Author: Diana Mitsu Klos
Published: May 22, 1998
Last Updated: May 20, 1999
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Thinking internationally

The Freedom Forum/ASNE International Journalism Exchange is an initiative that seeks to strengthen newsroom leadership in countries where press freedom is taking root and bring a stronger international perspective to U.S. newspapers.

Top-level, English-speaking editors from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics, and Latin America are selected for a five-week newspaper management training program in the U.S., the core of which is four weeks at a host newspaper. The visiting editors see for themselves how independent newspapers function in a free market society, and the newspapers benefit from the expertise and experiences of their colleagues from abroad.

(Reports from two participants are on the next few pages.)

Since 1984, when ASNE created the project, 147 visiting foreign journalists and 113 U.S. newspapers have taken part. The Freedom Forum has funded the project since 1994, and since 1990 the program has been administered for ASNE by the International Center for Journalists. The program is competitive: In 1997, nine editors were selected from 140 applicants from 59 countries.

The 1997 participants and their host newspapers were:

• Francisco Chamorro, chief editor, El Nuevo Diario; Managua, Nicaragua — The Miami Herald.
• Irina Eranova, deputy editor-in-chief, Vecherniy Novosibirsk; Novosibirsk, Russia — The Boston Globe.
• Juan L. Font, managing editor, El Periodico; Guatemala City, Guatemala — The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee.
• Eleum Emeka Izeze, editor, The Guardian; Lagos, Nigeria — The Philadelphia Inquirer.
• Li Bo Lin, deputy editor-in-chief, GD-HK Information Daily; Guangzhou, China — USA Today International, Arlington, Va.
• Ali Murtadlo, managing editor, Jawa Pos; Surabaya, Indonesia —  Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram.
• Artur Ricardo, editor-in-chief, Diario De Mozambique; Beira, Mozambique — The Mobile (Ala.) Register.
• Lidiya Savina, deputy editor-in-chief, Vecherny Bishkek; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan — Star-Tribune, Minneapolis.
• Andrey Sidorin, deputy editor-in-chief, Posuh Newspaper; Dushanbe, Tajikistan — The Deseret News, Salt Lake City.