Lebedev backs launch of Journalism Foundation
The Journalism Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation intended to promote, develop and sustain free and fair journalism internationally has been launched.
Backed by the Lebedev family, owners of the Independent and London Evening Standard, the organisations first challenge will be to teach journalists in Tunisia how to report in a free and open society.
A grass roots website, www.pitsnspots.co.uk, is also being supported in a bid to increase interest in local politics within Stoke-on-Trent.
Commenting on the launch of the organisation Lord Ashdown said: “There could not be a better time for an organisation like this to be set up to ensure we get the balance right between strengthening what is best in journalism and rejecting what we all now know to be bad.”
The Foundations chief executive, Simon Kelner, former editor-in-chief of The Independent, said: “I am delighted to lead this new body, which will show that journalism can be a force for good by supporting initiatives that have a direct and positive effect on people’s lives.”