By Ghanashyam Ojha
Daniel Pearl Fellow
Senior Reporter, The Kathmandu Post
Kathmandu, Nepal
Hosted by The Berkshire Eagle and North Adams Transcript

I feel exhilarated to express what I learned during my brief stay in the United States as a Daniel Pearl Fellow. The fellowship program enriched my language, helped improve my perspectives to view the world and made me a more confident journalist. After six months, when I review my journalistic skills and knowledge, I feel much indebted to the Daniel Pearl Foundation and Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships for a huge transformation in me. It's something like a transcendental feeling which I received working in a newspaper here.

Having been born into, grown up and lived through problems--both political and economical in the developing country of Nepal--I had never gotten an opportunity to look out to the outer world. Journalists in developing countries find themselves confined within limited space and form a parochial view of the world. Lack of opportunities, meager payment and political and economical challenges force journalists in developing countries to downsize their potential and ambition. The fellowship taught me to deal with the problems and pursue the ambition.

As I was keenly interested to know more about the role of media to strengthen democracy in the United States, I found media here are more vibrant and corresponding to their values. The media has robustly maintained its independent position in the United States. It has remained a powerful means to sensitize people about their rights, values and democracy. Although the 9/11 incident has perceptibly affected the media and its unrestricted freedom is challenged, press freedom is still something taken for granted in the United States. The sense of being free has enriched the level of consciousness among Americans. I think it is an invaluable asset I gained in the United States.

I learned to become a successful journalist. I improved my writing skills and learned a lot about chasing story ideas. I learned about feature stories; especially investigative stories. Various conferences, which I attended during my stay here, also provided me knowledge about the situation of print journalism in the global perspective.

Besides sharing my knowledge with my colleagues and boss, I will try to apply my expertise of feature writing in my newsroom. News writing in the United States, where English is the first language, is definitely more cultured and richer in terms of language than in my country where English happens to be perceived sometimes not only the second but the third or fourth language.

I will try to be more specific while writing news stories back in my newspaper. I will also try to help my peers and juniors to be more specific while using English words and I will help them to make their language richer.

As my newsroom doesn’t have an organized bureau for investigative reporting, I think I will propose to my editor and news editor to set up a separate investigative news bureau. It will further accelerate our search for investigative stories. Similarly, workshops from experienced journalists, is a necessary part of a newsroom. I will talk with my boss to help organize a workshop, at least once a month, where younger journalists will get an opportunity to gain knowledge about journalism and its values. I was much impressed by the workshops at The Poynter Institute in Florida. The one-week workshop made a lot of difference in my news writing.

Another important idea I gained here is research. Although we provide background to some developing stories, we don’t usually tend to do research on any story in my newsroom. I found that research is one of the most powerful means to make a story rich. I will discuss it with my boss and will encourage all the reporters to do research before heading out for any story. It will help the reporters gain a complete knowledge of the story and a reporter can develop expertise on the subject.

Deadline writing is also another essential part, which I will have to share with my boss. Writing on deadline is very challenging but it is very important for a daily newspaper. I will share my knowledge on how to write on deadline. Prior knowledge of the story and ruminating over the story angle on the way to office makes it much easier to write a deadline story.

Being a Daniel Pearl fellow, I feel I have a responsibility to disseminate Pearl’s message for humanity and love. My visit to Los Angeles with the Pearl family and Daniel Pearl Foundation representatives, further strengthened my commitment towards Pearl. It also provided me an opportunity to understand Pearl and his message. Besides sharing my journalistic knowledge in the newsroom, I will introduce Pearl and his message to my boss and peers.

As the workshop with Dr. Gary Weaver has been instrumental in this regard, I think I should first let my boss know about my knowledge through my work.

It’s a challenging job to let your peers feel that you have learned something very valuable in the United States. It’s a gradual process and frequent sharing of knowledge that makes the peers realize the difference you have made in your perception. Once my peers feel I have learned something valuable, it will create an environment for me to pass my knowledge onto them. And I won’t let the opportunity go by and it will make them feel that my stay in the United States was valuable.

I think it will take some two months for me to celebrate my success. Once my bosses and colleagues realize that I learned something invaluable in the United States, I am sure it will draw their attention. And it will be the happiest moment for me when they will rejoice with my much cultured, much refined and well-armed stories.