For 15 years until 2021, I served as the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and in that capacity traveled the world to defend press freedom. I visited countless newsrooms and interviewed hundreds of journalists under threat. Read more
At the end of December 2020, freelance journalists Matteo Garavoglia and Youssef Hassan Holgado spent a month-and-a-half traveling across Tunisia to report on the 10th anniversary of the Jasmine Revolution, when large-scale protests led to the ousting of longtime … Read more
For one day in March 2022, an unimposing container at the Ušivak refugee camp for migrants, about 14 miles from Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was transformed into a newsroom. Almost a dozen migrants sat in a circle, … Read more
When I asked Brent Renaud where he wanted his picture taken, he chose a stairwell lined with Nieman Fellows’ photographs at Harvard’s Lippmann House. He was giving a big talk that night during his own fellowship year, and I was … Read more
Veteran reporters in Ukraine knew what to expect from besieging Russian armies. Newer ones are beginning to find out. Vladimir Putin’s invasion has already cost thousands of lives, including those of four journalists. Most civilian casualties are from aerial bombardment. Read more
The past year has brought a host of new challenges for journalism: the ongoing pandemic, a new presidency, increasing extremism following Jan. 6, to name a few. Nieman Reports’ columnists and writers have addressed these and other challenges, with nuanced … Read more
The world is broken. But then, it’s always been a little damaged, right? Sure, it’s only in recent history that humans, post the Industrial Revolution, had the power to destroy the earth. But even before, our tenure as the … Read more
Functioning democracies are all alike; every dysfunctional democracy is dysfunctional in its own way. India, where the free press has played a crucial role in protecting democratic institutions since independence in 1947, is now one of the world’s most dangerous … Read more
Seyward Darby’s book on women in the white nationalist movement, “Sisters in Hate,” grew out of a detailed piece of reporting she published in Harper’s in 2017. But that wasn’t the first place … Read more
I never set out to cover wars. What I wanted was to report overseas, understand foreign lands, explore how the world worked. But my timing was off — or perhaps it was just right. It was the summer of 2001 … Read more