Knight International to develop Egyptian digital training project

The Knight International Journalism Fellowship programme is to develop a virtual newsroom project in Egypt to mentor and train domestic reporters.

The fellowship will appoint an Arabic-fluent seasoned new media journalist for the one-year programme, to work with partner organisations in Egypt to build skills and enhance the standards of independent news.

"In Egypt, most print and broadcast outlets are either state media directly controlled by the government or independent media subject to government repression or self-censorship. But online media have more freedom, and journalists and bloggers working on the web have become a primary source of accurate information on what's happening in Egypt - stories on protests, corruption, and police brutality that are ignored by other media," Patrick Butler, vice president of the International Center for Journalists - which administers the programme - told Journalism.co.uk.

"More than 6 million Egyptians are online, more than the combined readership of all the print outlets, and they are the most educated and active citizens…Egyptian journalists will be matched up in online mentoring relationships with experienced, Arabic-fluent journalists all over the world.

"The role of the Knight Fellow will be to coordinate all of the training and ensure the high quality of the stories produced."

Over two hundred Knight Fellows have worked developing journalism practices in 80 countries around the world.

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