Many Timorese people suffer a “significant information drought” isolating them from national development, says a New Zealand media monitoring mission. The impoverished country, which elected a coalition government of “national unity” in a peaceful parliamentary ballot late last month, needs substantial investment in resources and training to build a sustainable media. Image: Dili newspaper reader … media distribution a problem. Photo by David Robie.

The NZ mission – leader Dr Judy McGregor, Shona Geary, Clive Lind, Tapu Misa, Dr David Robie and Walter Zweifel, supported by the NZ Electoral Commission’s Peter Northcote - found a universal call by journalists, news media organisations, electoral agencies, politicians and political parties for training and development to build “journalistic capacity and confidence”.

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