Forty-six politicians and journalists from as far away as Viqueque gathered on June 17, 2003 in Dili at a conference organized by Internews and the International Republican Institute (IRI) to discuss achieving balance in political news in East Timor. Internews worked with IRI to facilitate the workshop to enable members of the media and opposition politicians to get to know each other better and ease difficulties of communication between the two groups. Traditionally, journalists and politicians have been at loggerheads across the world, both feeling poorly treated by the other. The main purpose of the day was to move forward, not necessarily to reach agreement on all issues, but to reach a better understanding of each other’s viewpoints.

The conference aimed to help the two groups with three objectives:
· to achieve shared strategies for improving political debate
· to assist each other to be more effective in their roles as journalists and opposition politicians
· to encourage balanced political reporting in order to strengthen democracy in East Timor.

USAID-East Timor supports Internews and IRI in their activities to strengthen democratic institutions and political parties and improve the quality of information disseminated by East Timor’s independent media.