This is an opportunity provided by the Building the Capacity of Journalists in Asia and the Pacific programme: Find out more

The program is delivered by Thomson Reuters Foundation in partnership with the Asian Development Bank.

Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Asian Development Bank are offering an online training program for journalists from Asia and the Pacific region to help them report more confidently and accurately on complex social and economic development issues, specifically on the COVID-19 pandemic, immunization, and vaccination. The program will also provide data analysis and data visualization skills training to help journalists create more engaging and accessible content and communicate facts and figures clearly and accurately. 

Participants will meet for four hours per day for five consecutive days to complete core training activities. They will also be expected to conduct independent research and group interactions via an online forum.  

The training will be delivered to two cohorts on the weeks of 16-20 August 2021 and 23-27 August 2021. Please indicate your preference via the APPLY button. 

This training will be delivered in English and led by Corinne Podger, an experienced Thomson Reuters Foundation trainer, and digital journalism expert. There will be another training delivered in Russian in September.

Reporting on the COVID-19 Pandemic 

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep the globe and has claimed close to 4 million lives to date. As countries have been forced into lockdown to ease the burden on health services and close their borders to reduce the spread of the disease and its multiple variants, collateral economic and societal disruption has reached unprecedented levels. While more than 3.4 billion vaccinations have been administered worldwide as of July 2021, some countries are yet to receive any doses, leading to stark disparities in immunization levels between developed and developing nation populations.  

Equally relentless is the proliferation of misinformation and lack of understanding of the potential consequences of COVID-19, leading to widespread confusion and fear, as well as complicating efforts by all sectors of society to find solutions to the crisis.  

This training aims to meet the need for factual, reliable, and trusted news through strengthening journalists’ ability to report on COVID-19 and helping them identify, research, and deliver clear, concise, and accurate stories.

In particular, this training will assist journalists to:  

• Deepen their scientific understanding of the COVID-19 virus, immunization, and vaccines 

• Deepen their understanding of the causes of vaccine hesitancy and of vaccine inequity 

• Use the principles of Reuters journalism to cover the pandemic accurately, objectively, and accessibly for target audiences 

• Develop editorial responses to pandemic-related misinformation and disinformation 

• Access subject matter experts to generate story ideas and deepen technical skills 

• Prepare pitches for national and international news outlets 

• Improve their ability to capture and visualize data about the pandemic 

Participants who successfully complete the training will receive a Thomson Reuters Foundation and Asian Development Bank certificate

Who Can Apply

The program is open to nationals of developing member countries of ADB with operations:  

Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, People’s Republic of China, Cook Islands, Fiji, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, Niue, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, and Viet Nam. 

Applicants must be able to demonstrate a commitment to a career in journalism in their country with a minimum of two years’ professional experience and a good level of spoken and written English.  

If they are not full-time members of staff, applicants should be able to demonstrate considerable experience as a freelancer, including very recent publications with client organizations.  

Applicants will need to have access to reliable internet capable of providing multiple hours of video calls. They should also have access to a computer from which to attend the training.

Meet Our Experts

Please complete the application form at the link below and fill in this brief pre-training questionnaire. You will be required to submit samples of recent work, either as links or documents. 

If you have difficulty applying, please email Melanie.Cremona@thomsonreuters.com with the title of the course in the subject line.