Week 1

Former journalists Victoria Brittain and Patsy Robertson led a weeklong programme exploring an overview of the themes that were to follow in the next five weeks. The majority of the guest lecturers were journalists thus allowing an opportunity to discuss issues in the context of how journalists relate to them.

Dr. James Putzel, Director of the LSE Crisis States Programme and Dr. Tim Allen, Reader in Development Studies at the LSE, launched the programme Monday morning with a warm welcome to the Fellows. Lyndsay Ross from the Commonwealth Press Union discussed the state of the media in the East African Region. Laurence Cockcroft, Founder and Member of Transparency International UK addressed the theme ‘Accountability, Corruption and Civil Society in Africa’. In the afternoon there was a discussion of Economics as Coercion led by Joseph Hanlon from Open University. The day concluded with a discussion among the Fellows of their role and responsibility at work drawing context from the earlier presentations.

Tuesday John Snow from ITV and Ewen Macaskill, the Guardian Diplomatic Editor, discussed perceptions of Africa, context and contrasts of Western and local media. In the afternoon Dr. Stephan Chan from the School of Oriental and Africa studies addressed the relationship between the quality of government and the quality of journalism.

Wednesday morning opened with Myles Wickstead, Head of Secretariat of the Commission for Africa discussing ‘Issues for the Continent: Governance, Economics and Development’. In the afternoon Agnes Callemard from Article 19 discussed human rights and gender while Michael Holman the Financial Times Africa Editor provoked the journalists with a presentation entitled ‘How Does it Feel to be a Problem?’. The day concluded with a welcome reception for the journalists, research assistants and contributors at the Stanhope Centre.

On Thursday morning Ahmaed Rajab, Editor of Africa Analysis, Derek Ingram, former Editor of Gemeni News Service and John Barker of Article 19 discussed the state of the media in Africa- ‘Private press, government controls, self-censorship, impact of the internet, does the media mirror society?’. In the afternoon Abdel Bari Atwan, Editor of Al Quds, addressed how the Arab media broke from the Western mould and set another agenda. We concluded with a visit to the LSE library to register.

Patrick Smith, Editor of Africa Confidential, opened Friday morning discussing the ‘new’ shape of the world post- September 11th. In the afternoon Victoria Brittain and Patsy Robertson reviewed the journalists work and led a discussion reviewing the week and looking forward.

Week 2

During the following two weeks we explored issues of international political economy and discussed how to use these themes to contextualise, deepen and expand analytic thinking during reporting.

Jonathan Di John, lecturer at the LSE, opened by framing the issues to follow in his lecture entitled ‘The Political Economy of Statebuilding in Poor Countries: Which Way Forward? In the afternoon Richard Dowden, former journalist and Director of the Royal Africa Society shared his experiences as a journalist with the Fellows.

Tuesday morning we opened with our first seminars. The Fellows were divided into two groups- one group met with Chris Dolan and discussed the lectures and readings while the other group met with Nicole Stremlau to share experiences and comparatively discuss regional media situations. In the afternoon Professor Christopher Clapham from Cambridge discussed East Africa's International Relations.

Presentation by the BBC at Bush House

Dr. Tim Allen gave a presentation on Wednesday morning discussing the role of the media in post-war situations and exploring instances when restricting the media may be beneficial. In the afternoon Dr. Allen led a debate between the Fellows- one group arguing for greater media restrictions in a post-war environment while the other group suggesting that a free and uncontrolled media was the way forward. The day concluded with a dinner at Tim's house.

Thursday Dr. David Styan of Birkbeck discussed ‘Reporting Economics in the Horn of Africa. In the afternoon we all visited AFFORD for a discussion with Onyekachi Wambu on the African Diaspora in London and issues of the Diaspora in general.

Friday followed up on some of the themes discussed at Afford. Dr. Gaim Kibreab from South Bank lectured on refugee issues, specifically host governments' attitudes towards refugees in Africa and the rationales that underpin them. Chris and Nicole held seminars in the afternoon.

Week 3

Monday was dedicated to the BBC. In the morning Stephan Whittle, Controller of
Editorial Policy at the BBC came to Stanhope to meet with the Fellows. In the afternoon we headed over to Bush House to meet with the BBC Trust and later headed over to the Africa section to sit in on the afternoon broadcast of Focus on Africa and to meet with Joseph Warangu and colleagues. The day culminated with visits to the various East Africa sections including the Swahili and Somali sections.

Outside Bush House

Our lectures and discussions on Tuesday focused on health issues- particurally HIV/AIDS. Professor Tony Barnett, Director of the LSE AIDS programme gave a presentation in the morning and Professor Alan Fenwick of Imperial College discussed issues relating to parasites. Tim Allen joined us as well and in the afternoon gave a short presentation and led a seminar on health communications focusing on what has worked in Uganda but failed in Botswana. Peter Piot, Director of UNAIDS gave an evening lecture at the LSE.

On Wednesday, Suzanne Franks discussed issues of Media, Conflict and NGO's and reflected on Band Aid 20 years later. We watched part of the Hunger Business and discussed the role of NGO intervention. In the afternoon we had a site visit to Save the Children where we were able to put some of our questions to the test and learn more about what projects this NGO was involved in.

Thursday Jon Lunn came to talk on the power of justice and justice as power, reflecting on his involvement in the international human rights movement. We held seminars in the afternoon.

On Friday morning we headed over to the Guardian for a tour and to learn more about various aspects of the paper. Several of our Fellows that are Editors were able to sit in on the Editorial meeting. In the afternoon we headed over for a visit to Parliament and to learn more about how the British government operates.

Saturday morning we held our second LSE-Stanhope Fellowship lecture at Goodenough College. In the evening we had a dinner with dancing at Nicole's house.

Week 4

Monday marked the start of our focus on economics. Jan Toporowski from SOAS held his first lecture with us on Economic Development and Poverty Alleviation focusing on the purposes of economic development in 'poor' countries and looking at the beneficiaries of economic development and the social consequences. We held two seminars in the afternoon with Nicole and Miatta Fahnbulleh who focused on reviewing economic concepts.

Tuesday we opened with a lecture by Mushtaq Khan from SOAS taking a critical look at corruption issues and the good governance agenda. In the afternoon we held seminars.

There was some time on Wednesday morning for the Fellows to catch up on their readings or go to the LSE library. In the afternoon we met with some members of Diana Weinhold's class for a debate on debt relief. Dr. Weinhold gave us a brief lecture and then some of the class argued that debt relief was likely to be beneficial while others suggested that there were circumstances where it might not be as helpful as commonly thought.

Thursday Dr. Toporowski gave a lecture on the World Bank and IMF.

On Friday we examined issues of Globalisation with Dr. Toporowski and asked whether globalisation is a force for good or the new imperialism as well as examining whether Africa's regional economic integration could promote development. We held seminars in the afternoon.

On Saturday we went up to Bath for some sightseeing.

Week 5

Monday morning Jan Toporowski opened with a look at trade as a means to development with a focus on environmental and social consequences. In the afternoon there were seminars. We hosted the final LSE -Stanhope Fellows seminar at the LSE in the late afternoon.

On Tuesday with Dr. Toporowski we looked at economic policy making for development including institutional capacity for making and implementing economic policy. Monroe Price came for lunch and hosted a discussion. We concluded with seminars in the afternoon.

Wednesday was dedicated to discussing issues of Information technology and development. We began by looking at the possible economic impact IT promises, questioning the extent to which such a link exists. Kenneth Cukier, technology correspondent for the Economist joined us in the afternoon. We spent the rest of the day preparing with a mock press conference for Thursday's meeting on the Africa Commission.

The Africa Commission hosted a meeting at Lancaster House on Thursday. The fellows were able to have interviews with the commissioners as well as an exclusive press conference just for journalists from Africa with Prime Minister Tony Blair. The day of briefings was concluded with a reception.

On Friday the Stanhope Centre hosted a conference on the media in Zimbabwe which was organised by Dr. William Mano of the University of Westminster. The conference was to debate the topic of reporting Zimbabwe before and after 2000. The aim was to examine how Zimbabwe has been reported in Zimbabwean and African mass media and to assess the coverage of Zimbabwe in the global mass media.

Saturday Elliott Green led those that were interested on a trip to the National Archives in Kew Gardens.

Week 6

On Monday we took part in a global media monitoring projects looking at gender in the media. Our task consisted of carrying out a content analysis a lunchtime news programme. Paula Glassman led an afternoon screening and discussion a film of the Israeli and Palestinian conflict.

Tuesday morning William Gumede came and discussed his new book on Thabo Mbeki as well as the mandate and challenges facing the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). In the afternoon we had several visitors from the Institute for Media Diversity and the Open Society Institute come discuss collaborating with the Fellows on different projects. Our evening concluded with a musical.

On Wednesday we headed up to Oxford for a visit with the African Studies Centre. The Fellows gave a presentation at St. Antonys College. Dan Branch led us around Oxford and we had a brief stop at PCMLP.

We spent much of the day reflecting on the Fellowship, looking at where we are now and what the way forward could be. Resolutions were made to continue the network, and begin various collaborative projects including an East African Union of Journalists that Adil is taking the lead on. The LSE management consultants came to carry out a final evaluation in the afternoon and we prepared for the closing reception. Professor James Putzel distributed the awards and we held an open mic session that Edward opened with a poem and song and several others followed.

Friday and Saturday were departures.