This week at TrustMedia 05/03/2012-09/03/2012

by Emily O'Donnell | Thomson Reuters Foundation

Friday, 9 March 2012 16:33 GMT

Last night, in honor of International Women's Day, Thomson Reuters hosted the book launch for "No Woman's Land: On the Frontlines with Female Reporters,” published by the International News Safety Institute (INSI). The book is comprised of 40 essays of female foreign correspondents writing about the hardships they experienced while reporting the news in the world’s most dangerous areas.

The launch last night included a panel of female and (one) male journalists and editors, discussing the challenges that face women in the field today. The discussion was then opened up to the audience and a number of women journalists from around the world in attendance of the event shared their stories.

Some women spoke about the stigma surrounding the decision to send mothers on dangerous assignments, the need to hide a pregnancy for fear of losing opportunities if discovered, the realities of getting the story as a woman in the Middle East, and the extreme need for increased safety and training for journalists before starting assignments in conflict zones.

If you’re in need of some practical advice about being a female foreign correspondent, be sure to pick up the book.

In other news, our director Jo Weir is back in the office, having returned from her adventures in Dubai, Cairo and Istanbul. We’re happy to have her back safe and sound helping the team organise some internal training courses with Thomson Reuters that should be happening within a few weeks.

In conjunction with this upcoming training, TrustMedia’s Programme Administrator Grace Anyibuofu is organising a session on working with iPads because we’re 21^st century people here at TrustMedia.

Applications are still open for the GSS Conference about global security happening November 12-14^th. The conference will discuss the role of the media in developing countries and how journalists can avoid being exploited by terrorists. Print, broadcast and online journalists from developed or developing countries are encouraged to apply regardless of whether they are seasoned journalists or have reported professionally for only a few years. If you’re interested, you can find more information and apply on the website. The deadline is April 30^th, so get to it!

We’re also getting loads of videos and articles from our alumni that we plan to feature on our site and Alumni blog.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation came out with our Annual Report this week as well, documenting the successes in each branch of the foundation over the course of this past year. You can watch the video on the report here.

And, as always, we’re trying to increase our social media presence online, so follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@Trust_Media).

Lastly, we’re currently accepting applications for the following training courses-apply now!