Foreign Correspondent Training Course, July 2013 - Overview

Dates: 21-29 July, 2013

Location: Prague, Czech Republic

Standard fee: €1,185 or US$1,595 including accommodation 

The TOL Foreign Correspondent course is a great introduction to international reporting that teaches participants how to carve out a place in a changing, but still fascinating profession and make it work financially. Course participants will be trained by highly experienced foreign correspondents and complete a real-life reporting assignment under their guidance that can generate an invaluable clip for an early-career journalist. Trainees will also learn how to shoot illustrative photos to accompany their articles, an essential skill in a profession that increasingly values multimedia proficiency.

What will participants learn?
By tapping into the trainers’ first-hand experiences, participants will learn the essential skills of international reporting, including:

• how to break into foreign reporting;
• how to quickly get acclimated in a foreign country;
• pitching ideas to editors;
• when and why to bypass official sources of information;
• finding the story no one else has;
• staying safe in dangerous and unpredictable places;
• common mistakes that even seasoned professionals make;
• and much more!

 

 

To see how the course really looks, hear from some of the trainers and TOL staff, and view participants as they report their stories, watch the six-minute video below.

 

 

 

Story-writing project
The practical story-writing project will be an important part of the course, giving participants the chance to apply their skills to a real-life reporting assignment – researching, writing and filing a story from Prague under the guidance of the trainers. Participants will need to do a bit of advance planning and research, so one of our instructors will contact them about a month ahead of the course to help them prepare. (For more information about the reporting project, have a look at Michael Jordan's article in Harvard's Nieman Reports.)
 

Instructors

Nedim Dervisbegovic has worked as a multimedia producer for the Balkan Service of Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) since 2009. He is responsible for online, multimedia, and social networks and has blogged and written articles for RFE/RL's English page on Balkan politics and other topics. In 2007, Nedim became the first editor in chief of RadioSarajevo.ba, an independent news and community portal, focused on development of civic society and a culture of dialogue. Earlier, he worked for ten years as a Reuters' senior correspondent from Bosnia, covering politics, economy, sports and other issues while also reporting from other countries in the region. Nedim started his journalistic career in 1992 as a reporter at Studio 99, at the time the only independent radio station in war-torn Sarajevo, before joining the UN refugee agency's humanitarian operation. In 1994, he moved to Italy to study media, politics, and international relations at the American University in Rome, where he worked as an intern for the Associated Press and APTV and as a freelance correspondent for the now-defunct Italian daily La Voce Repubblicana. Nedim has a degree from the University of London in Politics and International Relations.

 

Michael Jordan is a foreign correspondent who has reported from two dozen countries over the past 16 years. He is a long-time contributor to The Christian Science Monitor, earlier serving as the Monitor's correspondent in Budapest (1995-2000) and at the United Nations (2002-2005). He also writes regularly for Foreign Policy. In addition to reporting, Michael has recently taught journalism at universities in Hong Kong, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and trained Romani reporters in Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia. Until June 2006, Michael was the George Polk Journalist-in-Residence at Long Island University in Brooklyn, where he taught and advised the student newspaper. He blogs about journalism and Central Europe at http://jordanink.wordpress.com.

 

Ian Phillips, AP News Director for East-central Europe, is in charge of text, TV and photos from Polandto theBalkans. Phillips, 42, has reported and edited from Europe, North America, Africa, Latin America and Asia for AP and was Deputy Europe Editor in London prior to moving to Prague in 2011. From the Czech capital, he leads a region-wide group of reporters tasked with finding innovative stories for use across all platforms. Ian joined AP in 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and reported from several South American countries before transferring to Paris in 1998 and AP's London office two years later. From 2001 to 2004 he was day supervisor at AP's World Desk in New York, helping shape and promote coverage for non-U.S. subscribers of events ranging from the Sept. 11 attacks to the Iraq War. Ian was named deputy editor for Europe and Africa in 2004, and from a London base has been at the forefront of the company's efforts to produce cross-format journalism. At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, he was the main coordinator between text, video and photos. He helped lead coverage of major stories ranging from the terror attacks on London's transport

 

Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is on assignment as a foreign correspondent for NPR in Berlin through July 2013. She was previously based in Cairo, covering the Arab world for NPR from the Middle East to North Africa. Her reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning programs including Morning Edition and All Things Considered. In 2006, Soraya opened the NPR Kabul Bureau, and in 2010 she won a Peabody award, Overseas Press Club award, and a Gracie award for her coverage of Afghanistan. She was also the 2011 recipient of the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Journalism Award, honoring courage in journalism. Soraya came to NPR in 2006, after spending more than two decades as a newspaper reporter. She served as Knight Ridder's Middle East Bureau Chief from 2002 to 2005 where she specialized in covering Iran. As a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Soraya was sent on extended assignment to Iran and Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. She spent three years as an editor and reporter for Newsday and was part of the team that won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for covering the crash of TWA flight 800. Soraya speaks Farsi, Dari, and German. She is married to long-time reporter Erik Nelson and they have a son.

Please note: Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson has preliminarily agreed to speak during the course, but cannot confirm her presence until May for work reasons. 

Gordana Knezevic is the Director of RFE/RL’s South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service, specializing in the Balkans. Before coming to RFE/RL in January 2008, Gordana worked as an online editor with Reuters News Agency in Canada, regularly contributing to the Toronto Star and CBC Radio while there. Before relocating to Canada, Gordana lived in Bosnia, where she was the Deputy Editor of Oslobodjenje, the internationally recognized Sarajevo-based daily paper—which never stopped publishing during the Bosnian War. For her work there, she was honored in 1992 with the Courage in Journalism award from the Washington-based International Women’s Media Foundation. Gordana was an elected member of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression Board of Directors.

 

Rob Cameron is the BBC’s correspondent in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, covering politics, human intereststories, arts and other issues for the BBC World Service, BBC domestic radio, BBC Online and BBC World television. Rob moved to Prague in 1993 and began his radio career in 1999, when he joined Radio Prague, the international service of Czech Radio. Rob began producing radio packages for the BBC in 2001, and in 2004 became the BBC’s full-time Prague stringer. He has also reported for the BBC from Albania and Russia.

 

Social and cultural programme 

Who should apply?
The course is designed for anyone with an interest in international reporting. This includes journalism students and working journalists looking to break into the field, as well as others with a genuine interest in the subject.

 

Course Fees:

 €1,185 or US$1,595, including accommodation.

What is included?
The fee includes tuition, accommodation, breakfast, social events and local transport.

What is not included?
Travel costs to and from Prague, meals (other than breakfasts and social events), travel and health insurance, visa and personal expenses.

 

Accommodation 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Course participants will share double rooms in the very comfortable, four-star, Best Western Hotel Kinsky Garden. Perfectly situated in a renovated 19th century building, the hotel is located in the peaceful Mala Strana district that is well served by public transportation.  Special arrangements can be made for those desiring to stay in single rooms. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The course venue will a classroom provided by the Prague campus of New York University, adjacent to the historic Old Town Square. The building is called Richtruv dům, and some parts of the construction date back as far as the year 1400.

 

How to apply?

We allocate places on a first come, first served basis, so please apply as early as possible. Here’s what you need to do.

Step 1
To apply for the course, complete the online application form including:

• A brief ‘statement of purpose’, stating your reasons for applying for the course and what you would like to gain by attending.
• A copy of your résumé (curriculum vitae).

Step 2
We will then consider your application and inform you of our decision within 5 days.

Step 3
Should your application be accepted, you will receive an email confirmation with payment instructions.

 

What did the participants say about our previous courses?

To make sure that we maintain high standards, we asked students to fill out an evaluation form at the end of each course. We’re pleased to report that 100% of the students who completed the forms for summer 2011 Foreign Correspondent course said that they would recommend it to a friend or colleague. Here are a few quotes from them.

• “This has been a really inspiring week. I feel much more courageous. Thank you!”
• About the 'life as a foreign correspondent' session: "SO INSPIRING! Made me want to jump on the next plane anywhere. He really opened up the world. Nice balance of realism and optimism."
• About the reporting project: “one of the best - if not the best - part of the course. Going in the field and confronting the real situation of being in a foreign country was a tremendous experience! It was the thing I liked the most and I want to congratulate the person who had the idea for this course!”
• About the photojournalism session: "A very useful session. I liked that it was a little technical, but not too much. Another aspect I liked was him taking us through a photo essay, photo by photo and explaining each photos purpose related to the others and the general story of the project."
• About the 'reporting for radio' session: "I really enjoyed Mr. Cameron’s presentation. Before this, I had not considered working in this medium, but now I am excited to learn more and use this medium to improve income and tell different stories."
• About the 'covering conflict' session: "Absolutely brilliant. An honest and informative lecture on what it takes to be a journalist and foreign correspondent.