Carleton University expands journalism
partnership in Rwanda
(Ottawa, March 30, 2006) — Carleton
University is launching the second phase of its journalism
partnership with the National University of Rwanda —
dubbed the Rwanda Initiative — and will be sending at
least six more journalism teachers and up to a dozen media
interns and exchange students to the central African country
this spring and summer.
In the first phase of a successful journalism
teaching partnership, launched in January between Carleton’s
School of Journalism and Communication and its counterpart
at the National University of Rwanda in Butare, project leader
Prof. Allan Thompson and three other veteran journalists traveled
to Rwanda to take up positions as visiting lecturers. All
published regular blogs on the project website — www.RwandaInitiative.ca
— describing their experiences.
The second phase of the project, launched this
week with financial backing from Carleton International, the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Canada
Fund for Africa, will send more teachers to Rwanda. Visiting
teachers will include journalist and media trainer Michelle
Betz, CBC journalists Lucy van Oldenbarneveld and Andy Clarke,
Maclean’s magazine chief photographer Peter Bregg, Carleton
journalism professor Kanina Holmes and Robert Lacroix from
Carleton’s Instructional Media Services.
For
full teacher bios, visit the Rwanda Initiative website.
The central aim of the teaching partnership
is to address the shortage of journalism educators in Rwanda,
to build the university’s capacity to teach journalism
and to improve media standards in the country. The partnership
has already provided the journalism school in Butare with
consistent access to visiting teachers from Canada and has
also established media-training workshops for working journalists.
And in this second phase, the project will
be expanded to include a media
internship program that will see some of Carleton’s
journalism students take up work terms at The New Times, an
English-language newspaper published in Kigali. In addition,
two exchange students will enroll in classes at the National
University of Rwanda over the summer, adding another dimension
to the burgeoning journalism partnership.
The Rwanda Initiative will continue to make
effective use of its website to inform Canadians about the
important task of working to foster greater media professionalism
and freedom of expression in Rwanda. And with backing from
CIDA, this phase of the project will place particular emphasis
on public engagement with Canadians.
All of those who travel to Rwanda as project participants
— visiting teachers, media interns and exchange students
— will be required to report back regularly through
their blogs. And in addition, teachers will be expected to
work with their journalism students in Rwanda to produce articles
and reports that could reach a Canadian audience.
In more detail, the new teachers are:
Michelle Betz, who arrives in Rwanda this week,
graduated from Carleton’s Master of Journalism program
in 1994. Betz, who has worked with CBC and CTV and taught
broadcasting for six years at the University of Central Florida,
has been to Rwanda twice before as a media trainer and Knight
Fellow. Through the Rwanda Initiative, her focus will be working
with the campus radio station in Butare, Radio Salus, which
she last year helped to establish. Betz is being co-sponsored
on this trip by UNESCO.
Lucy van Oldenbarneveld, the Friday host and
field reporter for CBC-Radio’s Ottawa Morning, has worked
in the Netherlands, China, and as a host, producer and reporter
with Deutsche Welle World Service Radio. In 2003 she delivered
a radio skills course for the Afrinet radio network and traveled
to Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. In Butare she will be teaching
a third year broadcasting course. Her Rwanda Initiative blog
will also be posted to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
website, www.cbc.ca.
Andy Clarke, Senior Coordinating Producer for
Radio and Television News with CBC-Ottawa, got his start in
journalism nearly 25 years ago at CKCU, the campus radio station
at Carleton University. A graduate of Carleton’s Master
of Journalism program, he has worked for the last 10 years
at CBC Ottawa. Along the way, he taught at the Centre for
Canadian Studies at the University of Edinburgh. In Butare
he will be teaching a second year radio broadcasting course
and his Rwanda blogs will also be posted to cbc.ca.
Peter Bregg, chief photographer for Maclean’s
for the past 16 years, began his photojournalism career with
Canadian Press in Ottawa in 1967 and has since worked with
CP, Associated Press and Maclean’s in Boston, Washington,
London, New York, Ottawa and Toronto. He also served as official
photographer to Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in
1984-85. Bregg, who first visited Rwanda in 2004 to photograph
Romeo Dallaire’s return to the country, will be teaching
photojournalism in Butare.
Kanina Holmes, a journalism professor at Carleton
and freelance journalist, worked with CBC, Global Television
and Reuters news agency before joining Carleton in 2003. She
is a graduate (1992) of Carleton’s Bachelor of Journalism
program and has an M.A. in international affairs (1995). She
spent one year in Tanzania studying at the University of Dar
es Salaam and went to Burundi for Global to produce a series
on war-affected children. In Butare she will teach television
broadcasting and plans to work with students on video documentary
production.
Robert Lacroix, Robert Lacroix has been a media
producer for 25 years with Carleton University’s Instructional
Media Services department. A major part of his job is training
third and fourth-year students in camera operation, video
editing and broadcast production. Lacroix started his broadcast
journalism career 30 years ago at the Mid-Canada Television
Network, CFCL, in Timmins, Ontario and also worked at the
CTV affiliate in Ottawa. In Butare, Lacroix will work closely
with Holmes to build the capacity of the school’s broadcast
journalism program.
The Rwanda Initiative grew out of Carleton’s
March 13, 2004 symposium
on the Media and the Rwanda Genocide, organized by Prof.
Thompson, a former Toronto Star reporter who visited the country
a number of times as a journalist since the 1994 genocide.
Prof. Thompson went to Rwanda in January to teach a reporting
course and launch the teaching exchange. He was joined by
retired Carleton journalism professor Roger Bird, Montreal
Gazette reporter and Carleton alumna Sue Montgomery and CBC
producer and Carleton graduate Sylvia Thomson. Blog
postings from each of the teachers are still posted on the
project website.
The next batch of teachers preparing
to take up their posts in Rwanda will gather at Carleton University
this weekend, April 1-2, for a pre-departure orientation session.
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For more information contact:
Prof. Allan Thompson ([email protected])
School of Journalism and Communication
613-520-2600 ext. 7439 (Mobile: 613-799-1791)
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