Monday, June 25, 2012

Internship - CIJ



Kami again! Here to talk about the internship I was lucky enough to experience during my time in Hungary...

The Center for Independent Journalism of Hungary was founded in 1995 and for the first few years focused on basic journalism training.  Today it is a non-political organization whose mission is to raise professional standards in journalism and contribute to ethical, unbiased reporting in Hungary.  Essentially they act as a catalyst organizing and holding conferences, round table discussions, workshops, trainings for journalists, promoting the latest reporting technologies, and bringing in scholars to  speak to the journalistic community.  Besides this, they also promote Roma journalist programs focused on training and reporting Roma stories. 

When I first heard of where my internship would be, I got excited; for I love writing and in this way could embrace my inner grammer-nazi.

 Proof-reading English translations turned out to be more challenging than one would think, however.  I had to adjust and perfect sentences without changing their integrity or meaning.  That  and get used to a Hungarian keyboard.



Besides this, part of my job was giving English tutorials to  Roma reporters who wanted to work on their language skills.  This proved rather entertaining as we swapped slang terms, and they showed me gypsy music while I showed them what "The Wobble" was on youtube.

My final assignment was to help catalogue and pack CIJ's English-book library in anticipation of a location move.  (Status of where : still TBS).  Again more challenging than one would think- who knew there were sooo many books about the American First Amendment?



The best part, however, was not particularly what I did there but what I learned there.   Between Ilona, Fruzi, and Bori; I had some of the most informative and interesting political discussions I have had all the time here.  I honestly believe the people who work at CIJ are working towards a greater good in ethics at a time when Hungary needs it most, and I believe with that mission and passion they will do great things.  

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