Disaster Management in the Asia Pacific Journalism Fellowships
- Date : September 22 – October 6, 2013 -

Disaster Management and Resiliency
in the Asia Pacific Journalism Fellowships

Disaster Management and Resiliency in the Asia Pacific Journalism Fellowships
Dates: September 22 – October 6, 2013
Study Tour Destinations: New York City, USA; Tokyo and Sendai, Japan; and Chengdu, China
Who Can Apply: Mid-career journalists from around the world with at least seven years of experience. Fluency in English is required. More details on applicant eligibility below.

The Disaster Management and Resiliency in the Asia Pacific Journalism Fellowships program is co-sponsored by the Center for Global Partnership, All-China Journalists Association and the Japan Foreign Press Center/Tokyo. This 14-day professional dialogue, study and travel program is designed for working print, broadcast and online journalists from the United States, Japan, China and the Asia Pacific region.

Building on the East-West Center’s longstanding and highly regarded travel-study programs for journalists, this study tour will introduce participating journalists to a broad range of disaster management and recovery activities in the United States, Japan and China as well as post-disaster challenges to political, economic and energy resiliency. In all three countries, the role and responsibility of the media to accurately report on disasters will be explored.

Emphasis will be placed on:

disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery efforts at the local, federal and international levels;
government, military, business and civil-society initiatives successful in reducing risk and in providing assistance post-disaster;
resilience as the capacity to recover from disasters and the maintenance of political structures, economic markets, energy policies and the functionality of society in the wake of a catastrophe;
the impact of recent catastrophic natural disasters on economic markets and supply chains throughout the Asia Pacific region;
responses to the Fukushima nuclear crisis and the future of energy policy and security in the Asia Pacific region.

In New York City, journalists will examine lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy, which struck the eastern seaboard on October 29, 2012 and registered as a Category 2 storm at its peak intensity. Sandy is estimated in early calculations to have caused damage of at least $20 billion, making it the second-costliest Atlantic hurricane behind only Hurricane Katrina. In Japan, the journalists will visit the capital city for an assessment of how the Japanese government and disaster response agencies handled the Great East Japan Earthquake and the resulting tsunami and nuclear crisis as well as what lessons were learned. In Sendai, the EWC will expose the journalists to the personal side of natural disasters through discussions with students, aid workers and community members. Finally, the journalists will visit Chengdu to examine China’s recovery efforts following the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake.

Program Info:

Dates: September 22 – October 6, 2013
Destinations: New York City, USA; Tokyo and Sendai, Japan; and Chengdu, China
Deadline: Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Who can apply: Mid-career journalists with a minimum of seven years of experience in journalism. Media professionals from print, broadcast and online news organizations, including reporters, writers, editors, producers, columnists, bloggers, editorial writers and freelance journalists are all eligible to apply. Journalists who specialize in topics related to the specific theme are preferred and effort will be taken to include news organizations with national and global reach. Fluency in English is required.

The East-West Center will fully fund two Japanese, three Americans, two Chinese and three journalists representing Asian and Oceanic countries bordering or near the tectonic Pacific Plate. The list of eligible countries for full East-West Center funding includes: Australia, China, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Taiwan, Tonga, the United States, and Vanuatu.

Full East-West Center funding is not available for countries outside these areas, but journalists who come from Asia Pacific countries NOT listed above are highly encouraged to apply. Applicants from countries outside the above list must pay a discounted program fee, of USD $6,575/per participant, to be paid prior to the beginning of the program.

Cost will cover:
Airfare from New York City to Tokyo to Sendai to Chengdu
Ground transportation and airport transfers
Hotel accommodation in each city
Provided program meals
Interpretation
Pro-rated speaker honorarium and cooperating organization costs
Seminar DVD of program documents, speaker PowerPoint presentations and Fellowship photos
Participant Resource Materials

NOTE: Self-funded journalists are responsible for their flights to and from their home cities as well as all meals not provided by the East-West Center, visa fees, health insurance and baggage fees.

For application forms or more information, visit here