AAJA-Asia has partnered with the East-West Center on an upcoming conference you won’t want to miss. We want to offer an AAJA-led workshop or panel in Yangon and looking for ideas.
The East-West Center is holding a conference in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 10-12, 2014, to gather journalists around the world to examine the issue of press freedom and strategies for news gathering. It’s a great chance to meet journalists around Asia and the world and explore and learn about Myanmar, an emerging country that is increasingly in the news. Conference details here.
AAJA would like to have a strong showing at the conference and we’re calling for members to propose panels/workshops there. Oanh Ha is gathering ideas for panels and workshops we’d like to hold in Yangon. Feel free to ping her with ideas by Dec. 9.
Please also let her know if you plan to attend and if you are interested in sharing a room at the conference hotel. She’s at koanh.ha(at)gmail.com
A few questions also came up from members about the conference:
*VISAS: EWC says they’re not officially advising folks on visas but if you’re going in to do reporting, it is a good idea to get a journalism visa. They don’t anticipate that getting a journalist visa will be a problem. If you want to apply for a journalist visa, contact Eugene Alexander (AlexandE@eastwestcenter.org) for a letter to submit with your visa application.
*EXTENDING TRIP FOR REPORTING OR VACATION:
*Extending trip for reporting or tourism shouldn’t be a problem if you have the right visa (journalist visa for working trip before/after conference).
FIELD/SIDE TRIPS:
EWC is offering Wednesday afternoon (March 12) field trips. From EWC:
EWC has confirmed one to the Socio-Lite Foundation, which offers microfinancing mostly to rural poor. The Jeffs went and really like the field trip. We will also have field trips on religious relationships, visiting a mosque, church and Buddhist temple; a trip focused on historic preservation, a big deal in Myanmar; and then more of a tourist trip outside Yangon. We’ll probably take 25-30 people on each trip. Some will be limited so it will be first come, first served. We’ll have more info in an upcoming announcement.
“Challenges of a Free Press” Conference Highlights:
Press freedom faces challenges everywhere in the world — in both open and closed societies, wealthy and developing nations, traditional media and virtual newsrooms. Longstanding challenges such as government interference and economic pressures are complicated by new media’s impact on gathering information, verifying facts and maintaining financial stability. But technology also presents creative ways of tackling old problems.
The 2014 conference will gather distinguished keynote speakers and panels of journalists from the Asia Pacific region and the United States to share insights into the challenges they face and strategies they use for news gathering.