The IMMF has endeavoured to provide training in journalism and photojournalism, at an international level, to professional journalists from the countries of the Indochina region. 

It is gratifying to receive acknowledgement and recognition for this sustained effort from respected media organisations and journalists.
Some recent instances:

Financial Times ~ January 2001

January 2001

To Whom It May Concern

I am a working journalist with a strong commitment to training, both at the FT, where I am deputy world news editor, and elsewhere. For the past 13 years I have conducted courses in many countries in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, as well as in Europe for visiting journalists from developing countries.

My first association with the IMMF was when I ran a 3 week course on financial journalism in Bangkok. By then I had participated in about 40 courses organised by a number of different institutions. The IMMF stood out by far in the way that it placed the cares and concerns of the participants at the centre of the course organisation. Not only did this enhance the learning that went on, but it also meant that the course was better planned and conducted than anything I have been involved in before. When I wondered what it was that set the IMMF apart, I realised it was the fact that its ethos flourishes in the people that run it. This proved infectious for me, as it did for the young journalists from the region attending the course.

I could not recommend a better forum for the training of journalists. 

Graham Watts



The Daily Telegraph ~ January 2001

 19th January, 2001

Dear Sarah, Many weeks have passed since the completion of the IMMF Training Course I led on agriculture and the environment in Thailand. Having just finished reading the October Issue of the IMMF Agricultural Times, and having studied the excellent assessment report on the course, I am writing to say how worthwhile I found the whole exercise.

It is clear from the response of the trainees, and the material they produced as a result of the course, that they also gained a great deal from the experience. I will never forget their hard work and enthusiasm. This was a tribute to the concept of the foundation itself.

From what I have seen the foundation deserves as much support as it can get to enable it to continue its valuable work, and I wish it well. I was very impressed with what the foundation was achieving with limited resources. and have no doubt that it could achieve a great deal more to foster higher-quality journalism and better understanding in the region if its coffers were fuller.

Many thanks again for all your help while I was in Thailand and very best wishes to you and the foundation in 2001.

Yours sincerely,

David Brown
Agriculture Editor





Nation Group ~ January 2001

To Whom It May Concern

Journalists in the region should be proud of the Indochina Media Memorial Foundation. It is not often that a group of journalists get together and manage a professionally-run training institution that is doing the very thing that we all dream of for Indochina.

I don't want to exaggerate the endeavours of the IMMF, but it has been just about the only organisation to keep up its work in the training of young journalists in emerging Indochina countries on a consistent basis. Our reporters who have participated in the IMMF programmes have not only been satisfied with what they had learned, but also enjoy opportunities to be with fellow journalists from neighbouring countries.

I would say they had good memory also of IMMF trainers whom they said are very good. To get these people to come and give courses is already a big achievement. We hope you can maintain this standard. The IMMF courses are well tailored not only to the needs of young journalists, many of whom are without formal training, but also in tune with the times. Subjects such as the environment or economic reporting or even photography are hardly available in the region.

The Nation has also enjoyed, with the IMMF's kind permission, sharing some of the foundation's training resources such as the training photographer and the Knight International Press fellow. We also help to participate in translating and publishing a journalism training manual in Thai once the IMMF has the resources to put one together.

I wish the IMMF every success in 2001 and keep up the good work!

Pana Janviroj
Editor
The Nation, Bangkok





David Nicholson-Lord ~ January 2001

January 26, 2001

I wanted to write to set down my views on IMMF for the benefit of other organisations with which you may be linked.
As you know there is an urgent need for the training of journalists in the developing world generally because so much depends on their ability to  communicate intelligently and effectively on important issues. This is particularly true of my own field, the environment, where make-or-break decisions affecting millions of people are too often made on the basis of bad information, and it is also particularly true of Indo-China, which is facing all the big contemporary environment and development issues - not least because of the urge to "modernise", urbanise and industrialise.

IMMF, in my view, does an invaluable service in putting across these issues to journalists in the region and in training them to communicate more effectively. I have, as you know, taught on two courses, and have frequently been struck on these courses by the way minds are changed and eyes opened. I think participants have gone away with a far better grasp of some often recondite subjects and with a much improved ability to put them across. This is particularly important because it's undeniable that journalism in the region is lacking in skills and professionalism - and this is largely the result of lack of training, notably issue-related, practical training, as opposed to theoretical instruction.

Among IMMF's strengths I would list the following:

* Its knowledge of, and contacts in, and experience of, the Indo-China region

* The strong "hands-on", issue-based, emphasis of the courses - they deal, that is, in real lives and real issues

* Its excellent organisation of often-difficult logistics (particularly travelling)

* Its friendliness and concern for participants - the fun and "family" feel of courses.

Participants, in short, are looked after very well, they enjoy themselves, they learn a lot and they go home with an awareness, I think, of having had a memorable experience. The courses, from my own knowledge of them, not only improve skills and knowledge, I think it's fair to say they also change lives.

For the record, I should add some brief details about myself. I am a Cambridge graduate, have spent 25 years working and writing for national newspapers and magazines in the UK, was formerly on the staff of The Times, The Independent, and The Independent on Sunday, where I was environment editor and am the author of various publications, including The Greening of the Cities (Routledge, 1987). I was a Press Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge, in 1984, teach environment for the Thomson Foundation and at the City University, London, and am trustee of, and adviser to, the New Economics Foundation, an environmental think-tank, and the National Wildflower Centre.

Best regards,

David Nicholson-Lord

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