ICFJ President Sharon Moshavi recently joined Interlochen Public Radio News Director Ed Ronco for a public conversation on the state of journalism, hosted by the International Affairs Forum at Northwestern Michigan College. The discussion, part of the forum’s ongoing series focused on global affairs and press freedom, brought together journalists, students and community members from across northern Michigan. Topics included the erosion of trust in media, the collapse of traditional business models, the growing impact of artificial intelligence and the need for innovation in how journalism is practiced and supported.
Maria Zholobova, a journalist working at investigative outlet IStories, has long been interested in who is financially benefiting from Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine. So, for a story supported by the Jim Hoge Fellowship, Zholobova turned to customs data and export records, hoping to find something. And she did. She noticed that a company registered to a run-down building on the outskirts of a Russian town had, over the past two years, exported nearly half a million tons of coal labeled as “Russian” but produced in Ukraine’s occupied territory, primarily to Turkey.
