Fondos para ayudar a familias de periodistas asesinados, periodistas en exilio

Aquí abajo tienen un mensaje de Patrick Butler, vice presidente del Centro Internacional para Periodistas en Washington www.icfj.org sobre ayuda disponible del Centro Doha para la Libertad de la Prensa (en inglés y francés)

El Centro ofrece ayuda financiera a
-- periodistas que deben huir de sus paises
-- a las familias de periodistas asesinados por su trabajo
-- medios que trabajan en situaciones difíciles y necesitan nuevo equipo
-- medios que no pueden pagar salarios por un tiempo
-- medios para reportar los controles indebidos de la prensa

Contactos: thierry.steiner@dohacentre.org

ashwin.honawar@dohacentre.org

Aquí esta la carta editada del Maestro Butler:

I'm writing to let you know about a great opportunity to get small grants to supplement the work that you're doing in the field. On a trip to the Middle East recently, I met in Qatar with representatives of the Doha Centre for Media Freedom.

The Doha Centre was founded by former Reporters Sans Frontieres director Robert Menard. He convinced Her Highness Sheikha Mozah to set up a fund to help journalists across the world who are in danger or who need equipment or other funding to do their jobs effectively. Here's a link: http://www.dohacentre.org/spip.php?page=sommaire&lang=en

They give assistance to journalists and media outlets GLOBALLY in the following areas:

· Financial assistance for journalists who have to leave the country

· Financial assistance for families of journalists who are killed or imprisoned

· New equipment for media outlets doing good work in difficult situations; also will even pay salaries for media outlets that can’t do so for a period of time

· Missions to report on press violations – such as a trip recently to Sudan and one to Burma to carry money to Burmese journalists working secretly.

· In one case, actually starting a news agency: They set up a new news agency called Samina in Djibouti to provide news on Somalia. The news agency can’t be based in Somalia itself, but it does have journalists there. The Doha Center will also send a training team to Djibouti.

Their grants average $2,500 to $3,000. The largest grant was to set up the center in Djibouti for about $80,000. Our own Chuck Rice (from whom I originally heard about the Centre) has been able to get a small grant to help our East Timor program set up Regional Media Houses.

Other examples: they sent computers and other equipment to a press center in Gaza during the war there. They sent bulletproof jackets to journalists in Gaza, Somalia, Sudan and Pakistan. They bought newsprint for papers in Guinea-Bissau when there was none. They paid the salaries of another African paper when it couldn’t make the payroll. They got endangered journalists out of Somalia and Afghanistan, giving them a place to stay in Doha for several months, then trying to find them a permanent home.

I met with the media assistance director, Thierry Hauchard-Steiner, and journalist Ashwin Honawar. They said they would be happy to receive proposals from ICFJ's staff or trainers in the field. If you have an idea that you'd like to pitch to them, please feel free -- but do copy us so that we know what requests are being made.