Nieman Foundation Names New Fellows

The six foreign journalists named to join 11 Americans as Nieman Fellows yesterday expressed amazement over Harvard's beauty and resources but said they would do more here than sightsee and read books.

Enjoying a crowded Nieman House garden party in their honor, the new Fellows shared their initial impressions of Cambridge with prominent Bostonians and members of the Faculty such as John Kenneth Galbraith, Warburg Professor of Economics Emeritus, and David Riesman '31, Ford Professor of Social Sciences Emeritus.

"This is a place much better than anyone could have imagined. People are so open, so friendly and helpful," Piero Benetazzo, a correspondent for La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper, said.

Benetazzo plans to study American and Soviet foreign policy during the year-long fellowship and said he will use his research to help explain relations between the superpowers to his readers.

"We don't really understand the Reagan politics, and at the same time we are worried about Soviet expansion," he said.

South African Censorship

Ameen Akhalwaya, a political reporter with the Rand Daily Mail of Johannesburg, South Africa, echoed the praise for Harvard, but said his activities here are related to a more immediate confrontation than the one between Washington and Moscow.

One of the few non-white journalists in his country, Akhalwaya, who is of Indian heritage, said he will speak out on campus about apartheid and racial oppression in South Africa. Upon his return to his home, however, Akhalwaya said "it is only a matter of time" before he will be censored and perhaps arrested by the government, as other non-white journalists have been in recent months.

Initially, Akhalwaya planned to stick to a curriculum of constitutional history while here, but he said the recent banning of a close colleague--the sixth in a matter of months--changed his outlook.

"This makes me so damned angry, and one cannot be a coward and allow this to be forgotten," he said.

Family Hijinx

Ram Loevy, senior director of Israeli television in Tel Aviv, said he "didn't want to touch the Israeli-Arab conflict...I'm fed up with it." Instead he will concentrate on comparable conflicts among other groups and plans to study psychology, music and fine arts.

Before getting down to work, though, Loevy said he will face what could turn into the most difficult challenge of the entire stay: "My daughters getting used to the new language, the food, the teachers, everything."

The newly appointed Fellows, whose stay at the University is funded by non-Harvard sources, are members of the 44th Nieman class.