A Burmese journalist, right, receives video training, filmed by the makers of Burma VJ. Director Anders Ostergaard is pictured second from right, with cameraman Simon Plum
The work of the Thomson Foundation in training on the ground lay behind the internationally-acclaimed documentary nominated for an Oscar award.
The movie Burma VJ has already won more than 40 awards worldwide and tells the story of the video journalists working undercover in Burma who brought extraordinary pictures of the uprising in September 2007 to the world. It was a strong contender for Best Documentary Feature at Hollywood’s 2010 Academy Awards.
But the extraordinary risks faced by this band of journalists began before violence broke out in their home country. For they were smuggled out of Burma to be trained in a secret operation by Thomson Foundation senior consultant Peter Hiscocks, pictured right.
Peter, a highly-experienced journalist who has worked for the Thomson Foundation for thirteen years, was working in Oslo with the Democratic Voice of Burma, supporting the launch of a new weekly television programme beamed by satellite directly into Burma.
When the question of the quality of the material being smuggled out of the country arose, it was agreed that he should go to Thailand to train the secret cameramen (and women) on a one-to-one basis.
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The Thomson Foundation is to run a new course aimed at tomorrow’s media leaders.
The flagship Future Leaders course will see some of today’s most successful media executives from print and broadcast working with course participants from several countries to focus on the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Executives featuring on the course include Greg Dyke – former BBC Director General, David Mannion – Editor-in-Chief, ITV News, Peter Bazalgette – media consultant, non-executive chairman of two of Sony’s UK television divisions and the executive behind prgrammes such as Ready, Steady, Cook and Changing Rooms, and Vikki Heywood – Executive Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company
Future Leaders is one of five courses announced by the Thomson Foundation. Other courses are: Click to Continue »
With just three weeks to go before launch, Thomson Foundation consultant
CHARLES McGHEE arrived in Abuja to support the birth of a new daily newspaper
Thomson assignments are challenging at the best of times, but when they are carried out at short notice against seemingly impossible deadlines they become even more ‘interesting’ into the bargain.
“You’ve got three weeks,” said Thomson Foundation Head of Training, Tim Rogers, “to help redesign a weekly newspaper in Nigeria and convert it into a national daily. Oh, and by the way, can you leave next weekend?”
You’ve got to be joking, right? Well, no, actually. In the event, departure was delayed by a week and then by another couple of days because of a visa wrangle, but I arrived in Nigeria’s federal capital, Abuja, with effectively 16 days to complete the above assignment for The Peoples Daily (without an apostrophe) newspaper. Click to Continue »
