When soldiers finally swarmed the offices of Mizzima Media in March, the building was empty. Its editors had already taken the computers, cameras, microphones and notes and vanished into different corners of Myanmar. It had taken weeks for the new … Read more
A little over a year ago, 45 people in an inflatable boat died at sea trying to cross to Spain from a beach north of the city of Casablanca along Morocco’s Atlantic shore. More than half … Read more
President Trump may be leaving office but he and his rhetoric about fake news are here to stay. From the beginning of his presidential campaign, Trump has used the rubric “fake news” to demean and harass journalists; his administration has … Read more
Beatrice Mtetwa is a prominent human rights lawyer and free press advocate in Zimbabwe who is representing journalist Hopewell Chin’ono. He was granted bail and is expected to be released later today after being held in … Read more
Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts in 47 languages to over 280 million people around the world, including in countries such as Iran, North Korea, and Myanmar. VOA, founded in 1942, serves “as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news … Read more
When Zimbabwean journalist and 2010 Nieman Fellow Hopewell Chin’ono started speaking out against corruption in the government, using his Facebook and Twitter accounts as primary channels, he knew the precedent of journalists … Read more
Shooting a glance at the uncanny paraphernalia on my desk feels like watching a “Breaking Bad” teaser: A fist-sized rock near my monitor, a half-burnt tear gas canister on the rock, holding a pen, and a handwritten letter from a … Read more
Today, nearly every African country holds multiparty elections of some kind, but – as in the case worldwide – relatively few fully respect political rights and civil liberties. This situation was already worrying before the pandemic. In 2019, advocacy group Freedom … Read more
On the morning of July 20, 2020, a group of men arrived at the Harare home of Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, smashed a glass door to gain access and took him away. “They are breaking into … Read more
Many news consumers in the United States may have no idea that some of the world’s best reporting on what is happening in authoritarian societies and fragile democracies comes from news services that are funded by the U.S. government but … Read more
