Blog Post

Savana, Mozal and Air Pollution

Last year, the aluminum production company Mozal quietly requested authorization to operate with direct emissions (or bypass the filtering system) while repairing its Fume Treatment Centers (FTC) for six months, at a cost of $10-million. "Sub-optimal engineering in the centers," was the bland term used by Mozal assets president Mike Fraser to explain the need for repairs. Translation: shoddy quality.

The smelter, one of the largest foreign investments ever in Mozambique, is visible from the highway linking Maputo to South Africa.

Mural: a celebration of life in the periphery

A phrase once uttered once by one of the students who took part in the Mural course impressed me deeply.

Carpe Diem: Covering Health In Kenya Post Referendum

Two days after Kenyans defied expectations and peacefully, purposefully approved a new Constitution, I was processing two powerful emotions.

The first one mirrored my overall mindset during the 2008 US Presidential Election, when the chance to participate in an historic event was literally intoxicating. Being able to fly home from my ICFJ Kenya program base to vote only heightened the excitement. I know many Kenyans are feeling that same tidal wave of impact at defying the naysayers through the power of the ballot.

But the other sensation I’m feeling is deep relief.

New Digital Map Tracks Crime and Corruption in Panama

As a Mexican journalist living at the U.S.-Mexico border, I recognize the footprints of organized crime: drug-related executions, drug seizures, and drive-by shootings. I have seen these same signs in Panama. That’s why I think my project as a Knight International Journalism Fellow will be crucial for my Panamanian colleagues.

Citizens can tweet or submit an online form with their crime report. Soon they will be able to text as well. The reports are geo-tagged on a digital map using Ushahidi, an online platform that originated in Kenya to track violence during the elections.

Delivering the Goods: Overview of the Marketing and Product Development Process

Start-ups often grow organically and often need a little guidance on growth and development.

Mobile phone technology meets citizen journalism

When my health-journalism fellowship began two and a half years ago, I dreamed about finding the “killer app” for mobile telephones that would revolutionize journalism in Africa.

I didn’t make much headway, and the dream came to look like a wild fantasy. But today, 26-year old Lydia Namubiru is engineering the kind of leap forward I once dreamed would be my claim to fame.

The diminutive Ugandan was working as a features writer for the New Vision newspaper when I arrived in her country at the beginning of 2008.

Southeast Asian Media Legal Defense Network Launches in Kuala Lumpur

SEAMLDN officially launches regional network to support the legal defense of media freedom in Southeast Asia.

Media controls are a complicated business.  We are all aware of the overt control exerted over the media in markets where the media is owned or “affiliated” with the government or where access to the Internet is filtered through a firewall.  But, in markets across Asia less overt but equally effective techniques are used to keep the media under control or out of the picture.  These techniques often take the form of legal or administrative barriers to operations.

In th

Ideas para aumentar el Voz a Voz de un medio digital

Un mercadólogo que cree en el poder de referenciadores usa un método sencillo para escoger un restaurante en la carretera.

Para él los referenciadores son los camioneros. Escoge un restaurante donde hay muchos camiones estacionados porque se supone que los conductores son los expertos de la comida en la carretera.

Before the last lesson

We are now going to the final week of lessons offered to a group of citizen journalists from peripheral areas of São Paulo, that have become the first wave of trainees of the "Mural" project.

Business Models and OpenWebAsia 2010

Looking at new business and funding models for independent online media at the annual OpenWebAsia conference held July 13th and 14th in Kuala Lumpur.

Looking for more background on developing sustainable business models for the independent online media in the region, I attended the Open Web Asia conference that was held in Kuala Lumpur this past week.  This is a semi-regular event last held in Seoul in 2008.  This year’s event was sponsored by the Multimedia Development Corporation MDeC a branch of the Malaysian government responsible for the