ISSUE

Summer 2009

Iran: Can Its Stories Be Told?

Journalists — Iranians and Westerners — share their firsthand experiences as they write about the challenges they confront in gathering and distributing news and information about Iran and its people. Their words and images offer a rare blend of insights about journalists’ lives and work in Iran. In the fifth part of our 21st Century Muckrakers series about investigative and watchdog reporting, the focus turns to coverage of issues involving public health, safety and trust. And in Words & Reflections, essays touch on objectivity, religion, blogging, Ireland and post 9/11 America.

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Articles

21st Century Muckrakers

Watchdogging Public Corruption: A Newspaper Unearths Patterns of Costly Abuse

‘These are tumultuous and frightening times for newspapers, but this kind of reporting is what we do best.’
Sandra Peddie
July 1, 2009
21st Century Muckrakers

Rotting Meat, Security Documents, and Corporal Punishment

A local Chicago investigative reporter uses shoe-leather techniques and digital tools to uncover health and safety violations and be sure the news is widely spread.
Dave Savini
July 1, 2009
21st Century Muckrakers

Reporting Time and Resources Reveal a Hidden Source of Pollution

‘In many cases I had the budget to take chances and to not take no for an answer.’
Abrahm Lustgarten
July 1, 2009
21st Century Muckrakers

Investigating Health and Safety Issues—As Scientists Would

The Chicago Tribune paid to have state-of-the-art testing done on products people eat and use and the results provided ‘clear reporting entry points into what are complex topics.’
Sam Roe
July 1, 2009
21st Century Muckrakers

Navigating Through the Biofuels Jungle

‘Given my years of energy reporting in California, I could spot several warning signs early on; others took additional reporting to uncover.’
Elizabeth McCarthy
July 1, 2009
21st Century Muckrakers

Going to Where the Fish Are Disappearing

Investigative reporters in Sweden set out to tell the story of why and how illegal fishing of cod was happening—and what it meant to consumers and businesses in their country.
Fredrik Laurin
July 1, 2009
21st Century Muckrakers

21st Century Muckrakers: Introduction

Fatima Tlisova witnessed the injustice of villagers being poisoned by pollution from a nuclear lab nearby; she reported their story in a place where journalists risk their lives for sharing…
Melissa Ludtke
July 1, 2009
Nieman Notes

Jobs Change or Vanish: Niemans Discover an Unanticipated Bonus in Community Work

From tutoring to volunteer firefighting to working with at-risk children, fellows use their skills to dig into their surroundings.
Jim Boyd
June 24, 2009
International Journalism

‘We Know Where You Live’

Working for a Western magazine in Iran, a journalist finds that he has acquired some surprisingly close acquaintances—from the ministry of intelligence. And strangely, they are all called Mr. Mohammadi.
Maziar Bahari
June 24, 2009
21st Century Muckrakers

Filling a Local Void: J-School Students Tackle Watchdog Reporting

‘Those of us who have been investigative reporters have a responsibility to ensure that local watchdogging remains robust in our industry.’
Joe Bergantino
June 15, 2009
International Journalism

Blogging in Iran

September 2001 – First Iranian blog appears on the Internet.November 2001 – Blogger Hossein Derakhshan develops a step-by-step guide to blogging in Farsi.RELATED ARTICLE“Attempting to Silence Iran’s ‘Weblogistan’”– Mohamed Abdel…
June 15, 2009
Diversity International Journalism

Your Eyes Say That You Have Cried

‘Today’s generation of Iranian women reporters are doing big things. Their mark will be left on history.’
Masoud Behnoud
June 15, 2009
International Journalism

The Human Lessons: They Lie at the Core of Reporting in Iran

‘When we work in countries without press freedoms, we scarcely know the pressures on the people we encounter, the complexities of their motivations, the dimensions of their fears.’
Laura Secor
June 15, 2009
21st Century Muckrakers

The Challenges and Opportunities of 21st Century Muckraking

The articles about public health, safety and trust in this issue of Nieman Reports are a reminder of the essential role that watchdog reporting plays in our lives. Contemporary exposés…
Mark Feldstein
June 15, 2009
Peering Inside Contemporary Iran
International Journalism

Peering Inside Contemporary Iran

An exhibit of photographs of Iran featuring the work of Iason Athanasiadis, a 2008 Nieman Fellow, opened for a three-month show in January at the Craft and Folk Art Museum…
Iason Athanasiadis
June 15, 2009
Life Being Lived in Quintessential Irish Moments
Opinion

Life Being Lived in Quintessential Irish Moments

“Beyond the Moment: Irish Photojournalism in Our Time” is the title of a fine slab of a book recently published by the Press Photographers Association of Ireland. This is Ireland…
Rosita Boland
June 15, 2009
A Visual Witness to Iran’s Revolution
International Journalism

A Visual Witness to Iran’s Revolution

In the mid-1960’s, Reza Deghati taught himself the principles of photography as a 14 year old living in Tabriz, Iran. During the early 1970’s, his pictures were of rural society…
Reza
June 15, 2009
International Journalism

Iran: News Happens, But Fewer Journalists Are There to Report It

In a time of global engagement—economic, political, environmental, energy and health, to name a few—budget cuts at news organizations severely limit foreign news coverage.
Mark Seibel
June 15, 2009
International Journalism

Understanding Iran: Reporters Who Do Are Exiled, Pressured or Jailed

‘Roxana’s work consistently gave the lie to the narrative of a monolithic Islamic Republic.’
Iason Athanasiadis
June 15, 2009
21st Century Muckrakers

Pouring Meaning Into Numbers

In using EPA data, USA Today’s watchdog project empowered ‘parents to learn about the types and sources of chemicals that might be in the air near their child’s school.’
Blake Morrison
June 14, 2009
21st Century Muckrakers

Mining the Coal Beat: Keeping Watch Over an ‘Outlaw’ Industry

Digging through records, creating new databases, and asking key questions leads a West Virginia reporter to important investigative stories about the coal industry.
Ken Ward Jr.
June 14, 2009
From the Curator

The Journey of the 2009 Nieman Fellows—And of the Foundation

In their experiences, conversations and future directions, they create a portrait of what is happening in journalism today.
Bob Giles
June 12, 2009
International Journalism

Imprisoning Journalists Silences Others

While most Iranian journalists have to operate with extreme caution, foreign journalists can be more frank on the issues they face in Iran.
D. Parvaz
June 12, 2009
International Journalism

The Virtual Iran Beat

‘Speaking Farsi helps expand our ability to gather news. It means we can tap into a more extensive network and speak to more Iranians, even if we’re not based in…
Kelly Golnoush Niknejad
June 12, 2009
International Journalism

Attempting to Silence Iran’s ‘Weblogistan’

‘Iran’s filtering and blocking regime has been described by various experts as second only to China’s.’
Mohamed Abdel Dayem
June 12, 2009
International Journalism

When the Predictable Overtakes the Real News About Iran

‘What makes news in the West are Iran’s "menacing" actions in Iraq or words against Israel, with such stories told in a similar narrative, encased in little context and with…
Scheherezade Faramarzi
June 12, 2009
International Journalism

Publishing and Mapping Iran’s Weblogistan

Iran’s home page on the Global Voices Web site.RELATED ARTICLE“Attempting to Silence Iran’s ‘Weblogistan’”– Mohamed Abdel DayemHarvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society has been home to two unique…
Melissa Ludtke
June 12, 2009
International Journalism

Summer 2009: Introduction

Journalists — Iranians and Westerners — share their firsthand experiences as they write about the challenges they confront in gathering and distributing news and information about Iran and its people.…
Melissa Ludtke
June 11, 2009
Opinion

Objectivity: It’s Time to Say Goodbye

‘As a standard to separate news from nonsense and a guide to ethical reporting, objectivity is about as reliable as judging character by the firmness of a handshake.’
John H. McManus
June 11, 2009
Opinion

Worshipping the Values of Journalism

‘As I settled in on the National Desk, I gradually realized I had found the guide to my life I had been searching for. It certainly wasn’t religion in the…
John Schmalzbauer
June 11, 2009
Opinion

When Belief Overrides the Ethics of Journalism

‘There was no wall between the beat and reporter. He was on a mission to promote religion with all the fervor and zeal of his own born-again faith.’
Sandi Dolbee
June 11, 2009
Opinion

Religion and the Press: Always Complicated, Now Chaotic

In a time of a blogging explosion, ‘… the idea of a coherent mainstream journalistic identity is in this era of old media implosion on the way out.’
Mark Silk
June 11, 2009
Opinion

Journalists Use Novels to Reveal What Reporting Doesn’t Say

‘My pitch: An experienced journalist grows discontented with journalism’s limitations and turns to fiction as a more accurate way to reflect the reality of life in the Middle East.’
Matt Beynon Rees
June 11, 2009
Opinion

An Enduring Story—With Lessons for Journalists Today

During the time of ‘the disappeared’ in Argentina, when Robert Cox edited The Herald, the newspaper ‘became the most reliable source of information about human rights violations in Argentina.’
Graciela Mochkofsky
June 11, 2009
Opinion

They Blog, I Blog, We All Blog

An Australian blogger interviews dissident bloggers worldwide, and in his book he explains why what they do matters and who is trying to stop them.
Danny Schechter
June 11, 2009
Opinion

Fortunate Son: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson

‘… it was Thompson’s great good fortune to come of age, professionally speaking, at a point where his own proclivities and the broader Zeitgeist dovetailed to an almost absurd degree.’
Adam Reilly
June 11, 2009
Opinion

The American Homeland: Visualizing Our Sense of Security

“All America Day” at Fort Bragg, home of the 82nd Airborne, is a time when the public can enter the base and take part in military games. Here, a soldier…
Nina Berman
June 11, 2009
International Journalism

No Man’s Land Inside an Iranian Police Station

When Iran held a U.S. reporter, an American television correspondent recalled her own brief arrest by Iranian police.
Martha Raddatz
June 10, 2009
International Journalism

Seven Visas = Continuity of Reporting From Iran

‘The Iranian government sometimes appears to favor U.S. reporters with little knowledge of the country who might be more amenable to spin, although that has not happened in my case.’
Barbara Slavin
June 9, 2009
Diversity International Journalism

Iranian Journalist: A Job With Few Options

After working for more than a decade at the now banned Iranian magazine Zanan, a journalist now in the United States describes her feelings of identity, location and loss.
Roza Eftekhari
June 2, 2009
Diversity International Journalism

Telling the Stories of Iranian Women’s Lives

‘Anyone who did research on women’s issues benefitted from hundreds of articles, stories and interviews that were featured in Zanan.’
Shahla Sherkat
June 2, 2009
International Journalism

Film in Iran: The Magazine and the Movies

‘… there are two arenas—cinema and soccer—that while not completely impervious to the political torrents have a greater margin of immunity.’
Houshang Golmakani
June 2, 2009
International Journalism

When Eyes Get Averted: The Consequences of Misplaced Reporting

‘Poor reporting from and about Iran has kept the West in the dark. In this lightlessness, Iranians are rendered as ghosts.’
Roya Hakakian
June 2, 2009
International Journalism

Journalism in a Semi-Despotic Society

‘Censorship, low payment, and the high risk of arrest for any journalist who dares to take an investigative step, among other reasons such as lack of individual liberty, have pushed…
Byline Withheld
June 2, 2009
International Journalism

Journalism in a Semi-Despotic Society

‘Censorship, low payment, and the high risk of arrest for any journalist who dares to take an investigative step, among other reasons such as lack of individual liberty, have pushed…
June 1, 2009
International Journalism

Journalism in a Semi-Despotic Society

‘Censorship, low payment, and the high risk of arrest for any journalist who dares to take an investigative step, among other reasons such as lack of individual liberty, have pushed…
June 1, 2009