Entries for January 2010

The 2009 IWMF Courage in Journalism Award winners were featured on XM Radio Jan. 31.

Audio from "An Evening Honoring Courage in Journalism," a panel discussion held in October 2009, aired Jan. 31 at 11 a.m. EST on public radio channel 133, as well as locally in Washington, D.C., Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. EST on Federal News Radio (1500 AM). The feature was part of “This Just In!”, a series is hosted by veteran network radio correspondent Sam Litzinger. 

The program featured an edited version of the October event, which was held at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The event was presented in association with The George Washington University Global Media Institute and The National Press Club.

• Listen to the broadcast online.

The International Reporting Project will hold a two-week Gatekeeper Editors trip to China May 8-22. Senior editors and producers are invited to apply for the program, which focuses on issues such as health, development, environment and economic development. Application deadline is March 1. For details or to apply, visit the IRP Web site.

Molly Mukasa supplements her family’s earnings in Uganda in a way some may deem unlikely: She raises pigs.

“While several women in the trading centre burden their husbands for resources, to me, money is not a concern anymore,” Mukasa told Joseph Miti, a journalist for Uganda’s The Daily Monitor, who reported this story.

Miti’s story on Mukasa and other women pig farmers came out of the International Women’s Media Foundation initiative, Reporting on Women and Agriculture: Africa. The IWMF has partnered with The Daily Monitor for the project, which trains journalists in effectively covering agriculture and the role of women within agriculture and rural development.

Miti shared with the IWMF how he found the story about women pig farmers.

• Read the Q & A.
• See Joseph Miti's Daily Monitor article.

Firle Davies, the 2009-10 IWMF Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow, spoke at an event titled Foreign Correspondents: Women in Danger. The panel discussion was held Jan. 27 at the University of Pittsburgh. Davies, a BBC reporter based in Africa, spoke alongside foreign correspondents. Read more on UPitt’s Web site.

Deborah Howell memorial ServiceNational CathedralWashington D.C.January 15, 2009 Twenty-five years ago, Deborah Howell hauled me into a conference ro...

IWMF Board Member Deborah Howell, a pioneering woman journalist, was memoralized Jan. 15 at the Washington National Cathedral. Howell died Jan. 2 in an accident in New Zealand.

“We in journalism have lost a guiding star,” said Jacqui Banaszynski, who worked for Howell at the St. Paul Pioneer-Post Dispatch.

• Read about Howell's memorial service.
• Jacqui Banaszynski's tribute remarks.
• See photos from the memorial service.
• Listen to IWMF board members speak about Howell.

Pioneering journalist Deborah Howell, an IWMF board member, was memorialized Jan. 15 at the Washington National Cathedral. She died Jan. 2 in an accident in New Zealand.

Diana Zulu, recipient of an IWMF fellowship in 2004, died Dec. 25. Zulu, sports editor for the Zambia Daily Mail, died after an illness. She spent her fellowship focusing on health issues at The Boston Herald. Read blog coverage on ICFJ’s Web site.

Volume 19, No. 1

In this issue:

• Journalists’ Bravery Trumps Obstacles
• Iranian Journalist Speaks Out for Women
• Novaya Gazeta Reporter Undeterred by Threats, Arrests
• Cameroonian Journalist Continued Reporting After Brutal Attack
• Lifetime Winner Amira Hass Covers Israeli, Palestinian Authorities
• Africa Program Improves Coverage of Agriculture, Women
• IWMF Cultivates Women Leaders

October 2009 Newsletter

J-Lab is currently accepting applications for eight grants of up to $25,000 each to launch innovative community news efforts. Proposals must be submitted by March 1. Read more or apply on the New Voices Web site.

Minority journalists are invited to apply for Metcalf Institute Diversity Fellowships in Environmental Reporting. The program, which consists of four weeks of scientific study at the University of Rhode Island, is open to print, broadcast, and electronic journalists who have demonstrated an interest in marine and environmental science reporting. Deadline is March 15. Visit the Metcalf Web site for details or to apply.

Michelle Lang, a journalist for Canada’s Calgary Herald, was killed in Afghanistan December 30, 2009, while covering the war for the Canwest news service. The vehicle she was sharing with four soldiers was hit by a roadside bomb just south of Kandahar. Four other soldiers and a Canadian civilian were injured in the attack. Read more about Lang.

Belva Davis, the 2004 winner of an IWMF Lifetime Achievement Award, hosts a new show for KQED, a television station in California. Davis, who has worked as a reporter for nearly 50 years, hosts a revamped version of the news show, This Week in Northern California. Read more about Davis.

Deborah Howell, who helped lead the International Women’s Media Foundation as a board member and officer for more than 10 years, has died in an accident involving an automobile in New Zealand.

Howell was on vacation with her husband, C. Peter Magrath, at the time of the accident. A pioneering journalist who was one of the first women to head a large daily American paper, Howell  was a member of the  IWMF executive committee at the time of her death. Earlier she served as vice chair of the board.

Howell grew up in Texas as the daughter of a newspaper reporter. She became the top editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota, leading that paper to two Pulitzer Prizes. She later left Minnesota to run the Washington bureau of Newhouse News Service. She then served a three-year term as ombudsman for The Washington Post.  At the time of her death, she was a consultant for Advance Publications, Inc.

• Read The Washington Post article.
• Read the Minnesota Public Radio article.
• Read Deborah Howell's bio.