A NEW scheme that will fund students to cover issues in the developing world for Irish media outlets has been started in the Irish Aid Centre in Dublin.
The initiative will be part of the Simon Cumbers Media Fund, established in 2005, to promote more and better quality coverage of development issues.
Students are being invited to submit proposals on a topic they would like to cover in a developing region which entails travel to an Irish Aid priority country. Judges will award two students an opportunity to produce a media project focusing on development issues.
In addition to securing a budget to cover travel and accommodation costs, the successful students will be offered guidance and one-to-one mentoring from Newstalk producer Susan Cahill and foreign policy editor at The Irish Times, Paddy Smyth.
Speaking at the launch, Minister of State for Development Jan O’Sullivan praised the fund for its work and said the initiative was an important development.
“I know students were able to enter previously but I suppose it was a little more difficult for students to actually compete against professional working journalists and this is the opportunity for students to participate,” she said.
A former recipient of funding, David Ralph, advised hopefuls that his undergraduate degree in geography was more important to his being selected that his Masters in Journalism.
He said it gave him an understanding about development issues which he used to select his topic – the link between gender rights and food security in Malawi.
His article on the issue was published in The Irish Timeson December 24th, 2010, and on irishtimes.com the same day.
Also present at the launch were the father and brother of Irish journalist Simon Cumbers, after whom the fund is named. Mr Cumbers was killed in Saudi Arabia while working with the BBC in 2004. Closing date for entries is Friday, February 10th, 2012, and more information can be found at simoncumbersmediafund.ie/students.