International media development charity the Thomson Foundation is moving from Cardiff to London and has announced two senior appointments.
Bettina Peters jolins as development director and Hosam El Nagar as operations director in this, the charity's 50th year.
Here is the press release in full:
London, Monday, October 22nd. Thomson Foundation, the international media development charity, has appointed two new directors and moved its HQ from Cardiff to London as part of a re-launch.
Bettina Peters has joined the foundation as Development Director and Hosam El Nagar as Operations Director, reporting to Chief Executive Nigel Baker.
They join the organisation in its 50th year, as it plans to expand its operations and influence across Africa, Asia and the Middle East – with the aim of helping the growing numbers of people entering journalism through digital platforms.
Said Nigel Baker: “Bettina and Hosam will be excellent additions to the management team. Bettina has significant international experience in journalism training and development, whilst Hosam is an accomplished media professional with experience in the editorial and business fields of news production.
“This is an exciting time to join the foundation. We are moving from Cardiff back to London, to a base which will be more convenient for our clients and closer to our key stakeholders.
“In tandem with the move, we are re-launching our website and updating our brand. It’s important we widen our approach to training and consultancy to support the growing number of individuals and organisations entering digital journalism.“Whatever changes we make we will be sticking rigidly to the journalistic principles of independence, truthfulness and honesty and our mission to help all types of media to strive for excellence and improve their engagement with the public.”Bettina Peters was previously director of the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), a membership network launched in 2008 to bring together media assistance organisations from around the globe.
At the GFMD Bettina led the organisation’s activities and coordinated the GFMD’s efforts to promote recognition of the key role media play in strengthening democratic development.
Before joining GFMD, Bettina worked as the director of programmes at the European Journalism Centre, where she was in charge of EJC’s programme of media support and journalism training.
From 1990 until 2002 Bettina worked at the International Federation of Journalists, where she set up the IFJ’s Project Division. She was responsible for the IFJ’s global programme on media development and capacity-building for journalists’ organisations, in particular in Africa and Eurasia.
Hosam joins the Foundation from the Associated Press (AP) news agency where he was editorial and assignment manager in the Middle Eastern Services department, which provides customized news coverage for Arabic-language TV channels.
He held a variety of senior roles in the department, and managed the production of coverage of large-scale events such as the Arab Spring in Cairo, Yasser Arafat’s funeral and the first Iraqi elections post Saddam.
He earlier worked as a freelance writer, cameraman/editor and newsroom producer and managed the start-up of an entire TV news channel for an Arabic-language broadcaster operating from AP premises.
From November, the Thomson Foundation’s new address is 46, Chancery Lane, London, WC2A IJB. The foundation’s new website will be launched at the same time as the move.
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