7/30/2004: Tomorrow begins the second round of the ground-breaking School of Authentic Journalism, sponsored by Narco News, in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Since last year's meeting of over 40 revolutionary minds, including students, scholars and professors from all over América, the J-School has doubled in size, with 35 authentic journalists receiving scholarships to muckrake their way straight through the barriers set up by transnational corporate media plunderers. Several IMCista journalists will be on the teaching staff this year, with the curriculum fanning out into a true multi-media frenzy. Radio, video, print, philosophy, investigation & fact-checking, interviewing, and web workshops will be offered around the clock.

Last year's J-School coverage of the "Out from the Shadows" Drug Policy Summit in Mérida, Mexico, worked hard to uncover the realities of the US-led War on Drugs, straight from the mouths of the campesinos, policy makers, government aides, and activists in the belly of the beast. This year's campus will be split between Cochabamba, Bolivia and the Chapare region, with students hearing straight from the cocaleros who have been most affected by the US's aggressive eradication policies. Stay tuned tonight at midnight, or 9 pm PST, for the first of several LIVE radio programs from somewhere in América, with interviews with former Brazilian drug czar Walter Fanganiello Maierovitch, radical feminist, author and coca-leaf expert Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui and indigenous leader Evo Morales. LISTEN HERE.

Update - 8/4/04: NarcoNews will be broadcasting its final dispatch this eafternoon, starting at 3pm PST. Join J-School radio students Manuela Aldabe, Daniel Fleming, Karla Aguilar, Maria Eugenia Flores Castro, Vladimir Flores García, Gissel Gonzales, Leny Olivera Rojas, Quetzal Belmont and Litzie Escobar as they air their first compilations. Tonight's webcast will begin with a two-hour long broadcast from yesterday. NarcoNews students put together a special broadcast for Radio Soberania, the radio station beamed into the homes of 95% of the jungle population in the Chapare, at 250,000 watts. The students crammed into the tiny offices of the radio studio, and as Karla Aguilar skillfully hosted, their voices drifted out to the children playing in the skeleton of what will soon be a new local television station next door. We will replay their broadcast this afternoon, and follow it with updates and interviews by the students themselves.
First Dispatch from the J-School: "The War for Defense of the Truth" | IMC Coverage of Last Year's J-School & "Out from the Shadows" Summit | The Fund for Authentic Journalism | The NarcoSphere | Salón Chingón | Recent Free Speech Radio News Story about Coca Farmers Organizing