Forever Group joins foreign donors in journalism school

Forever Group joins foreign donors in journalism school

By Sandar Lwin   |   Sunday, 29 September 2013

Media company Forever Group is working with foreign donors to set up a not-for-profit journalism school in Yangon with the backing of the Ministry of Information.

Forever's Myanmar Media Development Center (MMDC), which was established in 2009 as the company's in-house training wing and is now a broadcast training centre, will work alongside foreign media groups such as DW Akademie, the training arm of German media organisation Deutsche Welle, on the project.

The new centre will offer instruction in all types of journalism, with a print course expected to start early next year.

Forever Group director U Khin Maung Htay said the plan for the school is still being developed but Forever plans to step aside when it is up and running so that the centre remains non-profit and independently run.

"For the long term, the school has to run as a non-profit organisation," he said. "Forever Group is just taking the role of initiator before the law for non-profit organisations is enacted. After it is set up Forever will quit [its involvement]. Then the school would be managed by a separate committee or board."

Deputy Minister for Information U Ye Htut told The Myanmar Times that the ministry had proposed international donors establish the school and is fully behind the project.

He added that the school will help build the capacity of Myanmar's media industry and the ministry's role will be only to "fulfil the necessities so that the school can open".

It is unclear, however, how accessible the journalism programs will be. MMDC currently offers one-month certificate courses and 10-month diploma programs in cooperation with the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development, DW and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, but the diploma programs cost more than K2 million, making them unaffordable for most.

U Ye Htut did not respond when asked whether the government planned to monitor and possibly control the price of the programs offered at the school.

DW Akademie will coordinate on behalf of the foreign partners, who also include Canal France International of France, International Media Support of Denmark, Fojo Media Institute of Sweden and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), according to DW Akademie's Europe and Central Asia division head, Mathis Winkle.

He said his organisation is "honoured to join Forever Group as well as other international organisations … in backing the idea of establishing a journalism school in Myanmar".

He said additional Myanmar media-related organisations will be approached in October to consider joining the project.

"All international partners involved in the project strongly agree that ownership of the project must lie in the hands of Myanmar founders of the school," he added.

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/10/03/forever-group-joins-foreign-donors-in-journalism-school/