Intajour Presents Its First Promotional Video

"Twelve Fellows, ten months, one mission" – the International Academy of Journalism (Intajour) four-and-a-half minute promotional video opens with these facts. The video was recently posted on the Intajour website and gives an insight into the work and objectives of the training program initiated by Bertelsmann. "Intajour’s overriding goal is to help assert press freedom worldwide," says Intajour Director Werner Eggert, adding that the academy also wants to give the 12 Fellows of a given year the opportunity to meet colleagues and share experiences with them.

The participants of the first year, which runs until June, have just completed their second attendance phase. For two weeks the 12 Fellows from Egypt, Armenia, China, Ghana, Liberia, Moldova, Nepal, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe, Syria, Thailand and Ukraine were in Cologne at RTL and among other things had the opportunity to meet students from the RTL School of Journalism.

The Intajour Fellows complete a total of three attendance phases. They have already been to Hamburg and Cologne, and in June they meet in Berlin to wrap up their ten-month training course. During the time in which the twelve participants stay in their home countries – known as the e-learning phases – their lessons take place online: the Fellows can exchange ideas among themselves and with their lecturers in live video sessions.

In the Intajour video, some of the Fellows also talk about their experiences and about what they have been able to learn during the Intajour program. Krishna Prasad Acharay from Nepal, for example, not only emphasizes the technical skills that he acquired through Intajour, which he found very useful, but also the friendships he made with the other fellows. "I learned a lot. That is very valuable for me," says Fang Yongbin from China at the end of the video.

The application period for the second year of Intajour ended yesterday. From Sep 2 this year, twelve new Fellows from around the world will begin their ten-month training course. Bertelsmann founded the International Academy of Journalism to mark its 175th anniversary in 2010.