In the past year the CCRJ has been active in numerous countries around the world, assisting democratic reform, propagating the development of ethical media as part of the orgainisation's strategy for conflict resolution. Click here for descriptions of CCRJ activities in: Cameroon; Sarawak; Saudi Arabia; Lebanon; Azerbaijan; Palestine; Aghanistan
 PICTURE: October 21st, 2012: Steve Desmond interviews the
Founder of BBC's Newsnight George Carey and filmmaker and chairs a conference panel entitled "Documentary Films that Make a Difference" at the international 2012 Conference "Upholding Professional Integrity in Journalism & Documentary Filmmaking".
 March 22nd, 2012--The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and The Cleraun Media Forum screen Steve Desmond's recent film (on political corruption in the Middle East) in Dublin. Desmond is pictured here on the night with Roisin Duffey of RTE who introduced the film screening and chaired the presentation & screening.
October 14th, 2011: Steve Desmond has been included in 'Strathmore's Who's Who' for his contribution to media and communications.
October 2011--Dr. Ronan Lynch (historian, journalist and CCRJ
Director of Research) is interviewed on National Public Radio in the US
about the history and politics of music.
 October 16th, 2010: Steve Desmond interviews the Founder of BBC's Newsnight George Carey and chairs a conference panel entitled "Ethics in Documentary Filmmaking" at the international Conference "Upholding Professional Integrity in Journalism & Documentary Filmmaking".
 On November 23rd 2009-
The world-famous Frontline Club for war journalists in London screened Stephen Desmond's documentary, 'The
Jaweed Al Ghussein Story'.
Stephen is pictured here answering questions from fellow journalists after the screening.
 July 2009-- Steve Desmond addresses The Foreign Press Association in London.
SEE FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION WEBSITE:
http://www.foreign-press.org.uk/showevent.pl?id=381
 On July 2nd, 2009-
Stephen Desmond's documentary, 'The Jaweed Al Ghussein Story', was pre-screened byThe Foreign Press Association (FPA) in London on July 2nd at 7pm to an audience of journalists and dignitaries from around the world. The screening took place in the elegant Foreign Press Association Head Office on Carlton House Terrace close to Buckingham Palace. The FPA, William Morris, Canon Andrew White and Crown Prince Shwebomin of Burma introduced the film. Desmond said: "I am truly delighted by this honour and I am truly delighted that this film is screening at The Foreign Press Association during the one-year anniversary of Al Ghussein's death around July 2nd, 2009." The film tells the story of how Palestinian patriot and political moderate Jaweed Al Ghussein (Chairman of The Palestinian National Fund) was falsely accused by Yasser Arafat of embezzling $6 million from The Palestinian National Fund, abducted, held under house arrest in Gaza and subjected to a systematic smear campaign. The film focuses on providing a narrative history of Al-Ghussein's abduction, positioning the incident within a wider discussion of Human Rights abuse in the Middle East. Stephen was commissioned by The Times Higher Education Supplement to write an article on his film during the production process. Desmond's article Documenting Injustice appeared in the THES in October 2007. SEE FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION WEBSITE: http://www.foreign-press.org.uk/showevent.pl?id=381
 May 2009--CCRJ Co-founder Barry Lowe has been awarded
a grant from the government's Department for International Development
(DfID).
The grant of £10,000, a Develepment Education Fund
Mini Grant, will pay for a project to produce content on developing
world issues for UK's HE journalism curricula.
Barry said the main activity would be training a
group of exiled journalists - journalists from developing countries who
fled to the UK to escape persecution - in teaching skills.
These journalists would then be employed as guest
lecturers to deliver seminars on developing world issues to journalism
classes in UK universities.
Barry told MyArts: "I'm hoping
this small grant will lead to more successful bids for funding with
DfID. DfID is a significant international donor, distributing hundreds
of millions of pounds to support projects centred on developing world
issues."
December 2008--CCRJ Co-Founder Stephen Desmond serves as Mentor at Dublin City University. He is pictured immediately below on Dec 1st, 2008 at DCU's Helix Auditorium with his Mentees Orla Ryan and Joseph Ronan, who are both students in DCU's Department of Communications Studies
November 2007--Stephen Desmond's article on his new film-in-progress for Al Jazeera English--"The Jaweed Al Ghussein Story"--appears in The Times Higher Education Supplement on October 5th. The article is entitled "Documenting Injustice" and is located in the 'Features' section. Also in October Stephen appears on TALKSPORT National Radio on The Mike Mendoza Show to discuss the film. Click here to listen to the interview: RADIO INTERVIEW
May 2007---Stephen Desmond, Co-founder of the CCRJ, is interviewed on Irish television about his new film for Al Jazeera English. Click here to view the interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNQlyccq9Gc
 May 2007---Stephen Desmond, Co-founder of The CCRJ, is awarded a major film commission by Al Jazeera London to produce a broadcast documentary on political corruption and the finances of the PLO under Yasser Arafat. The film, which is in progress, will tell the story of how Jaweed Al Ghussein was falsely accused by Arafat of embezzling $6 million from The Palestinian National Fund, abducted and held under house arrest in Gaza. The film will focus on providing a narrative history of Al-Ghussein's abduction, positioning the incident within a wider discussion of Human Rights abuse in the Palestinian territories. Stephen has also been commissioned by The Times Higher Education Supplement to write two articles on his film. The first news piece will appear in The Times in mid-May 2007. CLICK HERE TO VIEW AN 8 MIN TRAILER :
Click on: VIEW TRAILER
READ RECENT EALING TIMES ARTICLE ON STEPHEN DESMOND.
Click on : "EALING TIMES"
READ MORE ON THE WEBSITE OF THAMES VALLEY UNIVERSITY.
Click on "TVU WEB"
 November 2006---CCRJ Co-founder Barry Lowe (lower row-centre) with participants in a recent seminar on reporting human rights attended by Saudi journalists in Riyadh. CLICK HERE: READ MORE
Winter 2006---Dr. Ronan Lynch, Director of Research at the CCRJ, publishes a report for The Centre for Public Inquiry detailing sustained political corruption in relation to the transfer of gas reserves off the coast of Ireland to The Shell Corporation. Click here to read more about the report and to download a PDF of the report:
http://www.publicinquiry.ie/reports.php#ld196
 June 2006---CCRJ Video "Peace or Patriotism" is made available Online for the first time. To view the video please click on the link directly below the photgraph (on the left). The video deals with the ethics of war reporting and contains interviews with Martin Bell OBE, Professor Monica McWilliams of Queens University, Belfast, and several other journalists from around the world.
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO:
http://www.esnips.com/doc/5040918c-0330-4167-9546-65a738077763/conferenceTrailer5-300Kbps-Streaming
 August 2006 ---The CCRJ commences a grant-funded training programme in media production for refugees of war. Funding was provided by Lyod's/TSB. The programme was created in conjunction with the refugee charity Reconnect.
In the picture to the left, Barry Lowe (CCRJ Co-founder) and Stephen Desmond (CCRJ Co-founder) are second and third from the left (back row). They are accompanied by the 10 refugees who participated as students in the first workshop.
Click on the following URL for a full description of the Refugee Training Programme in Video Production:
http://www.tvu.ac.uk/newsevents/1news_files/August_2006_news/aug06_news1.jsp
 June 2006--- Stephen Desmond serves as a Mentor at Dublin City University. Stephen is an alumnus of Dublin City University and has mentored journalism student Aisling O'Rourke for the past year (both Stephen and Aisling are pictured left). Click her for a detailed description of the programme:
DCU Mentor Programme
 November 2005---CCRJ Co-founder Director Barry Lowe visits Cambodia to meet with local journalists. Click on link for more information: "Cambodia and conflict resolution journalism"
 October 2005---CCRJ-affiliated journalist Bahar Hussain travels to Iraq to monitor the quality of elections. Mr. Hussain is pictured here in Baghdad, third from the left, with Mr. William Morris of The New Century Foundation who directed the delegation.
 March 2005------Delegation of Saudi Journalists attend the CCRJ for a two-day seminar on fair reporting of elections. In this photo the journalists are meeting with MP George Galloway. CCRJ Co-founder Barry Lowe is pictured seated to the left.
 March 2005------Delegation of Suadi Journalists attend the CCRJ for a two-day seminar on fair reporting of elections. In this photo the journalists are meeting with CCRJ C0-founder Barry Lowe (standing centre).
 June 2005----Delegation of Palestinian journalists attend the CCRJ for a seminar on reporting conflict in the Middle-East
 June 2005---Delegation of Palestinian journalists attend the CCRJ for a seminar on reporting conflict in the Middle-East. In this photo journalsits are shown attending a workshop taught by CCRJ Co-founder Stephen Desmond on news video technologies in the field.
 April 2005---CCRJ Co-founder Stephen Desmond receives a certificate of recognition at the Dublin City University Mentorship evening.
 April 2005---CCRJ Co-founder addresses Dublin City University during the closing evening of the DCU Mentorship Event. Stephen is a graduate of Dublin City University.
 Sept 2004---CCRJ Co-founder Stephen Desmond is invited to screen his CCRJ documentary "Peace or Patriotism--Journalism, War and the Search for Truth" at Istroart 2004 in Bratislava. During his stay Stephen also created a video art installation at Gallery Medium. He subsequently published an article "Video Art 2" in the Istroart 2004 catalogue. Stephen is pictured here with four local students who were assigned to create the video installation along with Stephen
 August 2004---CCRJ Co-founder Stephen Desmond is invited to screen his CCRJ documentary "Peace or Patriotism--Journalism, War and the Search for Truth" at the Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York. Stephen lectured at BMCC for four years prior to Joining Thames Valley University in August 2001.
 August 2004---CCRJ Co-founder Stephen Desmond is invited to screen his CCRJ documentary "Peace or Patriotism--Journalism, War and the Search for Truth" at the Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York. Stephen lectured at BMCC for four years prior to Joining Thames Valley University in August 2001. Pictured here: BMCC students attending the screening.
 Feb 2004---Barry Lowe CCRJ Co-founder organizes a major conference on war reporting entitled "Peace or Patriotism: Journalism, War and the Search for Truth". Barry is pictured here (left) during a conference seminar with Martin Bell OBE. CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON THE CONFERENCE.
Many of the world's most intractable conflicts are represented at the conference on conflict reporting.
The conference, Peace or Patriotism, brings together journalists from conflict zones stretching from the South Pacific to the Caribbean, to share their experiences in reporting the strife that has engulfed their communities.
They include a journalist from Sierra Leone who reported on his country's horrific civil war, and a journalist from Zimbabwe who had to flee from the Mugabe government's violent repression.
Journalists from India and Pakistan share their perspectives on reporting the war over Kashmir, while Turkish and Greek Cypriot journalists will compare notes on their divided island's past and present.
Other reporters describe the secessionist struggle in Sri Lanka, religious conflict in Nigeria and ethnic conflict in Fiji and Guyana.
The main sponsor of the event is the UK government's Department for International Development (DfID), through its Commonwealth Media Development Fund.
CCRJ Co-founder Barry Lowe, who also teaches journalism at Thames Valley University, said the conference is focusing on the question: should journalists takes sides in a conflict – the side of their own government or community – or should they emphasise reconciliation and conflict resolution in their reporting.
“We chose Belfast as the location for this event because Northern Ireland’s recent experience of the Troubles gives it a relevant context for the issues we will be discussing,” said Lowe.
The conference opened at the Malone Lodge Hotel, by former BBC war correspondent, and former MP, Martin Bell. The meeting is also addressed by Monica McWilliams, Leader of the Women’s Coalition Party, and includes a reception at Stormont Castle with representatives of Northern Ireland political parties.
Conference delegates also visit Londonderry for a tour of the city and a briefing on the Troubles.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON THE CONFERENCE
SEE BELOW FOR ADDITIONAL PICTURES OF THE CONFERENCE
Bio-notes on key participants:
Marin Bell OBE has reported on 11 different wars during his 30 years in journalism. In 1997 he was elected independent MP in the House of Commons – the first independent in 50. He is the author of three books: the author of In Harm’s Way, An Accidental MP and Through Gates of Fire and currently Special Representative for Humanitarian Emergencies for UNICEF.
Monica McWilliams is co-founder of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition and Professor of Women's Studies and Social Policy, University of Ulster. She has won numerous awards for her work in promoting reconciliation in Northern Ireland, including the Barbara Stone Hollander Award for Women in Leadership, the Frank Cousins Peace Award and the JF Kennedy Leadership and Courage Award.
Milica Pesic is director of the London-based Media Diversity Institute. She was a presenter and editor at TV Serbia for more than 10 years, and has reported for the BBC and Radio Free Europe. She was a founder of the AIM independent news agency (the only network of independent journalists from Southeastern Europe during the Yugoslav wars).
Blessing Ruzengwe was features editor of the Bulwayo Chronicle in Zimbabwe. He was forced to flee abroad when Robert Mugabe launched a savage crackdown on opposition media outlets.
Hasan Hasturer is a columnist with Kibris Gazetesi, a Turkish newspaper in northern Cyprus. He is currently on trial, facing 11 years in prison, for "inciting hatred towards the state with the intention of destroying it and debasing it", and "insulting and inciting hatred for Turkey's senior officers" over an editorial he wrote in March referring to police violence against protestors.
Thushara Goonaratne became a participant in peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers after travelling into rebel-held territory in spite of a government ban on contacts with the secessionists.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON THE CONFERENCE
SEE BELOW FOR ADDITIONAL PICTURES OF THE CONFERENCE
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