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This 22nd class of Fellows — chosen from over 80 applicants from 32 countries — consists of eight mid-career reporters and editors. Their class brings the total number of Friendly Fellows to 240 — 106 women and 134 men — from 74 developing countries.
In 2005, AFPF began offering fellowships that focus on specific topics with an investigative reporting fellowship. In 2006, we are offering two health reporting fellowships to Betty Abah of Nigeria and Audrey Edwards of Malaysia. In addition to their newsroom assignments, they will also be offered opportunities to attend health related journalism seminars and to meet with organizations that focus on their special interests—HIV/AIDS, malaria, sickle cell disease and tuberculosis for Abah and HIV/AIDS for Edwards.
The Daniel Pearl Fellowships, created in 2003 to encourage dialogue among people of different cultures, reduce cultural and religious hatred and create a platform for responsible and creative journalism, are offered to journalists from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. This year’s recipients, Ghanashyam Ojha of Nepal and Shahid Shah of Pakistan, will work in newsrooms where Pearl once worked. Underwritten by the Daniel Pearl Foundation, these special fellowships honor The Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002.
Phuong Ngan Do of Vietnam was chosen as the 2006 Helen Baldwin Fellow. Baldwin, the sister of Alfred Friendly, championed causes that had as their common goal the betterment of the world. Each year her son, C. Stephen Baldwin, nominates the journalist who best personifies his mother’s ideals to receive this endowed fellowship.
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Betty Abah, Nigeria
Betty Abah, 32, has worked as a journalist for five years. As a staff writer for TELL magazine in Lagos, which she joined in 2005, she writes feature stories, with an emphasis on health and tourism. Previously she reported for Hallmark (2004-05), Newswatch magazine (2001-04) and The Voice (2000). Abah won the 2002 Nigeria Media Merit Award for Travel and Tourism Reporter of the Year. She graduated in 1999 with a B.A. in English and literary studies from the University of Calabar where she had been the literary editor and deputy editor in chief of two campus publications and chaired the university’s chapter of the Nigeria Association of Campus Women Journalists. Abah is one of two recipients of AFPF’s inaugural fellowships in health reporting.
Assignment: Rocky Mountain News
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Franklin Bayen, Cameroon
Weekly Post news editor Franklin Bayen, 35, is responsible for recruiting new talent, assigning stories to reporters, editing and rewriting copy, training young reporters, and conceiving and writing columns. He previously worked for The Herald (2004-05), Radio Reine (2000-04), Weekly Post (2001-02), The Post (1997-2000) and Cameroon Post (1996-97). He also contributes to the German News Agency, Radio France International, Vatican Radio, Voice of America, and the South African Broadcasting Corporation. He is the founder of the Club of Independent Media Broadcasters in English (CLIMBEr) and a founding member of the Cameroon Union of Journalists. Bayen earned his B.A. in journalism from the Advanced School of Mass Communications Yaoundé.
Assignment: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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Petra Breyerová, Czech Republic
Petra Breyerová, 33, is the deputy editor in chief of the English language Czech Business Weekly. As the number two person in the newsroom, she selects news for publication, manages reporters and their assignments, and reports on real estate, health, retail, airlines, tourism and the pharmaceutical industry. Breyerová has also worked as a staff reporter for the Prague Business Journal (2002-04), as a correspondent for Transitions Online (2000-02) and has been published in The Wall Street Journal Europe and The Prague Post. In 2005, she was a lecturer for a media course of the Global Leadership Program at Charles University in Prague. Breyerová received her B.A. in politics and society with a minor in journalism from the New Anglo-American College in Prague in 2001.
Assignment: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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Phuong Ngan Do, Vietnam
Phuong Ngan Do, 29, got her start in journalism at the International Affairs Review, a weekly newspaper in Hanoi that specializes in international affairs and foreign policies. She began as a reporter (1999-2002), became an editor (2002-04) and is now a senior editor. In 2004, she was selected for the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) Fellows Program for which she traveled to six countries in the region to write about how Vietnam is known and understood by citizens of those countries. She has traveled extensively in Southeast Asia to cover international events for International Affairs Review including the 10th ASEAN Summit in Laos (2004) and the first joint cabinet meeting between Vietnam and Thailand (2004). In 1999, Do earned her B.A. in journalism from Dong Do University and a B.A. in English from Hanoi University of Foreign Studies.
Assignment: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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Audrey Edwards, Malaysia
Since 2000, Audrey Edwards, 30, has been a news reporter for The Star, and is currently a staff correspondent based in Negri Sembilan, a state near the capital of Kuala Lumpur. While she writes on a variety of topics her passions are health and Formula One auto racing. In 2004, she received the Red Ribbon Media Award for print journalism from the Malaysian AIDS Council. Previously she was a writer for the Malaysian Medical Tribune (1999). Edwards graduated from Universiti Putra Malaysia in 1999 with a B.S. in statistics and a minor in economics. She is one of two recipients of AFPF’s inaugural fellowships in health reporting.
Assignment: The Washington Post
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Peter Makori, Kenya
As chief of the western Kenya bureau of the Weekly Citizen, Peter Makori, 32, writes stories, assigns and trains reporters, and manages the day-to-day operations of the office in Kisii. Since 1994, Makori has occasionally been jailed for his stories on human rights abuses and corruption. While in prison from July 2003 to May 2004 on fabricated murder charges, he was subjected to beatings and other torture. He has since sued for damages. Makori previously worked for the Economic Review (1997-98), Kenya Television Network (1995-96), and The Standard (1993-95). He earned a diploma in journalism from the Nyegezi School of Journalism in Tanzania (1993) and a certificate in community radio from the Danish School of Journalism (1999).
Assignment: The Kansas City Star
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Ghanashyam Ojha, Nepal
Senior reporter Ghanashyam Ojha, 34, reports on politics, human rights and the Maoist insurgency for The Kathmandu Post. He previously worked as a sub-editor (1999-2003) for this English language daily. In 2002, he participated in a five-month online course on investigative reporting sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Centre for Journalism in the Philippines. Ojha is a member of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists. He earned his B.A. in English and economics from Mechi Multiple Campus in Bhadrapur (1994) and his M.A. in English literature and media studies at Tribhuwan University in Kathmandu (2000). From 1996-1999 he was the principal of an English secondary school in Kathmandu. He is one of two journalists to receive the Daniel Pearl Fellowships this year.
Assignment: The Berkshire Eagle and North Adams Transcript
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Shahid Shah, Pakistan
As a business reporter for The News International, Shahid Shah, 28, reports in English on agriculture, commodities, development, finance, fisheries, human rights, and real estate. He previously wrote in Sindhi for the Daily Ibrat Hyderabad (1998-2004) and the Daily Kawish Hyderabad (1997-98). In 2005, Shah covered the sixth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong. He is member of the Karachi Press Club, Karachi Union of Journalists, and is a Sindh coordinator for the Journalists for Democracy and Human Rights. Shah obtained his B.S. in information technology in 2003 from the Preston Institute of Management, Science & Technology (PIMSAT). He is one of two journalists to receive the Daniel Pearl Fellowships this year.
Assignment: The Wall Street Journal (DC bureau)
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