NEWS From COL

By Dave Wilson
Communications Manager
COMMONWEALTH OF LEARNING (COL)
1055 West Hastings Street, Suite 1200, Vancouver, BC V6E 2E9 CANADA
PH: +1.604.775.8200 | FAX: +1.604.775.8210
WEB: www.col.org | E-MAIL: info@col.org

In News from the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) of December 2010, details on the following have been released:
1) Excellence in Distance Education Award winners
2) More than 600 attend PCF6
3) Call for expressions of interest to co-host PCF7

1) Congratulations to Excellence in Distance Education Award winners
COL’s biennials Excellence in Distance Education Awards were presented at the Sixth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning in Kochi, India late last month. Congratulations to all the winners:

Honorary Fellows of COL:
• Professor M. Aminul Islam, Bangladesh
• Dr. Roger Mills, UK
• The Honourable Naledi Pandor, South Africa
• Ms. Peecheeta Spencer, Antigua & Barbuda
• Professor John Tarrant, U.K.

Institutional Achievement:
• Open University of Malaysia
• Polytechnic of Namibia
• Memorial University of Newfoundland

Materials, Category A:
Materials in print, audio or video, or a combination of these:
• Francistown College of Technical & Vocational Education, for the Botswana Technical Education Programme Certificate Course – The Human Body.

Materials, Category B:
Interactive, electronically delivered materials, which may be supplemented by materials developed in other media:
• University of Mauritius, for the Diploma in Web & Multimedia Development of the Virtual Centre for Innovative Learning

Distance Learning Experience, degree-granting programme:
• Professor Chan Lai Keng, Malaysia

Distance Learning Experience, eLearning experience in difficult circumstances
Mr. Osman Ali Gema Eshag, Sudan

Further details on the awards, the ceremony and the winners:
www.col.org/edea/2010

2) More than 600 attend PCF6
More than 600 people from more than 50 countries attended COL's Sixth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF6) in Kochi, Kerala, India from 24-28 November. PCF6 was co-hosted in India in partnership with the Indira Gandhi National Open University. Conference Co-Chairs were Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor of IGNOU, and Sir John Daniel, President and C.E.O. of COL. PCF6’s Honorary Chair was Professor M.S. Swaminathan.

Delegates explored the contribution of open and distance learning to international development goals, by opening up access to learning at every level. The theme was Access & Success in Learning: Global Development Perspectives. Sub themes were: Social Justice, Community Development, Skills Development and Formal Education.
PCF6’s daily newsletters with photos, published by IGNOU, can be read here: www.col.org/pcf.
Over 300 papers were included in the programme, which are available for all at http://wikieducator.org/PCF6.
Several keynote presentations, including Sir John’s sum-up (Access and Success in Learning: Your Conclusions) are available at www.col.org/speeches.
Reports, conclusions and impressions of PCF6 from COL staff are at www.col.org/blog (comments welcome).
News items published in the Indian and other national press have been collected by COL at www.delicious.com/Commonwealth_of_Learning/PCF6.
PCF6 participants are invited to complete an online survey that will help us to evaluate the Forum: www.surveymonkey.com/s/PCF6

In addition to COL and IGNOU other PCF6 sponsors included the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), UNESCO, the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS, India), the Commonwealth Secretariat, The Open University (U.K.) and the University of London. Sponsorship funds are directed entirely to travel subsidies for over 100 delegates from Commonwealth developing countries – none of whom have received funding from COL in the past to attend a PCF – and ensure that there is representation from as many member states as possible. Thank you to all.
www.col.org/pcf6

3) PCF7 co-host: Call for expressions of interest

COL has issued a call for expressions of interest for organisations, institutions and/or countries interested in co-hosting the next Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning in 2012. Please address your submission to COL’s President and C.E.O., Sir John Daniel, c/o info@col.org, and include details on proposed hosting arrangements and support. Deadline: 31 January 2011.
www.col.org/pcf

LEARNING FOR DEVELOPMENT:
COL is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning and distance education knowledge, resources and technologies.

Connections/EdTech News: www.col.org/connections
COL blog: www.col.org/blog
COL videos: www.col.org/videos
COL facebook page: www.facebook.com/COL4D

World Press Freedom Day 2011

Paris, 16th December, 2010
“21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers” is the theme of the next edition of World Press Freedom Day, which will be celebrated on 3 May 2011. Events are planned in more than 100 countries to celebrate the Day, which also marks the 20th anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration for the promotion of free and pluralistic media.
Among the highlights will be the presentation of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. The award ceremony will be held at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. The Prize, created in 1997, is awarded annually to a person, organization or institution that has made an important contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom, anywhere in the world, especially if it involved taking risks.
An international conference will also be held in Washington from 1-3 May on the theme for the Day, organised by UNESCO, the U.S State Department and over 20 civil society partners. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is a leading funder of the event, which will be supported by private donations. The conference will be held at the Newseum, which is a museum devoted to the history of the press and to freedom of expression worldwide. Discussions will focus on the increasing role of the internet, the emergence of new media and the dramatic rise in social networking. For a complete list of the organizations welcoming this dialogue and volunteering to support the co-hosts in organization of the event, click here.

A special event is planned for 4 May at United Nations headquarters in New York to mark the 20th anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration. Adopted in 1991 after a conference held in Windhoek (Namibia) on the development of a free African press, this declaration emphasizes the importance of an independent press for the development and preservation of democracy and economic development. Two years later, the UN General Assembly established World Press Freedom Day.
This anniversary will be celebrated in Windhoek with a regional conference to review the future of the media in Africa. A publication, “So this is media freedom? 20 years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom”, analysing two decades of media freedom in Africa, will be launched.
In the Arab States, UNESCO and the satellite network Al Jazeera will work together to host a series of events to mark the Day. UNESCO is also encouraging all those who are celebrating World Press Freedom Day to observe a minute of silence in memory of the journalists who have given their lives for our right to be informed.

Freedom of Expression

UNESCO International Symposium on Freedom of Expression
In Paris, 26 January 2011
An International Symposium on Freedom of Expression, sponsored by the Swedish National Commission, will be organized by UNESCO at its Headquarters on 26 January 2011. Based on the premises that freedom of expression is a cornerstone of the human rights edifice, and that open and participatory communication is vital for successful development, the debates will focus on the status of press freedom worldwide, the safety of media professionals as well as the changes of the media landscape in the digital age.
The meeting will gather some 300 participants including government officials, policymakers, representatives of major non-governmental organizations and media professionals, as well as the World Press Freedom Prize winner.

This one-day event is aligned with UNESCO’s mission to foster the free flow of ideas by word and image, and its promotion of the value of information and communication for “advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples”. UNESCO has long highlighted the links between the free flow of ideas and the broader objective of preventing wars and constructing the defences of peace.

Press freedom around the globe is far from secured, and new forms of restrictions have added to the traditional ones faced by news outlets and media professionals. Intimidation, arrests and physical attacks, and in the worst cases murder are a reality faced by journalists, editors and publishers throughout the world, both in conflict and peace-time settings. Impunity continues to surround most of these crimes, whose perpetrators are largely left unpunished. Reflection on the current obstacles to freedom of expression and press freedom, and on how to ensure journalists’ safety in this context will be fostered during the International Symposium.

The digital age has brought with it key opportunities, along with dilemmas whose complexity is today the substance of heated discussions. These issues will also be emphasized during the exchange of ideas promoted in the Symposium. The possibilities that new technologies have opened for the free flow of information and the expression of opinions, their potential to advance citizen empowerment, the demand for accountability and social and human development will likely be among the examined themes.

Moreover, considerations about how to best adapt the legal and regulatory environment, combat new risks to press freedom and freedom of expression, address privacy and security implications will also need to be addressed. Other central topics to be analysed in relation to journalism in a digitalized world will be the emerging media business models, the protection of confidential sources, and the promotion of media accountability and professional standards, among many others. To register for the event, please visit the following link: www.unesco.org/webworld/en/fed-symposium-registration
This message is brought to you courtesy of UNESCO

HealthPhone Promoting Healthy Communities

By Cameroon Link
HealthPhone is coming soon to village, town, city, slum, block, district, state, province, country near you! Mobile phones pre-loaded with reliable, relevant, contextually-appropriate, comprehensive, consistent health and nutrition knowledge and know-how delivered directly to individuals, families and communities, even those – especially those – who live in villages and slums and those that are illiterate. Available 24x7, Everywhere! Multimedia health and nutrition content, downloadable Apps., distribution networks and much more under development.
The uncomfortable reality is that we live in a world where there is a Silent emergency every day: 22,000 children will die from preventable causes today. 1,000 women will die from pregnancy-related causes today. This year, 4 million newborns worldwide will die in the first month of life.
The silent killers that will take away their lives are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and related causes. Five diseases – pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, measles and AIDS – together account for half of all deaths of children under 5. Hundreds, if not thousands, of excellent projects are being implemented in both rural and urban parts of the world. Some serve a village, while others serve a group of villages, a city, a town, a taluka, a block or a district. Yet few projects are implemented state-wide and even fewer nationwide. Why is that? A key factor is capacity-building and scaling-up.
Health education has to be one of the most effective ways to reduce maternal and child mortality, those preventable deaths that we never seem to manage to prevent. We need to deliver vital messages and information for mothers, fathers, siblings, caregivers and communities to use in changing behaviour and practices: messages that can save and protect the lives of children and help them grow and develop to their full potential.
For the illiterate, currently their only source of information is probably going to be the people around you, who are also, in many cases, illiterate. Their level of dependency and lack of self-reliance, their dis-empowerment and exclusion, is at a level that many of us will find hard to imagine.
The mobile phones have made connection possible in ways that were truly unthinkable very recently. And it has stoked the desire of people to be connected. Take India for example: with a population of 1.17 billion and a wireless user base of about 700 million, and growing at the rate of 15 to 20 million a month. "Cell Phone penetration will reach 97% by 2014", according to a recent study. Soon, almost everybody will have one.
This is a game-changer for capacity-building and scaling up. It means we can reach the excluded, the illiterate, all those women, men and children who were only visible in tragic statistics. We can reach families and communities as a whole - something we've never really been able to do before.
HealthPhone has health and nutrition knowledge, prepared jointly by UNICEF, WHO, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNDP, UNAIDS, WFP and The World Bank, on Timing Births, Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health, Child Development and Early Learning, Breastfeeding, Nutrition and Growth, Immunization, Diarrhoea, Coughs Colds and More Serious Illnesses, Hygiene, Malaria, HIV, Child Protection, Injury Prevention, Emergencies: preparedness and response.
Initial content in English and 15 Indian Languages: Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Tamil Telugu and Urdu. Watch the intro video at http://healthphone.org

WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT NEWS

Date: 20 September 2010
Call for Proposals for Fund for Women’s Property and Inheritance Rights in the Context of HIV/AIDS
UNIFEM (part of UN Women), with the generous contribution of the Canadian International Development Agency, today launches a Call for Proposals for the Fund for Women’s Property and Inheritance Rights in the Context of HIV/AIDS. The Fund will provide small, catalytic grants totalling US$700,000 in 2010 to grassroots and community-based organizations or networks in sub-Saharan Africa working to improve women’s access to property and inheritance rights within the context of HIV/AIDS.
Women’s property ownership and inheritance rights can play a significant role in potentially breaking the cycle of AIDS and poverty. There is growing evidence to suggest that where women’s property rights are upheld, women acting as heads and/or primary caregivers of HIV/AIDS-affected households are better able to mitigate the impact of AIDS on their families and communities and can also help prevent the further spread of HIV/AIDS. Realistic and workable strategies at the grassroots have demonstrated that increasing women’s economic security and empowerment, increases their negotiating power in the household and is a means to reduce their physical and social vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.
Interested applicants from sub-Saharan Africa are invited to apply. The Call for Proposals opens on 20 September 2010 and will close on 20 October 2010.
For more details, please click on the following link - http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=1166

8th IBFAN Africa Conference Holds in Mauritius

By James Achanyi-Fontem
Cameroon Link
Email: camlink2001@gmail.com
Africa will be rekindling child survival and maternal health interventions towards the attainment of Millennium Development Goals through effective integration of Infant and Young Child Feeding Programmes at Port Louis, Mauritius from the 20th September 2010.
The conference is organized by the International Baby Food Action Network, IBFAN Africa with the support of the World Health Organisation and UNICEF. It would be recalled that the Regional IBFAN Africa office supports 32 countries: 27 countries in Anglophone Africa :Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Comoros, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe and 5 countries in Lusophone Africa:Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tomé & Principe.
Countries in the African region as well as world-wide, pledged to reduce under-five mortality rate by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015. “Child survival and maternity health” is the Millennium Development Goal 4.
Subsequently, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued Infant Feeding Guidelines which recommended that infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life to achieve optimal growth, development and health. Thereafter, to meet their evolving nutritional requirements, infants should receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods while breastfeeding continues for up to two years of age or beyond.
It is estimated that 10% to 15% of under-five deaths in resource poor countries can be prevented through achievement of 90% coverage with exclusive breastfeeding alone. Studies highlight that breastfed infants have fewer respiratory and diarrhoeal illnesses, with an overall decrease in the hospitalization rates than non-breastfed infants.
It is estimated that reaching all infants with a package of interventions to protect, promote and support optimal infant and young child feeding practices - breastfeeding and complementary feeding can contribute to preventing 1.4 million and 600,000 child deaths respectively, or just over a fifth of the total annual child deaths.
The good news is that breastfeeding rates are not declining any more on a global level and have increased during the last decade in many countries, due to concerted programming efforts. Recent data highlights that there has been substantial and encouraging progress over the last 10 years in over a dozen countries, where exclusive breastfeeding rates increased by 20 percentage points or more (UNICEF database, 2007).
Many of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. These successes show that progress is possible, even in challenging situations. Positive outcomes are achieved when countries implement at scale, a comprehensive approach to improving infant feeding practices. This could include efforts at the level of policy and legislation, health system strengthening and capacity building, community-level action and behaviour change communication initiatives.
Improving breastfeeding practices requires behaviour change, something that does not happen
spontaneously and without encouragement and support at the family and community levels. This effort is recognized in the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, which includes community based interventions as one of the new operational targets.
Given the fact that women’s capability to breastfeed is determined by both social and cultural factors, as well as medical and technical factors, mainstreaming IYCF requires both communication for behaviour change at all levels of the population, as well as skilled counselling and guidance given to women from the time of childbirth onwards. Mainstreaming of optimal IYCF, inclusion of breastfeeding indicators in outcome evaluations, capacity building for effective improvement in breastfeeding rates and building public awareness on the importance of breastfeeding is crucial to meet MDG-4, for improving child survival is of immense importance for the Africa network as well as to fulfil the global desire to achieve the MDGs for nutrition and child survival.
Evidence based preventive measures like optimal infant and young child feeding are important tools to achieve these goals. For the African continent, there is an urgent need to contribute to the ongoing efforts by various partners including NGOs, government and UN agencies.
Each member of the network must impart the essential service of infant feeding counselling to the mothers and families coming in contact with him/her. This may require sensitization of everyone coming in contact with the mother and counselling on infant feeding by a trained person.

Conference Background

IBFAN Africa Regional Meeting is a strategic planning activity that is held once every three years for IBFAN members in the Anglophone and Lusophone countries. The meeting hosts National Coordinators of infant and young child feeding programmes and group leaders from about 33 member countries in Africa. To these meetings, IBFAN friends, partners, donors and
collaborators are also invited.
The Regional Meeting is an opportunity to:
• Enrich and update participants on new issues and developments on Infant and Young Child Feeding;
• Provide a forum for reviewing progress of our work and sharing of experiences and information;
• Create consensus on interpretation of new knowledge and matters of mutual benefits, and
• Make recommendations on the strategic direction for the Network in IYCF for the next 3 years.
• Regional Meetings are also an opportunity for IBFAN members to elect the IBFAN Africa Advisory Committee (IAAC) members. The Advisory Committee formulates major IBFAN
regional policies and advices the Regional Coordinator on issues of implementation and coordination of regional programme.

ABOUT IBFAN

IBFAN represents a global network linking over 200 groups in around 100 countries both in the North and the South. It was founded by a number of NGOs in 1979, following a WHO/ UNICEF international meeting on IYCF. This meeting culminated in the adoption of the International Code on Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes. The Code was adopted in 1981 by an overwhelming majority of 118 Member States. IBFAN was given the mandate to support governments in adopting, implementing and monitoring compliance to the Code.
The 8th IBFAN Africa Conference is the first during the mandate of the current Regional Coordinator, Joyce Chanetsa.
She has brought in four key international facilitators to the conference in Mauritius: Dr. J.P. Dadhich, who is National Coordinator of the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India(BPNI), Mr. Hussein H.T. Tarimo, who works with the Ministry of health in Gabrone, Botswana (Food Safety Principal Scientific Officer), Eliane Petitat-Côté from IBFAN-GIFA in Switzerland, will be addressing human rights based approaches, as member of the Child Rights Commission and Yousouf Jhugroo, Chief Executive of the Institute for Consumer Protection, Mauritian Action for the promotion of Breastfeeding and Infant Nutrition.
The 8th IBFAN Africa Regional Conference is one of success stories, especially as country progress on Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) and community Mother and Baby Friendly Initiative(BFCI) are highlighted on the agenda. Cameroon chairs the session on Thursday, 23rd September 2010 on collaboration issues and election of the new board.

Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Goes To Lebialem, Cameroon

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

UNESCO’s Information Society Division Gets New Director

Indrajit Banerjee, an expert on the social impact of information and communication technologies, has just taken office as Director of UNESCO’s Information Society Division.
Mr. Banerjee holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in Pondicherry, India (1985). He also obtained a Master of Arts degree from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India (1988). Mr. Banerjee completed his doctoral degree at the Sorbonne University, Paris, France in 1994.
Since January 2004, Mr. Banerjee was the Secretary-General of the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) in Singapore until his appointment as the Chief of Section, ICT in Education, Science and Culture at the Communication and Information sector of UNESCO in July 2009.
Mr. Banerjee is an internationally recognized media and communications scholar and has edited ten books and published articles in some of the top international journals in the field of communications. He has also presented papers at over 50 international conferences around the world.
After completing his doctoral degree, Mr. Banerjee undertook a stint as a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). Following his term at UQAM, he was a faculty member at the University of Ottawa, the University Science Malaysia and the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Code Monitoring In Cameroon

Nestlé, Blédina et le Ministère de la Santé Sont Les vrais ennemis des bébés!
La 19ème semaine mondiale de l’allaitement maternel se célèbre du 1er au 7 août 2010 dans plus de 172 pays à travers le monde. Au Cameroun, moins de 20% de mamans nourriraient leurs bébés au sein jusqu’à l’âge de six mois.
Paradoxalement, pendant que le discours officiel est à l’encouragement à l’allaitement au sein, une vaste campagne de violation massive du code national de commercialisation des substituts du lait maternel est observable à travers les dons et gadgets des sociétés Nestlé et Blédina sous le regard du Ministère de la santé publique.
En effet, le décret No 2005/5168/PM du 01 décembre 2005 portant réglementation de la commercialisation des substituts du lait maternel, inspiré du code international de commercialisation des substituts du lait maternel de l’organisation mondiale de la santé, stipule dans son article 6, alinéa 1 et 2, que «les fabricants ou distributeurs ne doivent pas faire don d’équipements faisant référence à un produit visé par le présent décret aux formations sanitaires, aux institutions de formation de santé, aux organisations s’occupant de la promotion de la santé ainsi qu’aux professionnels de la santé. Il en est de même de tout matériel ou gadget, même destiné à l’information, à l’éducation ou à la formation ».
Pourtant, les personnels de santé des établissements hospitaliers publics et privés continuent de recevoir des blouses, des sacs, des polos, des calendriers, etc de Nestlé Cameroun et Blédina. Le 28 mai 2010 alors qu’il inaugurait la rénovation de l’hôpital du Jour de l’hôpital Laquintinie de Douala, M. André Mama Fouda, Ministre de la santé publique, n’a-t-il pas vu ces blouses estampillées «Blédina» ou «Nido» sur certains de ses collaborateurs ou ces affiches présentant l’allaitement artificiel comme le meilleur aliment du nourrisson et du jeune enfant?
Dans les salles d’accouchement, les pavillons pédiatriques ou les lieux publics, on retrouve des représentations de nourrissons et autres illustrations qui visent à idéaliser l’allaitement maternel, en violation de l’alinéa 2 de l’article 4 du décret du premier Ministre.
La rébellion de ces entreprises de fabrication, de distribution et de commercialisation des substituts du lait maternel vis-à-vis de la réglementation en vigueur semble arranger le Ministère de la santé. Où vont les quelques 30 millions de CFA annuellement débloqués pour assurer notamment l’habillement et le repas des personnels de santé ?
Conséquence, on retrouve actuellement dans les hôpitaux au moins trois types de blouses de provenances différentes : Des blouses portant les estampilles de Nestlé et Blédina, des blouses confectionnées par certains personnels las d’attendre la manne du Ministère et enfin, les authentiques.
Quel mépris de demander aux personnels de santé aussi désarmés- pas de blouse ni véritable information sur la mise en application du Code- de refuser les dons de Nestlé et Blédina ? En réalité, Nestlé, Blédina et le Ministère de la santé publique, véritables ennemis des bébés, s’emploient indiscutablement à brouiller la politique du Cameroun sur la promotion de l’allaitement maternel.
Acthu demande à tous les personnels de santé, en dépit des humiliations, de faire acte de plus de rigueur professionnelle en bottant les dons de Nestlé et Blédina hors des hôpitaux.
La santé est un droit fondamental non négociable!
Christian E. Locka est le Président de l’Action
pour l’Humanisation des Hôpitaux(Acthu)

Editor's Note
Some facts everyone should know about breastfeeding…
130 million babies are born every year around the world and 9.2 million will die before they reach age 5.
Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months can prevent more than a million avoidable deaths each year and has health benefits that extend through childhood and even into adulthood.
Only 40% of infants are exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months.

Grants for Investigative Journalists

Investigative Reporting Deadline: 31/07/2010
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa

The Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR) is offering grants to investigative journalists in Africa to further their research on investigative pieces.Submissions must be received by July 31.

Two grants are available worth US$3,713 each. Eight grants worth US$618 each are intended to fund investigative stories that would not otherwise be published.

All investigative journalists based or operating in Africa may apply. Applications must include a general summary in English, Portuguese or French that will be used to create a shortlist of 20 applicants.

Online Courses Offer

ICFJ to offer online courses on using multimedia tools
The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is currently offering two online courses for U.S. journalists on using multimedia tools. The courses are for Hispanic and minority journalists in the U.S., and will be conducted in English and Spanish. They will focus on a variety of multimedia offerings – from audio slideshows to Google mash-ups to data visualization tools. The four week courses will have a special focus on using multimedia and digital tools to cover personal finance issues, and will start on June 28 and last until July 21. Deadline to apply: June 24.
The Spanish and English courses will be led by multimedia journalist Rosalba Ruiz, who has been a multimedia producer for Voice of America (VOA) and a multimedia reporter for California's Orange County Register. She is a bilingual multimedia journalist with over 10 years of media experience.
For inquires contact Natasha Tynes at ntynes@icfj.org or Isabel Morales imorales@icfj.org
To apply for the course please follow the instructions below:

1. Visit https://e-learn.icfj.org.

2. Click on the application link in the language that you prefer (English or Spanish).

3. Login using your e-learn account. If you don't have an account, click "Create new account" to register. After you register, you will need to check your email to confirm your account.

Latest News

TVNZ launches local content channel

Television New Zealand's 100 percent local content channel 'TVNZ Heartland' went live on 1 June, in conjunction with the station's 50th birthday, Voxy.co.nz reports.
TVNZ and SKY have worked together to launch 'TVNZ Heartland', available on the pay operator's platform to all subscribers of the SKY basic package.

Intermediate Television Production
Applicants are invited to apply for the new distance-learning course “Intermediate Television Production”. Participation is free for Television Journalists working for CBA Member Organisations; non-members can join at a fee. Modules will involve connecting with your audience, the changing face of TV news with twenty-four hour broadcasts becoming the norm and the rise of new media.
The course will run from the 2nd July for 6 weeks and will be delivered online and will involve the use of e-mail as well as an active input in the course chat forum. To apply, please complete the application form; for further information please go here.

Distance Learning
CBA Secretary General Position
The Commonwealth Broadcasting Association seeks an experienced broadcasting professional for the role of Secretary General to start work in October. Applicants must be able to demonstrate a commitment to public service broadcasting and understanding of the challenges facing the industry, particularly within the Commonwealth. He/she should have a history of successful management at senior level.
Applications close for this position on June 30th. Acting as Chief Executive and UK Company Secretary brings many roles and responsibilities to the CBA Secretary General. The Secretariat position is London based, with worldwide travel an essential element; candidates should have the right to live and work in the UK.