CAIRO, December 14, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has launched a program to invite foreign journalists to the United States to attend seminars at a number of American universities and watch journalists at work, with observers believing the target to be improving a deeply bruised image, especially among Muslims.

"The Department of State is determined to forge partnerships with our private sector so that Americans of all stripes, all traditions, all ethnic groups and also all walks of life might be able to help to carry the story of democratic progress and the progress of liberty," Rice said Tuesday, December 13, at a press conference. "We especially look forward to working with our partners."

"Our Edward R. Murrow Journalism Fellows Program will invite 100 international media professionals to engage with journalists and participate in leading journalism schools here in the United States," Rice added, according to a press release on the event from the State Department and the Aspen Institute.

The foreign journalists will attend seminars "on journalistic principles" and have the opportunity " to observe the US press in action."

Under Secretary Karen Hughes, Assistant Secretary Dina Habib Powell, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute Walter Isaacson, and Dean of the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication Geoffrey Cowan attended the launch.

"Sixty years ago, the US was faced with a wholly new global challenge to freedom: the spread of communism," said Isaacson.

"Our nation's leaders responded with a new doctrine and a set of innovative institutions that wove together America's interests with its ideals, such as the Marshall Plan, the World Bank, NATO and the UN. Now, we are faced with a new and serious challenge in the 21st century, that of fanatical terrorism.

"Once again, it requires a doctrine that weaves together our idealism and our realism. I hope this journalism program we are launching today can become part of this historic effort."

"Democracy cannot work without the free flow of information and ideas that is made possible through an independent and effective press," said Cowan.

"The Murrow Program adds an exciting and important new component to those that the USIA and State Department have offered in the past. It harnesses the resources of American journalism schools. All of our schools expect the international journalists to learn from our courses -- and we all expect our students to learn from our visitors."

Hughes' and Powell's appointment earlier this year followed reports from inside the US administration as well as from policy institutes and universities warning that in the last few years American standing in the world, particularly in Islamic countries, has plummeted to new lows.

Hughes helps ensure that public diplomacy is practiced in harmony with public affairs and traditional diplomacy to advance US interests and security and to provide the moral basis for US leadership in the world, US State Department said.

Dina Habib Powell was nominated by President Bush to be Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs in April and Secretary Rice has also designated her as Deputy Under Secretary and principal deputy to Hughes.

The first foreign trip of Hughes, which took her to the Middle East, was dubbed "absurd" by a US analyst, casting heavy doubts on possibilities of success in her job to improve a badly tarnished US image abroad, specially in Arab and Muslim countries.