!Viva Young Global Journalists!

This morning we had the pleasure of meeting with a group of nine young journalists from all over the world who are taking part in the World Press Institute’s annual fellowship program. The groups includes (click here to see bios on the entire group) reporters from Argentina, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, China, Hungary, India, Lithuania, South Africa and Spain (the Nigerian fellow listed was unable to attend).

In short, meeting these fellows quickly reinforces the importance of journalism and defines the spirit of civic engagement. The Bosnian fellow, Ermin, carries out serious investigative reporting projects (which he says an instructor described as basically reporting on ‘bad people doing bad things’). The Brazilian reporter, Tatiana, says that every story that appears in her paper, Zero Hora of Porto Alegre, now has a special sidebar that provides perspective for young readers. And the Lithuanian reporter, Vykintas, has written extensively about comparative political systems in Eastern Europe (see his web site at http://www.geocities.com/vykintas/index_e.html).

The eight-week fellowship tour includes visits to a jet propulsion laboratory, Obama campaign offices, Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, the L.A. Times, the Newseum, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and four days filing stories from the Republican National Convention. To follow the group blog, click here.