disaster, and the wrath of overburdened officials who have better things to do than talk to media.

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If you participated in any East-West Center media program or are an alumnus of other EWC programs and now work in the media field, the EWC invites you to join its new international Media Alumni Chapter.

Organized around professional interests rather than geography, the chapter welcomes anyone, anywhere to sign up. For instructions, click here. Membership is free.

Continue Reading »

President Barack Obama in Tokyo: “As America’s first Pacific president, I promise you that this Pacific nation will strengthen and sustain our leadership in this vitally important part of the world.”

What do you think?

Climate Change

• A Roadmap to Binding Carbon Caps for China

• Special East-West Dialogue on China and the Copenhagen Climate Talks

Economy

• How the Asia Pacific Can Drive the Global Recovery
• “The Past Does Not Repeat Itself, But It Rhymes”: Four Lessons Learned from the Financial Crises
• Asia Matters for America

Health/H1N1

• Tips & Tools for Journalists: Covering H1N1

2010 Hong Kong International Media Conference

• Reporting New Realities in Asia and the Pacific

Journalism Fellowships and Exchanges

• Upcoming Media Programs for U.S. and Asia Pacific Journalists

Pacific Islands News

• Pacific Islands Report

Sri Lanka

• And Then They Came for Me
• Media Raid Video