Indonesian Journalists Put Theory Into Practice
As Part Of International Training Program At WKU

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Bowling Green, Ky. - Mahfudh Marzuki wasn't looking for the latest bestseller or a cappuccino on his visit to a Bowling Green bookstore.

The Indonesian broadcaster was there practicing what he's been learning in Western Kentucky University's International Journalist and Media Management Training Program.  Marzuki and interpreter Teddy Rahmanto interviewed retired teacher Jack Thurmond about his experience as a part-time employee at the store.

"The combination of theory and practice is really helpful," Marzuki said through Rahmanto, one of two interpreters who are in Bowling Green with 10 Indonesian radio journalists for the three-week program.

The interview conducted by Marzuki and other hands-on experiences will be used as the Indonesian journalists put together their own broadcasts this week on WWHR (91.7 FM), Western's student radio station.

"This is a very good program and has a lot of benefits for our jobs back in Indonesia," said Rahmanto, who works in the Indonesia capital of Jakarta.

The training program is a collaboration between Western's Public Broadcasting, the School of Journalism and Broadcasting and Internews Network. Internews is an international nonprofit organization that supports open media worldwide and is responsible for training more than 16,000 journalists in emerging democracies in the past decade.  The three-week program ends Saturday. The Indonesian journalists will be recognized Friday morning during a meeting of WKU's Board of Regents and will participate in a graduation ceremony that afternoon in Academic Complex.

"The goal of the program obviously is that they go back and put their new skills or sharpened skills to work and share with their colleagues in Indonesia the lessons learned here," said George Papagiannis, director of radio training and operations for Internews.

Ansela Sarating, who lives in Pontianak on the island of West Kalimantan, said the three-week program not only helps the journalists do a better job reporting on the political changes in the island nation but expands their perspective.

"Most of the participants have never been outside Indonesia. It's very exciting," she said.

"The Western community and the Bowling Green community have responded in a wonderful way to this group," Papagiannis said. "The campus and the community have put out the welcome mat for these people and made them feel at home."

Marzuki, who works for radio station in Aceh, said the training program provides "a different point of view in the way we see journalism."

Representatives of Internews, Western's Public Broadcasting, the School of Journalism and Broadcasting, and other area stations have offered training on the role of journalism in a democracy, ethics, news writing, news judgment and production techniques.

"We really get a view of American journalism," Rahmanto said, adding that most of the journalism knowledge in Indonesia has come from Europe or South Africa. "This program is a good opportunity to experience the American way."

Participants will share that experience with others in Indonesia. "All the things I have learned here I will share with my colleagues from my area," Marzuki said.

The two-year International Journalist and Media Management Training Program is being funded by a $2 million grant administered through the U.S. Agency for International Development. U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was instrumental in securing the funding for the program.  WKU instructors also will travel to Indonesia this year for 10 days of followup training and evaluation and station managers from Indonesia will come to Bowling Green for a two-week training session. A group from Cambodia also is scheduled to visit Western.  The project's ultimate goal is to build a center at Western that would provide year-round training for international journalists.