The International Journalism Festival weekly round-up. Stay up to date by subscribing to our newsletter, by following our Telegram channel, or by joining us on Facebook and Twitter.
José Rubén Zamora, the fourth estate imprisoned in Guatemala: ‘I won’t give up.’ EL PAÍS entered the Mariscal Zavala military prison where the journalist has been jailed for the last 18 months. The international community hopes he will be released under the Bernardo Arévalo administration, but he remains calm: ‘I’m ready to spend three months or 100 years here.’ José Rubén Zamora’s son, José Carlos Zamora, will be a #ijf24 speaker.
Interview of BBC disinformation reporter Marianna Spring: ‘My approach to fear is to try to make sense of it.’ Marianna was appointed the BBC’s disinformation and social media correspondent in March 2020. Her first book, Among the Trolls, is published by Atlantic next month, while her new Radio 4 series, Why Do You Hate Me?, exploring examples of online hate and forgiveness, is out now. Marianna Spring will be a #ijf24 speaker.
Media Confidential: is this the future of local news? Alan and Lionel hear from Joshi Herrmann and Sophie Atkinson from Manchester Mill about whether their community subscriber model is the way to fund commercially sustainable journalism capable of holding powerful people and institutions to account in local and regional “patches”. Joshi Herrmann will be a #ijf24 speaker.
Behind the Headlines. To mark a decade since the death of war correspondent Marie Colvin, Hannah Storm and John Crowley chat to Lyse Doucet and Lindsey Hilsum about reporting from conflict zones and the legacy of Marie. Behind the Headlines is created by Headlines Network, which was set up to promote more open conversations about mental health in the news media. Hannah Storm and John Crowley will both be #ijf24 speakers.
‘This kind of work cannot stop now:’ Evgenia Kara-Murza on the fight for a free Russia after Navalny’s death. Few people understand what Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of the slain Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, is going through right now better than Evgenia Kara-Murza. Like Navalnaya, she has experienced what it’s like to have a spouse jailed for challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin. Her husband, the Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza, has been languishing behind bars since 2022 over his opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Evgenia Kara-Murza will be a #ijf24 speaker.
The global M&A market has had a volatile few years. What can dealmakers expect to see in 2024? In a new report, McKinsey’s Jake Henry and Mieke Van Oostende look back at learnings from last year’s market performance and lay out what 2024 has in store for M&A.
New York Times publisher A. G. Sulzberger: “Our industry needs to think bigger.” In this exclusive interview with Eduardo Suarez, he discusses his role in shaping the paper and preserving its values. Eduardo Suarez will be a #ijf24 speaker.
Policy changes could directly affect journalism’s bottom line in South Africa. My previous article explained the policy response required to address the market failure of journalism and summarised measures most likely to have a significant impact. Now, I’d like to explain each measure. Styli Charalambous will be a #ijf24 speaker.
Q&A: S. Mitra Kalita on how collaboration turns scarcity into abundance for community media organizations. S. Mitra Kalita is CEO and co-founder of URL Media, a collaborative network of Black and Brown community media organizations. S. Mitra Kalita will be a #ijf24 speaker.
Interview of photojournalist Motaz Azaiza: ‘The ghosts of Gaza follow me everywhere.’ Two weeks after being evacuated, the 25-year-old Palestinian – who has amassed 18.5m followers on Instagram – sat down with the Guardian to share his experiences of the war.
Q&A: The Citizen Lab’s John Scott-Railton on tackling the ongoing threat of Pegasus. Since we wrote a year ago, Pegasus has been detected on the cellphones of journalists in the Dominican Republic, India, Jordan, Armenia, and Togo. It was also placed on the phone of Galina Timchenko, the founder of the exiled Russian outlet Meduza, perhaps by an EU member state. Galina Timchenko will be a #ijf24 speaker.
Image credit: screenshot from 13 June 2023 Democracy Now! episode entitled “Doing Journalism Is a Crime”: Guatemalan Publisher José Rubén Zamora Faces 40 Years Behind Bars