Residents across East Timor will soon be listening to a new kind of program on their community radio stations. Fourteen journalists from 10 community radio stations have recently completed a training course on producing and hosting live talk shows.

Radio is the media with the farthest reach in East Timor. About 60% of East Timor's 925,000 residents receive information by radio. Television is limited to the capital, Dili, and the two daily newspapers do not always reach even the district capitals. In a country with illiteracy rates reaching more than 60% in some places, radio plays a vital role in dissemination of information and news.

The recent radio talk show training course was run by Internews, an international non-governmental organization that specializes in training journalists. The course for community radio journalists followed a successful training program for eight journalists from the national radio broadcaster, Radio Timor-Leste. Before the training, few community radio stations produced regular talk show programming.

"Talk shows are an important type of program for community radio in Timor-Leste because they are cheap and easy to produce, and journalists can interview guests from the local community," explained Firmansyah MS, the training manager for Internews. "Talk shows are also an important forum for empowering society."

The training course included a very practical component: the journalists produced their first talk show. The program focuses on HIV/AIDS and features two of East Timor's top health experts. The show is being distributed to community radio stations for broadcast across the country.

USAID supports Internews as an implementing partner in its support of good governance practices in East Timor. Independent media organizations with skills to develop relevant and engaging programs encourage citizen participation and promote open and accountable government.