ACTIVITIES
The IMMF conducts major training courses
in Thailand, smaller workshops elsewhere in the region and supports other
media initiatives. More than 500 journalists have to date
received training at IMMF courses.
Since its inception, the foundation has conducted 23
regional training courses in Thailand, attended by working journalists
from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. An average of 16 students took
part in each course.
The courses, four weeks in length, have included
print, radio, television and photojournalism, with English the language of
instruction. While bettering journalistic standards is the drive
behind all training, each course has a specific focus. Themes have
included agriculture, the environment, business and economics, as well as
issues related to health, social welfare, ethnic minorities and women and
children.
The IMMF has also held 25 workshops in Cambodia, Laos,
Thailand and Vietnam, using interpreters to reach those journalists who
are precluded through lack of English from attending our regional
courses. We have pioneered foreign media support for areas of
provincial Laos where opportunities for such training are all but
non-existent. Several workshops in English have also been organised
for Thai reporters working for newspapers in Bangkok.
Many of our
lead trainers have been provided by The Thomson Foundation, a media
support organisation based in the United Kingdom. These outstanding
teachers, all practicing or former journalists, were drawn from such
outlets as the BBC, The Financial Times, The Independent, The Daily
Telegraph and Farmers Weekly.
One trainer has come from the
Washington D.C.-based International Center for Foreign Journalists while
the Knight Foundation has assigned us two International Press fellows who
not only taught, but assisted with other projects.
Local experts,
familiar with the region and Asian sensitivities, have worked as associate
trainers for each regional course. Guest speakers are enlisted from
Thailand's top universities, the business and journalistic communities,
government and grass roots organisations.
The IMMF also organises exhibitions of photographs
taken during courses and places stories written by participating
journalists in Bangkok
newspapers. The foundation
helps outstanding alumni win prestigious scholarships and entry into media
studies programmes in Europe
and the United States.
view our photo
gallery
In 1995, the IMMF provided a grant to the Photo
Archive group in Cambodia to preserve the archival photographs of the Tuol
Sleng Museum of Genocide. We have commissioned reports on the state
of historic films held in Vietnamese and Lao film archives.
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