'Standard' journalist wins top US fellowship

Mark Oloo, a journalist with The Standard, has been awarded this year's World Press Institute fellowship in the US.

This is a prestigious media programme that brings together 10 journalists each year from around the world to spend time in US newsrooms and attend scheduled meetings with top journalists, policy experts, political and business leaders.

Mr Oloo, an editor with The Standard weekend editions, is the second Kenyan in 25 years to be awarded this fellowship since it was started in 1961.

He will be joined in the programme by nine other senior journalists from Afghanistan, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, England, Finland, Germany, Poland and Russia. The 2017 fellows will visit Washington DC, New York, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta and Florida, with stints at The New York Times, CNN and Washington Post among other top US media houses.

The journalists will also go through a demanding schedule of study at the University of St Thomas' journalism school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The programme begins in mid-August and ends in late October.