Global Voices: Truthdig Women Reporting
Truthdig has launched an initiative called Global Voices: Truthdig Women Reporting. The project creates a network of female foreign correspondents in collaboration with the International Women’s Media Foundation. These writers come from various countries and have all been honored by the IWMF for their courageous journalism. Since 1990, the IWMF's awards have recognized female reporters who risk their lives to expose the truth around the world.
The correspondents will cover issues within their home countries and will provide local perspectives on subjects of international scope and impact. In addition, Global Voices features a mentoring program in which the selected journalists will guide a new generation of reporters in their countries.
Read more about this effort on USA Today: "A global platform for bold journalists."
Khadija Ismayilova of Azerbaijan received the International Women's Media Foundation's Courage in Journalism Award in 2012. She is an investigative reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Azerbaijan and has concentrated on exposing the corruption within the president's inner circle including his family. The government planted a camera in Ismayilova's bedroom, then released video of her with her boyfriend to smear her reputation and credibility. Her friends now guard her apartment since she was refused security and she sits within a tent in her apartment to have a private place. Ismayilova is working on an article about the fallout from Russia's Ukraine aggression on other former USSR countries in light of Vladimir Putin's ambitious agenda to restore the old USSR.
Chiranuch Premchaiporn of Thailand received the International Women's Media Foundation's Courage in Journalism Award in 2011. She was webmaster for Prachatai, an online newspaper that cannot be controlled by the government. Premchaiporn was facing a 70 year prison term previously under the former government but has not fled following the recent coup d'etat. She is working on an article about the coup.
Claudia Julieta Duque of Colombia received the International Women's Media Foundation's Courage in Journalism Award in 2010 for her work with Radio Nizkor. Investigative journalist specializes on issues regarding human rights, impunity, paramilitarism, violence and armed conflict. Due to the investigation carried out by Duque on the homicide of Jaime Garzon in 1999, she suffered countless persecutions from the Government of Colombia, ranging from kidnapping, multiple threats and a forced disappearance attempt to events that led to three exiles. In 2014, Reporters Without Borders ranked her as one of 100 worldwide heros of the freedom of the press.
Sumi Khan of Bangladesh received the International Women's Media Foundation's Courage in Journalism Award in 2005. She has been a reporter for various newspapers and now works for the Daily Samakai. Khan has been brutally beaten and stabbed and forced out of many reporting jobs. Bangladesh has been cited as the most dangerous country in Asia for journalists.
Edna Machirori of Zimbabwe received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women's Media Foundation in 2013. A freelance journalist and columnist for Zimbabwe's Daily News, she was the first black female editor of a newspaper in the country. Machirori has mentored young female journalists and is known for fighting the widespread gender discrimination in Zimbabwe's newsrooms.
Zubeida Mustafa of Pakistan received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women's Media Foundation in 2012. A journalist for 33 years, she was the first woman to work in the mainstream media in Pakistan and was an assistant editor of Dawn, an English language daily newspaper. Mustafa has written about such taboo topics as reproduction but primarily focuses on the inequalities of Pakistani society. She is working on an article about the “silent revolution” of women in Pakistan today.
Peta Thornycroft received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women's Media Foundation in 2007 for her work in Zimbabwe. She now lives in Johannesburg and is a freelance writer who covers many African countries. Thornycroft calls herself “Africa’s longest serving full time freelancer.” She is working on a piece about the massive immigration of refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented residents in Johannesburg.
Elena Poniatowska of Mexico received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women's Media Foundation in 2006. The author of 20 books, she has been a collaborator and contributor to various Mexican media outlets throughout her career. Poniatowska was one of the founders of Cineteca Nacional (National Film Archives), the newspaper La Jornada and Siglo XXI, one of Mexico’s most prestigious publishing houses. She also helped found the feminist magazine Fem in 1976.
Lydia Cacho received the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Courage in Journalism Award in 2007. Cacho is a Mexican journalist, author and activist who has written extensively about the rights of women and children, as well as about related social issues such as prostitution, human trafficking, child abuse and labor concerns, among other topics. Her published works include The Demons of Eden,” “Slaves to Power,” and, with co-author Elizabeth Boburg, “Slavery Inc: The Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking.” Her unjustified arrest in 2005, which Cacho believed was orchestrated for purposes of censorship and intimidation, sparked a legal case that went all the way to the Mexican Supreme Court, which ruled in her favor in 2007.
