UTS camera donations put East Timorese journalism students in the frame

Abilio Soares, a recent graduate of the UTS, flew back to East Timor at the weekend with a useful ­donation: 10 video cameras.

An East Timorese journalism student trains using equipment donated by University of Technology, Sydney.

Abilio Soares, a recent graduate of the University of Technology Sydney, flew back to East Timor last weekend with a useful ­donation: 10 video cameras.

An East Timorese national, Mr Soares said the cameras — don­ated by UTS — would be gratefully received by the ­National University of East Timor (UNTL), where they would be used to teach journalism students.

Many East Timorese had televisions these days and although most watched broadcasts from ­Indonesia, Mr Soares said it was important for them to see the local news in their own language as well. “These cameras will be very useful to let the East Timorese people know what is happening,” he said.

Mr Soares, a recent UTS master’s graduate in media arts and production, has been contracted by UNESCO to provide three weeks’ training for 70 students and 13 UNTL staff on how to use the cameras. This equipment don­ation follows a gift of video cam­eras in 2016, and UTS academics visited East Timor in 2016 and last year to teach local students how best to use the cameras and craft news stories and packages.

This latest batch of cameras, JVC HD with SD card recorders, had become obsolete according to current Australian industry standards, and UTS updated its camera equipment every five to seven years, said Miguel Valenzuela, the university’s MediaLab video co-ordinator.

He said the idea of donating to East Timor first came up in 2016, when Mr Soares was finishing his degree. “We got chatting and came round to the idea that maybe UNTL could use the equipment,” Mr Valenzuela said.

“I went over for the first time in 2016. We ran a week of workshops and classes: train the trainer classes and actual training for students. After the week’s training, they became proficient in using the cameras. It was mostly technical training in trying to get them up to speed with the equipment, with the understanding they would then be learning how to film packages through their courses with UNTL.”

Mr Valenzuela said seeing students at the UTS campus benefit from their access to quality equipment and then go on to develop their skills and move into the ­industry had been the inspiration for the donation.

“Knowing the history of Australian involvement in Timor, and the underlying relationship that’s valued by the Timorese, we thought we should be mindful of that,” he said.