Foundation Award to Enhance International Exposure for Journalists

Local journalists will have a new and excellent opportunity to enhance exposure and professional knowledge through a two-week international workshop in the United States organized by the Better Hong Kong Foundation, in collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

The Foundation, working with the Asia Pacific Media Network and the Pacific Rim Studies Center at the UCLA, announced the “Hong Kong Journalism Workshop Program”, which will be held from February 15 to 28, 1999. The program is supported by the Hong Kong Journalists Association and the Hong Kong News Executives’ Association. A selection panel has already been established.

Targeting local journalists, the program will offer an opportunity for participants to gain exposure in the international arena and enhance the quality and standard of media reporting in Hong Kong.

“This is an exciting program which will broaden the horizon of Hong Kong journalists” Mr Liu Kin-ming, Chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association.

“Journalists are not only the herald but also the gatekeeper of news and information. Their work therefore impacts directly on public interest,” said Mr. George Yuen, Chief Executive of the Better Hong Kong Foundation. “In taking the lead, the Foundation intends to arouse further community support to Hong Kong’s dedicated journalists to continue their best quality work to Hong Kong.

“The workshop serves as an ideal channel to foster learning and exchange with international professionals in journalism,” said Mr Yuen.

Thomas Plate, the program organiser, is a professor of communication and policy studies at UCLA and seasoned journalist of the Los Angeles Times. Sharing the same train of thoughts with the Foundation, he said, “This exciting and innovative program will surely offer us in America the chance to learn so much from our Hong Kong colleagues’ and also they from us in this unprecedented professional and intellectual exchange.

“We are proud to be associated with the Better Hong Kong Foundation. Its commitment to journalistic excellence and enhancement belies stereotypes in the West that Hong Kong journalists are not just as committed to professional values and mid-career training as their U.S. counterparts. We hope this inaugural two-week program will provide a model of Asian-U.S. cooperation that will inspire others in the years to come,” added Mr. Plate.

The program will comprise concise courses on politics, journalism, mass communications, media economics and media management studies at the UCLA, as well as meetings with top editors and journalists at the Los Angeles Times and other media institutions.

A selection panel, comprising members from the Foundation, the Hong Kong Journalists Association, the Hong Kong News Executives’ Association, and department heads of Department of Journalism of the Baptist University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was set up to screen applicants beginning September 15, 1998.

The closing date for application is October 15, 1998. Details of the program are available from the Foundation, or can be found on the Foundation’s web site http://www.bhkf.org.

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The Better Hong Kong Foundation is a privately funded, non-profit, non-political organization, formed by leading Hong Kong business people. The Foundation aims to reinforce Hong Kong’s role as the regional leading financial, shipping, trading and communications centre. It also serves to enhance greater international understanding between East and West. The Foundation is committed to facilitating communication between Hong Kong and China and the international community.

The Asia Pacific Media Network at the UCLA is a non-partisan, non-profit, non-ethnocentric institution dedicated to better understanding of trans-Pacific issues and to helping journalists, press officials, media experts and Asia-Pacific policy, history, arts and cultural experts to improve their performance and skill.