DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Internews Works for Open Media Around

DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Internews Works for Open Media Around the World
By Jill Moss¹

Broadcast: Monday, December 13, 2004

This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report.

"Nothing raises more fear in a repressive government than challenges to the control of information. And nothing is more important to the development of a civil, democratic society."

These are the words of David Hoffman, the president of Internews. Mister Hoffman leads a non-profit organization that helps build media that are open and independent.

Internews was created in California in nineteen eighty-two. By its count as of July, the group had trained thirty-two thousand media professions around the world.

In Afghanistan, for example, Internews helped launch a network of more than twenty independent radio stations. Internews has also helped form the first independent broadcast media in Pakistan in sixty years. And it has trained what it says are the first media lawyers there.

The group has also trained a number of female reporters in Pakistan. The same is true in the Middle East.

In Africa, Internews is teaching journalists in Kenya and Nigeria how to report about H.I.V. and AIDS. The organization also supplies international news coverage² of the trials related to the nineteen ninety-four killings³ in Rwanda. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is holding the trials in Tanzania.

Major supporters of Internews include the United States Agency for International Development and the State Department. Others include the United Nations Development Program and the Open Society Institute.

Internews has helped form national media organizations to seek laws for open media and to defend the rights of reporters. Internews International, a membership group of non-governmental organizations, is at work in more than forty countries.

Internews had some of its biggest successes yet through its work in Georgia. The organization had been working with Rustavi-two. This is a small independent television station in Tbilisi. In November of two thousand three, its reports on cheating in parliamentary elections helped fuel huge protests. Eduard Shevardnadze resigned as president of Georgia.

Today, Internews says Rustavi-two is an example for non-governmental stations throughout the Southern Caucasus.

You can learn more about Internews at its Web site, internews.org.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen.

1 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

2 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

3 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。