VOL. 22, NO. 16	FEBRUARY 28, 1997

By Fred Knubel

Rhoda Lipton

ournalism Professor Rhoda Lipton left last week for Eastern Europe on a six-month Knight Fellowship to teach journalists the principles of press freedom and help newly independent news organizations succeed.

"There is still de facto censorship there," she said in a recent interview. "You can't change that mindset overnight. But we're a model--our school and the ideal of journalism it teaches. Young people over there need to understand better how a free press operates. And many small television news operations need advice on how to survive."

Lipton is headed for Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, bringing to her task 18 years of experience as a television news producer and three as a Columbia professor.

She will teach in Charles University in Prague during her first three months. At the same time she will advise newly privatized television news organizations on content, production and the responsibilities of a burgeoning free press and on marketing, promotion and commercial sponsorship.

Later, she will travel to Bratislava, Budapest and Bucharest to lecture and further advise local stations.

"I'll teach undergraduates and conduct a television journalism workshop for professionals," she said. "These are people who have lived and worked under quite another system. I'll try to convey to students the concept of interviewing and covering news conferences, and the idea of a 'Nightline' or a 'Brinkley.' Television is moving very quickly in these countries."

All of her travel and living expenses will be met by the Knight International Press Fellowship Program, which sends American professionals abroad to help strengthen the independent press in emerging democracies. Hers is one of 11 fellowships announced last month, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and administered by the International Center for Journalists, in Washington, D.C. She will return in August to resume her Journalism School teaching in the fall semester.

Lipton, a 1976 graduate of the Journalism School, is an assistant professor who joined the faculty in 1994 after 14 years as a producer for ABC News. The trip will be her second to Eastern Europe. In 1982, she covered the Pope's visit to Poland and worked stories in Prague and other cities.