In 2020, Harvard College’s student newspaper, The Crimson, broke a story about sexual harassment allegations against three professors in the anthropology department. The article garnered a strong reaction from the student body, leading to student protests criticizing the university's complicity in the matter. It brought the anthropology department under scrutiny, as well as Harvard’s practices of handling such complaints, generating calls to reform the university’s sexual misconduct rec...

For the second IJNotes episode of our series on student journalism, we spoke with David Cuillier, director of The Freedom of Information Project at UF’s Brechner Center for the Advancement of the First Amendment, about how students can use public records in their reporting to tell stories like the investigation conducted by the Independent Florida Alligator. Cuillier has served as president of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, is a member of the Federal FOIA Advisory Committee, a...

Amid the ever-evolving state of technology, regular mass layoffs, and the collapse of local news, student journalists can struggle to figure out what steps they need to take to enter and succeed in the industry once they graduate. In the first episode of our new series on student journalism, we spoke with Chip Mahaney, emerging talent leader at E.W. Scripps Company. Mahaney recruits, mentors, and develops college and early-career professionals, making him an expert in what it takes to b...

Reproductive health access has become a major issue in U.S. elections in the nearly two years since Roe v. Wade was overturned. A series of elections and ballot initiatives in which reproductive rights have been at stake have driven high turnout, and more critical decisions for voters are on the horizon. Meanwhile, human rights advocates and activists link the issue to civil and human rights, specifically, the right to privacy and bodily autonomy. In our latest IJNotes episode on repo...

In Latin America, legislation and debates around reproductive rights are moving in different directions. Abortion has been banned in Nicaragua and Guatemala in recent years, but other countries such as Mexico and Colombia have decriminalized or even legalized it. In Brazil, Latin America’s largest nation, abortion laws remain restrictive. Today, abortion is only allowed in the case of rape or incest, if there is a risk of death for the pregnant woman, or in cases of anencephaly, a serious, fa...

In India, as in many other countries, abortion is a divisive social and political issue. Although it is legal to get an abortion in India, there are many obstacles to obtaining one. In our latest podcast, we spoke with two reproductive health professionals from CommonHealth India, a coalition that advocates for increased access to sexual and reproductive health care for women and marginalized communities. Dr. Alka Barua leads the organization’s abortion portfolio and Sanjeeta Gauri is a con...

For our latest podcast on reporting on reproductive health, Sofia Heartney with the ICFJ communications team spoke with Dr. Camilla Fitzsimons, a professor in the department of adult and community education at Maynooth University and the author of “Repealed: Ireland’s Unfinished Fight for Reproductive Rights.” In this episode Fitzsimons discusses the role of journalists in the movement for reproductive rights, how reporters can continue to cover the issue even after abortion access mov...

Mis- and disinformation surrounding reproductive health is not new. But since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the U.S. in June 2022, the consequences of the vast amounts of false information seeking to affect the reproductive choices of millions of Americans have made their way front and center in people’s minds. In our second IJNotes episode on reproductive health reporting, IJNet’s Disarming Disinformation Intern, Mya Zepp, spoke with Felice Freyer, a health care reporter at the Bos...

Our new IJNotes podcast series will dive into reproductive health, how journalists globally are reporting on this highly personal and political issue, and the ways in which reporters can accurately and ethically cover the many related topics. To kick off the series, I spoke with Maya Miller, a reproductive health reporter at the Gulf States Newsroom, on the role local journalism plays in covering reproductive rights. In this episode, Miller discusses the importance of local journalism,...

In early June, environmental journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira went missing in the Amazon while reporting on Indigenous peoples in the state of Amazonas. The two were later found to have been murdered, in one of the most high-profile kilings of environmental journalists in recent years, wich have also taken place in Mexico, India and Colombia. In the aftermath of the killings of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, we sat down with Jonathan Watts, global environment...

Environmental crime, also known as eco-crime, is any form of illegal activity — organized or otherwise — that has a direct and negative effect on the natural world. From illegal deforestation in the Amazon, to unregulated overfishing in the Indo-Pacific, to water, air and soil pollution caused by illegal gold mines, environmental crime doesn’t just harm the environment, it also often has devastating consequences for local communities who rely on healthy ecosystems for their livelihoods. Repor...

No two communities will experience the effects of climate change in the same way. As the climate crisis worsens, the need for comprehensive, educational and sometimes life-saving news coverage increases. While national and international media play an important role in covering the crisis, local outlets may be better able to understand how their communities view and bear its consequences, and what solutions are best for them. In addition to an in-depth understanding of their local ...

Extreme weather events and natural disasters have ravaged many communities around the globe, and their devastating consequences seem only to be intensifying. This past year alone, the world witnessed record droughts in the U.S. and Latin America, while China and Europe suffered fatal floods. Hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires also dominated headlines due to the significant destruction they’ve caused. Are these events all related to climate change? How should reporters explain the connection ...

The climate crisis doesn’t affect everyone equally. As more journalists report on environmental issues, it’s critical that they shine a light on the heightened consequences our deteriorating environment has on vulnerable communities. Environmental justice reporters do just this. Although the environmental justice movement began more than 30 years ago, many newsrooms are only just beginning to report on the intersection of discrimination and the environment, and how structural inequities...

Today, from flooding and wildfires, to droughts, heat waves and hurricanes of increasing intensity and frequency, we’re experiencing these repercussions, and experts agree they’ll only get worse. In the coming years, more journalists than ever will be needed to report on our deteriorating environment. They’ll be tasked with covering the crisis and its fallout from all angles — and as comprehensively as they’ve reported on the COVID-19 pandemic. This is why we’ve decided to focus on envi...

You may have heard about the groundbreaking Panama Papers investigation, which exposed how some of the most rich and powerful people around the world used offshore tax havens to conceal their wealth. Former journalist Mar Cabra played a critical role during the groundbreaking investigation, as the head of the data and research unit at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the organization that spearheaded the global collaborative effort. She and her colleagues won ...

This summer, accomplished journalist and media consultant Hannah Storm published a personal story about her diagnosis with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The PTSD was a result of many traumas over the years, Storm wrote: it stemmed from experiences she had when reporting internationally on crises and disasters, and sexual assaults she survived when she was a young reporter. All were in some way related to her job. While today more and more journalists, news organizations and med...

This episode is the fourth in our series on mental health and journalism. Coverage of the anti-police brutality and Black Lives Matter protests that erupted around the world following the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor last spring has laid bare the unique challenges Black journalists across the U.S. face in the newsroom. As Black journalists cover these deeply personal protests, they must also navigate potential repercussions like being arrested while reporti...

This episode is the third episode in our series on mental health and journalism. More than 5 million Venezuelans have fled their country in recent years. They’ve done so to escape violence, economic turmoil, political unrest and more. The crisis is the worst of its kind Latin America has ever experienced, former Mexico foreign minister Jorge Castañeda wrote earlier this year. Almost 2 million Venezuelan migrants have crossed the border into neighboring Colombia — more than any other country...

This is the second episode in our series about journalism and mental health. In this episode, we interview Dean Yates, a longtime journalist whose struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) led him to become an advocate for journalists’ mental health. For more than 20 years, Dean worked in the Middle East and southeast Asia as a journalist and bureau chief for Reuters. He covered war and tragedy on numerous occasions, and since then, he has been outspoken about the way his experience...