Screenshots

Yesterday, global media company Reuters announced a major financial contribution to the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, where Global Voices Online (Global Voices) is based.

This contribution has allowed Global Voices to hire a full time managing editor, Rachel Rawlins, to continue supporting a team of regional editors and translators, to provide better coverage of content in languages like Arabic and Russian.

Reuters has been supporting Global Voices efforts since late last year, when they hosted the annual Global Voices Summit at their global headquarters at Canary Wharf in London.

Global Voices co-founder Ethan Zuckerman says support from Reuters will also allow Global Voices to do more outreach and training in parts of the world where there are currently few bloggers.

"We’re especially excited about the relationship because we see a great opportunity to help Reuters - and the global media community as a whole - to understand blogging better and the impact of Citizen’s Media on the world of journalism," Zuckerman adds.

Recently, Global Voices worked with Reuters on their recent Iraq Newsmakers event, where bloggers from the Middle East participated in a conference in New York via streamed video and IRC, asking journalists tough questions about whether media coverage of Iraq has been fair.

"In the near future, you’ll see content by Global Voices editors and contributors appearing on Reuters websites, providing additional information and context to some Reuters newswire stories," says Zuckerman.

It's a milestone for mainstream media and bloggers alike. As a founding blogger at Global Voices, I am delighted with the development.

Read Global Voices announcement here.