WAN Director General Timothy Balding (left) and Norske Skog CEO Jan Reinås at the signing ceremony

The Norway-based Norske Skog, one of the world’s leading suppliers of newsprint and magazine paper, will contribute 12.7 million Norwegian Kroners (1.74 million dollars) to develop Newspapers in Education (NIE) projects with WAN, particularly in the developing world.

"WAN has long been convinced of the profound importance of NIE for our societies and our business and has been working to spread the concept throughout the world, and particularly to developing nations and those making the difficult transition to democracy," said Timothy Balding, the Director General of the Paris-based association, the global organisation of the world’s press.

"This fantastic new commitment by Norske Skog to become a strong partner with WAN in promoting and building NIE globally gives a powerful boost to our ambitions and activities in this sector," he said.

The cooperation agreement is aimed at encouraging young people, teachers and schools to use newspapers and magazines in education, said Jan Reinås, the CEO of Norske Skog, which sees promotion of education as central to its programme of corporate social responsibility.

"This cooperation will take place through WAN’s organisation, Newspapers in Education," said Mr. Reinås. "NIE’s members have achieved significant results in making printed publications a natural part of the school day for students all over the world."

Among the early priorities of the partnership is to develop a strategy for NIE expansion in the Balkans and in Asia and to develop materials for starting NIE programmes, including NIE "kits" for teachers in local languages.

Through its NIE and Young Reader programmes, WAN organises international co-operation to encourage newspaper reading among the young. It supports the creation and development of NIE activities worldwide and conducts a wide variety of programmes aimed at increasing literacy and strengthening democracy.

The programmes have several objectives:

  to aid the acquisition of knowledge and of analytical skills, by introducing newspapers into the classroom as teaching tools;

  to teach understanding and appreciation of the role of newspapers in a democratic society and the fundamental values of free expression, debate, tolerance and openness for which the press stands;

  to promote citizenship, rights and responsibilities, sensitivity to religious and ethnic differences, and to increase the ability to deal with negative emotions and resolve conflict peacefully;

  to encourage reading, and particularly the reading of newspapers and magazines, not only for the development of the industry but also because a free press, widely read, is fundamental to the democratic process.

WAN defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 72 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 13 news agencies and ten regional and world-wide press groups.

Norske Skog is a leading global supplier of publication paper with activities in 15 countries on five continents. It is the world’s second largest producer of newsprint and third largest producer of magazine paper.

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 7, rue Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, 75005 Paris, France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr