Investigative journalist James Okong’o interviewed six “digital mercenaries” to uncover how they were paid to organize disinformation campaigns and influence recent elections in Kenya and Nigeria. The report, published by Agence France-Presse Fact Check, revealed new details about how these influential bloggers and social media personalities worked to discredit political opponents, undermine political institutions and fuel tensions.
Roy, the CEO and founder of The NRI Nation news startup serving the Indian diaspora, spoke Tuesday at an ICFJ event at Bloomberg News’ headquarters in New York City. She was joined by
Jonathan Lemire, POLITICO’S White House Bureau Chief and the host of MSNBC’s “Way Too Early,” and
Laura Zommer, a fellow ICFJ Knight Fellow and co-founder of Factchequeado. ICFJ President Sharon Moshavi moderated the discussion.
Forty countries, from the U.S. and India, to Russia, Taiwan and more, will hold national elections in 2024.
Election campaigns in Kenya are normally noisy, lively and bloody. But this one had a difference. Instead of the usual three or four presidential candidates, there’ve been eight. There’s also been less bloodshed, but certainly more money spent in wooing the voter.
And for the first time ever, all candidates seeking the keys to State House – seven men and one woman – appeared together in public debates. There were three in February, broadcast live on radio and TV and streamed on the Internet.
Three Burns alumni won the 2007 Burns and Kennan Commentary Awards on May 15. The award-winning stories tackle: life on the Texas-Mexico border; twins’ quest to become marines in Iraq; and analysis of the U.S. Presidential elections.
Dr. Robin Mishra won the 2004 Arthur F. Burns Award for his diary of the 2004 U.S. presidential election campaign (“Mein Wahlkampf tagebuch”), which was published in almost 20 articles in the German weekly Rheinischer Merkur. Mishra supplemented his diary with editorials and portraits of presidential candidates George Bush and John Kerry for his German employer and his Burns host paper, the Chicago Tribune.
Mishra received the 1,000-Euro prize from Germany’s foreign minister at the annual Burns alumni dinner and lecture on June 3 in Berlin.
Two Americans and one German took home the 2002 Arthur F. Burns Awards on May 23. Each year, the awards are given to Burns alumni for articles published the previous year. State Secretary Dr. Klaus Scharioth, representing the German Foreign Ministry, presided over the awards ceremony.
The $1,000 awards went to Tagesspiegel editor Markus Feldenkirchen (2002) and U.S. journalists Guy Raz (1999), London correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR), and James Hagengruber (2002), reporter for the Billings ( Mont.) Gazette.
