This project conducted training, with the emphasis on print media, at the University of Phnom Penh for young journalists from Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar, where media restrictions are considered to be stricter than in Cambodia. A total of three training sessions were held: two in the first year (October-December, 2000 and January-March, 2001) and one in the second year (July-September, 2001). In addition to international relations, reporting and interviewing, desktop publishing, and other technical aspects of journalism, the trainees studied such basic principles as the elimination of subjectivity and the presentation of differing opinions. They were also instructed in news website design and other facets of information technology.
The instructors included two veteran American journalists with experience as reporters for the Seattle Times and other U.S. newspapers and a staff writer from the Cambodia Daily. There were also guest lecturers with editorial experience at the Los Angeles Times and Time. In this way efforts were made to return to the basics of journalism and provide as broad a range of views as possible. The instructors shared their wealth of experience with the trainees, up-and-coming young journalists, mainly in their twenties, representing such media as the Vientiane Times, the Vietnam News Agency, and the Myanmar Times. It is especially noteworthy that the trainees included six journalists from Myanmar, where there is no opportunity for such training.
As well as receiving classroom instruction, the trainees took part in field training, conducting interviews in Cambodia's ancient capital Angkor Wat and in Kampot and in a small town in the north. Later, to wrap up their training, the young journalists wrote English-language articles that were published in the Cambodia Daily. After returning home some of them also wrote articles that were published in their own countries, such as "Historical Overview of Cambodia-Myanmar Relations," published in the Myanmar Weekly in May 2001.