From Russia to China, down to Indonesia, up to Afghanistan, over to Ghana, down to South Africa and across to Brazil, nearly 80 journalists from three dozen countries applied for six-month fellowships administered by Alfred Friendly Press Partners.
Some came from countries that have never been represented by an Alfred Friendly fellow, including Venezuela, Mongolia, Moldova, Rwanda, Liberia, Venezuela, Togo and its next-door neighbor Benin.
The greatest number of applicants for the fellowships in 2019 are from India, with 11, followed in order by Ukraine, Pakistan and Kenya.
About a tenth of the journalists aspired to be Daniel Pearl Fellows. The Daniel Pearl Foundation was formed in 2002 in the name of the Wall Street Journal’s South Asia bureau chief who was slain by terrorists in Pakistan, and the family has funded 29 participants from Muslim-majority countries in the fellowship program.
The selection process will be complete by mid-December. Members of the Class of 2019 will gather at the Missouri School of Journalism in March for three weeks of initial training before heading to assigned newsrooms around the country to work on their staffs for five months.
