By Alejandro Martínez
Award-winning Colombian journalist María Teresa Ronderos will be the new director of Open Society Foundations' Program on Independent Journalism. Each year, the program channels millions of dollars to support independent journalism projects around the world.
The OSF's Program on Independent Journalism aims to "promote viable, high-quality media, particularly in countries transitioning to democracy." In particular, it focuses on encouraging professionalism in the field, ethics, watchdog journalism and diversity.
OSF president Chris Stone said that Ronderos, a veteran investigative journalist who knows firsthand the challenges independent journalism faces today, will help orient the organization's efforts and channel its resources to strengthen journalism across the world.
“Maria Teresa Ronderos knows those battles first hand,: Stone said in a press release last week. "She has devoted her career to fearless reporting, while working to protect and nurture the independence of her colleagues worldwide.”
In her new position, Ronderos will supervise the OSF's funds to support investigative journalism, public interest news organization and journalists in exile around the world. The program's budget for 2014 is $12.8 million.
“I am excited to join an organization that supports independent journalists throughout the world—even those reporting under extremely difficult circumstances—in the hard task of informing people about what really goes on in their societies and why,” Ronderos said.
Ronderos is a renowned journalist and political scientist from Colombia that in 2008 founded VerdadAbierta.com, a website focused on the armed conflict in her country. She is a columnist at the Colombian newspaper El Espectador and was editor-in-chief at the country's top investigative magazine, Semana. Her investigations have earned her national awards like the Simón Bolívar and CPB ,and the international awards King of Spain, the European Union's Lorenzo Natali and the Maria Moors Cabot.
Ronderos also has ample experience as a journalism instructor. She has taught several courses through the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas' Distance Learning platform, including the Knight Center's first Massive Open Online Course (or MOOC) "How to Improve Electoral Coverage," which was offered last year.
The OSF is a philantropic organization founded by investor George Soros that seeks to promote participative democracies around the world. It has supported several of the Knight Center's initiatives.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
