The International Reporting Project (IRP) is pleased to announce a 10-day Gatekeeper Editors Trip to Liberia November 7-18, 2010, for senior U.S. editors and producers interested in learning more about this unique country in West Africa.
Applications forms for this trip must be received by the IRP by September 13, 2010. Click here for application form. You can read details on the IRP website here.
Gatekeepers are any senior journalists – publishers, executive editors, managing editors, broadcast producers, online editors, editorial page editors, business editors, op-ed page editors and others – who determine editorial content at any type of media organization. Gatekeepers must have at least seven years of editorial experience and must supervise staff at a fulltime job at their organization. Gatekeepers must be U.S. citizens or else employed as staff editors in the U.S. for a U.S.-based news organization.
This trip to Liberia will focus on issues such as health, environment, economic recovery and development, women’s rights, refugee resettlement and the search for political stability after 14 years of a devastating civil war that left an estimated 200,000 people dead in the country of three million. Gatekeepers will meet with a wide cross-section of Liberians to learn how this country and the region are recovering from the 1989-2003 conflict that has required the continuing presence of UN peacekeepers.
The International Reporting Project (IRP) will take up to 12 U.S. gatekeepers on this trip to Liberia. Editors in chief or publishers are invited to nominate themselves or another gatekeeper from their news organization’s senior staff. The trip will follow the models of previous IRP Gatekeeper trips to China, Peru, Kenya, Turkey, Uganda, Korea, Nigeria, Egypt, India, Lebanon/Syria, South Africa, Brazil, and Indonesia.
Gatekeepers are responsible for paying their own way between their home cities and Washington, DC. The IRP will cover all of the costs of the participants’ travel and accommodations in Liberia, as well as meals that are part of the program schedule. (Gatekeepers’ organizations may choose to reimburse the IRP for these expenses if they so wish.) IRP funding comes entirely from support by private, non-partisan foundations and from individuals. The IRP is an independent program run by journalists for journalists, and is based at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C.
Editors interested in applying for the 2010 Gatekeepers’ Fact-Finding Trip to Liberia are required to fill out an application form for the fellowship. Application forms must also be accompanied by a professional resume of no more than two pages. Applicants must have a passport that is valid for travel for at least six months following the end of the trip. Application forms are available online or by contacting the IRP communications coordinator, William Colbert at 202-663-7726 or at irp@jhu.edu