Trusting News partnering with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Central Asia
We’re excited today to announce a new partnership with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The partnership will focus on creating a cohort for five Central Asian news services within RFE/RL with the goal of helping the journalists better share and explain who they are and what their news values are to their communities.
The five Central Asian RFE/RL services are:
RFE/RL is an international news organization funded by the U.S. Congress with a unique mission: It is meant to serve as a “surrogate” local public service media organization in countries where there is no such service. In most of the countries they serve, a free press is banned by the government or not fully established. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has put a spotlight on these very issues and has directly impacted RFE/RL.
The Trusting News team previously worked with RFE/RL to achieve similar goals in two different countries. Those newsrooms were:
- Szabad Európa, RFE/RL’s Hungarian Service
- Two regional media projects of RFE/RL’S Russian Service: Siberia.Realities serving Siberia and North.Realities serving northern Russia.
Read more about the work in Hungary and Russia in this Medium post.
Through this partnership, Trusting News will help the journalists introduce (and in some cases reintroduce) themselves to their communities while reinforcing their news values and what makes them trustworthy. A major focus will be on the importance of local voices and helping the newsrooms share the message about who their journalists are: locals reporting on local issues.
This work will include helping the newsrooms revamp and enhance their “About Us” pages as well as assisting the journalists with creating content reflecting their goals, values and mission that can be shared publicly on their social accounts and in their news products.
At Trusting News, beyond our Newsroom Partner Program, our classes, and other free support, we also are available on a limited basis for paid consulting work with newsrooms. This work falls into that category.
The Trusting News and RFE/RL partnership is estimated to last six months and will involve regular meetings and feedback from the Trusting News team as well as the journalists themselves. The newsrooms will work together in a cohort, to encourage them to brainstorm ideas as a group. Those ideas will be focused on how to best create and distribute their revamped mission, values and trust strategies.
RFE/RL publishes in 27 languages across 23 countries. They employ more than 600 full-time journalists and 1,300 freelancers. While Trusting News will be working with smaller teams of reporters and editors within this large organization, communicating who each news service is will also involve communicating about the larger organization they are part of and receive funding from. It also will involve journalists being willing to talk about their history in the regions and navigate a complicated — and sometimes dangerous — reality for journalists.
Are you ready to build trust with the people you aim to serve?
This partnership represents one way Trusting News offers support and training for journalists and news organizations. Other ways Trusting News can help journalists build trust include:
- Trust Tips. Our newsletter provides one quick, actionable tip for earning trust each Tuesday. See highlights and sign up here.
- Our example database. We have hundreds of examples showing how newsrooms are using trust strategies in their journalism.
- Our resources page. It includes step-by-step guides, suggested language to use in your journalism, video explanations, research highlights and more.
- Quick advice. If you or your newsroom has a specific challenge, goal or project related to building (or rebuilding) trust or want advice on how to respond to users criticizing your values or ethics, email us at info@TrustingNews.org.
- Online, self-paced trust class. In partnership with Poynter, Trusting News has a free course to help you build trust with your community. (There is an international version, too!)
- Speaking/training. Ask us to speak to your newsroom or help your staff brainstorm ideas. We’re also available to speak to industry groups. Reach out for options and rates at info@TrustingNews.org.
At Trusting News, we learn how people decide what news to trust and turn that knowledge into actionable strategies for journalists. We train and empower journalists to take responsibility for demonstrating credibility and actively earning trust through transparency and engagement. We’re co-hosted by the Reynolds Journalism Institute and the American Press Institute. Subscribe to our Trust Tips newsletter. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Read more about our work at TrustingNews.org.
