America’s role and influence in the world is a hotly debated issue these days in Congress, in politics, at the United Nations and in Middle East negotiations.
Ten international journalists from the World Press Institute (WPI) will attempt to shed some light on the topic at a forum, “Inside Out: How International Journalists View America’s Global Footprint,” that will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9, in Woulfe Alumni Hall of the Anderson Student Center on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
The World Press Institute fellows spent three weeks at St. Thomas as part of their visit to the United States.
Free and open to the public, the forum will be moderated by Duchesne Drew, managing editor for operations of the Star Tribune. The event is co-sponsored by the Star Tribune and the University of St. Thomas College of Arts and Sciences.
The journalists, from 10 countries across the globe, have just spent nine weeks in the United States studying, traveling and meeting with dozens of political, business, policy and community leaders as well as other journalists.
Their visits included farms in southwestern Minnesota, a community meeting in Ely and trips to New York, Washington, D.C., Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle.
The 2013 World Press Institute Fellows are:
- Australia: Carson Scott, anchor and chief business correspondent for SkyNewsBusiness television in Sydney.
- Bulgaria: Spas Spasov, editor and correspondent for Capital Daily, Capital Weekly, and Dnevnik.bg newspapers and website in Varna.
- China: Fu Tao, vice editor-in-chief for Caixin.com website in Beijing.
- Colombia: Diana Duran, judicial reporter for El Espectador newspaper in Bogota.
- Finland: Elina Lappalainen, columnist and business reporter for Talouselama magazine and website in Helsinki.
- Ghana: Veronica Kwabla, anchor and reporter for Tv3 Network Ltd. television in Accra.
- Israel: Ami Kaufman, co-founder and editor for +972 Magazine, a Web magazine in Tel Aviv.
- Kuwait: Shakir Reshamwala, front page editor and columnist for Kuwait Times newspaper in Kuwait City.
- Philippines: Paul Henson, executive producer of news for ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation television in Quezon City.
- Russia: Vera Krichevskaya, writer and producer for The New Times magazine and formerly creative producer for 24DOC TV and TV Dozhd in Moscow.
The World Press Institute is a nonprofit organization based in the Twin Cities. It has been offering fellowships to international journalists since 1961 and it has 550 alumni in more than 95 countries. The program’s mission is to promote journalistic professionalism and best practices outside the United States by exposing young and mid-career journalists from across the globe to the rich diversity of the United States, its media and its people, while at the same time encouraging adherence to the journalistic values of transparency, independence, accuracy and holding powerful institutions accountable.
More information and photos of the 2013 fellows can be found here.
