Contact:
Nils Mulvad, nils.mulvad@dicar.dk
Brant Houston, brant@ire.org

Aug. 15, 2003

The Danish Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting has won a three-year grant of more than 5.8 million kroner (nearly $900,000) from the European Social Fund.

DICAR trains journalists in computer-assisted reporting techniques and has partnered with the U.S.-based Investigative Reporters and Editors in sponsoring two Global Investigative Journalism Conferences. It is also one of the founding organizations involved in a new international network of investigative reporting groups.

The European Social Fund, a past supporter of DICAR, is an organization through which the European Union seeks to build employment and job skills in member nations.

"There is concern that media organizations are falling behind in the use of computer technology and that training money isn't there to change the trend," said Nils Mulvad, executive director of DICAR.

With this grant, DICAR will concentrate on taking about 100 Danish journalists who already have CAR skills or interests and raise their abilities to a higher level.

"DICAR's involvement with other international journalism groups will provide a forum for sharing the results of the project," said Mulvad.

DICAR, based at the Danish School of Journalism in Arhus, Denmark, was founding in 1999 to train journalists in computer-assisted reporting, but also to encourage access to electronic records kept by government agencies.