Trust for the Americas Western Hemisphere

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
July 2007

Trust for the Americas roundtable in El Salvador on access to information.

A DRL grant to the Trust for the Americas is building capacity and advocacy skills among journalists and promoting freedom of the press in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. Through training of journalists, government officials, and civil society activists; promoting advocacy on press freedom issues; and garnering support for freedom of information laws, the program has met with successes in each country. In Honduras, the program enabled the creation of the first civil society coalition to promote access to information legislation at a national level. Legislation was approved in November of 2006 and a recent roundtable brought over 142 journalists, civil society leaders, and government officials together to discuss it. Three Honduran Congressman participated, discussing how the law can function as a tool to combat corruption. In Nicaragua, the program trained journalists on media objectivity and supported the monitoring of media coverage of the Presidential elections to measure bias. In Panama, the program helped to establish a Media Ethics Committee, one of only three in all of Latin America. In El Salvador, the program continues to promote access to information and to strengthen journalism skills. A recent workshop on "Investigative Journalism in Cases of Corruption," trained over 20 Salvadoran journalists and journalism professionals on how to use online resources, how to identify sources, advantages associated with access to information laws, and investigative journalism skills. Since the program began nearly 2 years ago, over 500 journalists, government officials, and NGO practitioners in the region have been trained in journalism techniques, advocacy, freedom of information laws, and the importance of a free and independent press.

Trust for the Americas Internet tools and resources training for investigative journalists.