Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

World

Journalism as a Tool for the Formation of a Free, Informed and Participatory Democratic Development: Swedish Support to a Palestinian Journalist Training Project on the West Bank and Gaza for the Period 1996-2005

Attachments

The aim of this study and evaluation is for the first time to assess implementation qualities, weaknesses and development impact of nine years of support to a journalism training project in Palestine: 1996-2004 Fully-funded by Sida, the implementation has been delegated to the Institute for further education of journalists - Fojo, who has in turn worked in close partnership with the Birzeit University Media Institute, BZUMI in Palestine. The project has two main components: (i) the creation and institutional capacitation of a media training institute and (ii) the organisation of training for journalists and media workers there. This is the first evaluation ever covering 9 years.

Sweden has for many years contributed with humanitarian assistance to improve the living conditions of the Palestinian people. In 1992/93, Swedish support was transformed into a bilateral development programme and since 1995, the support to culture and media is part of the general country programme and budget, where Sida's policy is, within its media support "to support the development of journalism and to make it possible for free media to contribute to ensuring that the general public has access to information and the social debate".