ICFJ board Chairman Michael Golden became president of WAN-IFRA Thursday at the organization's convention in Durban, South Africa, promising to help media organizations around the world deal with growing political and economic challenges.

Golden said that WAN-IFRA, or the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, would increase its commitment to fighting the growing attacks on journalists and media organizations around the world.

African journalists committed to shedding light on poverty, corruption and other key issues should set the standard for coverage of their continent, said Mercy Juma, a Kenyan broadcaster who received a prestigious new award in honor of celebrated editor and philanthropist Michael Elliott.

“I receive this award at a time when one of Africa's biggest problems is that it is not allowed to tell its own stories, said Mercy Juma, who has covered sensitive topics such as teen pregnancy and birth control in remote Muslim communities.

Increasingly restrictive media regulations and the “law of terror and violence” are the greatest threats to freedom of expression in Latin America, members of a panel of women journalists said at a recent Connectas-ICFJ conference in Medellín, Colombia.

In Venezuela, most of the traditional media are now completely controlled by the government, said Ronna Rísquez, an investigative reporter for RunRunes, a leading Venezuelan online news organization. “Digital news media are the only ones reporting the news that the government wants to keep hidden,” she added.

How do you use the latest digital technologies to improve storytelling on health, gender and development issues? Just ask ICFJ’s four new Knight Fellows, who are leading the charge. They will offer their storytelling expertise, multimedia assistance and data skills to help journalists at two of the country’s most widely read news organizations.