(2011 Nieman Fellow Hollman Morris Rincón talks to Nieman Foundation curator Bob Giles)

Good news for Latin American journalists, advocates of free press and communications scholars alike: today the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University announced Knight Foundation’s support of the Knight Latin American Nieman Fellowship to include experimental fieldwork projects that help discover new ways to inform and engage communities.

Knight Foundation has supported Nieman in its goal to encourage journalistic excellence and freedom of the press in Latin America for over 20 years.  Now, with a grant totaling nearly $200,000, Knight will provide Latin American fellows with the opportunity to pursue projects at the end of their yearlong fellowships at Nieman.  Projects will focus on providing deeper coverage of important stories, creating new journalistic enterprises or researching policies and their impact.

“We hope the field projects allow the fellows to put their learning into practice, giving them an opportunity for greater impact and to demonstrate engagement in their own communities,” said Knight’s Amy Lawrence, journalism program associate at Knight Foundation, in a release this morning.

The first to benefit from the new backing will be Claudia Méndez Arriaza, a writer, editor and television host from Guatemala, and Carlos Eduardo Huertas, an investigative reporter and editor from Colombia.  During the 2011-12 academic year, Méndez Arriaza will explore the impact of the law in emerging democracies and the study the links between American Literature and Latin American culture.  Huertas will focus his studies on designing a journalism center to fit the needs of international investigations in Latin America.

To read more about their individual projects as they develop, visit at the program’s site. For more information about Knight’s commitment to promoting informed and engaged communities through journalism and media innovation, check out http://knightfoundation.org/what-we-fund/innovating-media.