The ICFJ Forum: Helping Over 15,000 Journalists Cover Global Crises

By: 06/02/2023

The ICFJ Pamela Howard Forum on Global Crisis Reporting is a community of 15,000 journalists from 134 countries. Through Facebook groups, sessions with experts and newsletters – all in five languages – journalists worldwide get to meet, learn and collaborate.

Since the Forum was created in 2020, participants have benefited from over 260 webinars and trainings and more than 1,200 crisis-related resources in 8 languages. The Forum aims to expand coverage of critical issues of local importance such as disinformation, disease, climate change, rising authoritarianism, financial crises, technology disruptions and more.

“In the Middle East and North Africa, there are many, many journalists that don’t really have access to study journalism in the university because they live in a conflict area,” said Arabic-language Forum member Mais Katt. “Having a forum like [the Pamela Howard Forum] and getting all this education is really a great tool.”

Offered in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish, the Forum also expands to in-person meetings where journalists connect with resources, experts and each other.

Journalists can join the Facebook groups here, subscribe to the newsletters here and watch past sessions on YouTube.

News Category

Blog Post

Topics

Critical-Issues Reporting

Latest News

A Reporter's Guide to The History of Tariffs

For most of human history, governments have taxed goods crossing their borders. Tariffs — taxes levied on imports or exports — have financed empires, protected domestic industries, and punished foreign rivals. They’ve sparked wars, crashed economies, and redefined alliances. Yet today’s tariff war between the United States and the world doesn’t fit neatly into any of the old molds. Rather than being a tool to nurture domestic industry or fill government coffers, tariffs are now being wielded as weapons in a sprawling contest over global power and economic dominance.

Hans Staiger Award Winner Investigates Russian Soldiers Secretly Treated in Belarus Hospitals, Including Those Linked to War Crimes

Leaked data from the Russian Defense Ministry shook the story loose. A team of investigators found that during the first 21 months of the invasion of Ukraine, nearly 1,000 Russian soldiers were treated at Belarusian hospitals, including war crime suspects. These “secret patients,” as they were known, directly tied Belarus to Moscow’s war effort.

I Blew Up on TikTok with Journalism — Here's How You Can, Too

l'll never forget the day when an editor at the BBC told a 25-year-old me that journalists shouldn’t be on TikTok because “there’s so much misinformation on there.” By that point, I had maybe 10,000 followers on the platform, possibly more, and the comment stung. My TikToks, which had amplified my journalism as well as my passion for learning new languages, were well researched and I hoped the direct opposite of misinformation.