THE ALFRED FRIENDLY FOUNDATION

Believing that a free and responsible press is a necessary pillar of a democratic society, the Alfred Friendly Foundation has, in the last five years, established four multi-year partnerships with media companies in China, Kenya, South Korea and Yemen and seeks additional long-term partnerships with newsrooms in crucially important developing countries.

For our partners, the Foundation offers customized training which includes an in-country needs assessment, six month reporting fellowship in American newsrooms (our traditional Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships), study tours, in-country and virtual training. In 26 years we have developed relationships with individuals, institutes, newsrooms, professionals and universities around the world which will serve as resources for these partnerships. Among them are the Missouri School of Journalism, the Poynter Institute and a journalistic advisory board which will, among other things, serve as needs assessors, help with recruitment of trainers to send overseas, and develop a curriculum for our fellowship program.

The Foundation’s approach is unique not only because we will work with the same media company but also because we will do so over several years and because it focuses on both journalistic and business practices. We believe that working directly and continually with our partners is an effective model that will help to build a strong, principled press in our partners’ countries.

We seek to:

• Improve the credibility and impact of journalism around the world

• Stimulate adherence to the highest ethical standards and practices by journalists and media company employees

• Train journalists to use new tools and new outlets for their work
• Increase and renew the enthusiasm of journalists for their important work

• Nurture the development of organizations, infrastructures, services, collaborations and business models that can help secure a future for journalism

• Create mutual understanding between the U.S. and other countries

We believe all these goals can be accomplished through practice-oriented (as opposed to the typical theory-oriented) training. We believe that the news organizations can achieve very high standards of performance by working with accomplished professionals.