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WHO INITIATED THE PROJECT?
The Salzburg Global Seminar and the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda, together with the Open Society Foundation, launched New Realities, a multi-disciplinary project to develop a global journalism curriculum on international justice issues and institutions.
WHAT IS THE LONG-TERM GOAL?
The long-term goal of the project is to achieve widespread change in the news media’s reporting on human rights law and international justice issues.
Classroom instruction at key universities in conflict-affected regions will teach the next generation of journalists about new international justice institutions and give those students the reporting skills and the knowledge of new digital technologies increasingly essential to report accurately and responsibly to a local, national and even global public.
WHAT WERE THE GOALS FOR THE SALZBURG WORKSHOP?
The Salzburg workshop was a planning meeting for a forward strategy, following on the release of the initiative’s report: Preparing Journalists for New Realities: Global Curriculum Pilot on the Coverage of Justice Issues and Institutions. The New Realities White Paper which informed the Salzburg workshop (and some of which is adapted here on this website) summarizes those countries’ engagement with international justice and rights issues; it as well as that meeting’s participant lists, proposed sample curricula, and meeting findings are still available under the workshop’s webpage.
The days in Salzburg took advantage of the group dynamic to formulate a clear “theory of change” for the project – proposing how specific interventions could change the incentives and reality on the ground. Participants prioritized the options, identifying those that can be best encouraged and supported in the next stage of the project.
In February of 2012, a number of those original participants, as well as newcomers, met in the Hague for an update on what had been achieved and what should be done going forward. This website is the result of that Hague meeting, which asserted again the importance of quality reporting all over the world, and therefore the education necessary for such.
WHAT WERE THE KEY OUTCOMES FOR THE SALZBURG WORKSHOP?
WHAT COUNTRIES ARE THE FOCUS FOR THE PILOT PHASE?
Participants in the Salzburg workshop came from countries from four regions on three continents: Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Indonesia and Timor-Leste. International justice experts from outside those regions also attended the workshop.
The countries were chosen for this pilot phase because of their recent involvement with international justice processes – at times when the ability of the news media to cover developments has been of critical importance. All but two (Kosovo and Indonesia) also are states parties to the Rome Statute. Finally, those countries were selected also because of the presence of indigenous and international institutions that could serve as regional partners in the promotion of a revised international justice journalism curriculum.
WHO CAN BE INVOLVED IN THE FUTURE?
We are looking to build strategic partnerships with leading education institutions and media organizations to create and promote a new journalism curriculum. The strategy is to seek early adoption at key universities that can influence regional and peer institutions to follow suit. The New Realities project is ultimately to be global in its reach; we therefore welcome participation from schools and institutions the world over.
WHY THE EMPHASIS ON UNIVERSITIES AS CHANGE AGENTS?
In developing countries, universities provide “the most stable, respected, and fertile ground for journalism training,” according to University Journalism Education: A Global Challenge, a 2007 report to the Center for International Media Assistance.
WHO AUTHORED THE REPORT?
Deborah Nelson – a professor, a lawyer, an author of a recent book about U.S. war crimes, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist – researched and wrote the report on which this website is based.
WHO ELSE CONTRIBUTED?
The conclusions of this report are a result of input from educators, lawyers, journalists and news executives. Representatives of more than two dozen institutions and organizations agreed on the value of a university-based curriculum and offered recommendations to guide the discussions at the February Salzburg workshop. They helped identify the needs and requirements for a university-based curriculum, recommended potential partners, and noted potential challenges as well as opportunities.
Persons and organizations contacted included: