Liberia’s media institutions received a major boost when the Swedish Embassy in Monrovia funded a digital revenue workshop with regional pioneers Premium Times aimed at helping media learn to raise independent revenue from online sources and donors. The “Hack and Hackers” Digital Transformation for Newsroom training provided Liberian media and technologists the opportunity to learn and conceive new and innovative products to generate revenue. …
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African Investigative Journalism Conference Fellowships Announced
New Narratives is pleased to announce three reporting fellows who have been chosen to attend the African Investigative Reporting Conference in Johannesburg October 31- November 2. Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh, Eric Opa Doue and Tina Mehnpaine will travel to South Africa to represent Liberian newsmedia at the conference, including in a panel on Solutions Journalism with…
Six Liberian News Media Chosen for Investigative Journalism and Digital Revenue Program
New Narratives is pleased to announce six Liberian news organizations that have been chosen to take part in our 3-year program to build the capacity of leading newsrooms to fund and do investigative journalism. The program is funded by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia. Our selection committee has chosen: Front Page Africa The Daily Observer…
New Narratives launches “Liberia Land Wahala”, a new podcast with Front Page Africa and Power FM
Take a deep dive into the land issues causing wahala — or trouble — in Liberia. We travel to communities across this country and bring back their stories. FPA’s Mae Azango and Anthony Stephens of Power FM/TV host this exploration of land, environment, and climate concerns and conflicts. And they interview experts and authorities for…
New Narratives’ Selection Committee
A group of leading independent activists and journalists will form New Narratives’ selection committee to choose six media houses that will be the recipients of three years support for journalism and business model development under our Excellence in Investigative Journalism Program funded by the Swedish Embassy in Monrovia. The committee members are: Silas Siakor is…
NN co-founder lays out a new way for aid to help media and stop hurting it
The pages of newspapers in low-income countries often look more like promotional material for development groups than reportage of the major issues impacting society. A group of experts met, a hospital is planned, new wells are installed. Press release copy-and-paste, no context, no second source, no new perspective. And no insight for citizens hoping to…
New Narratives launches Excellence in Extractives Reporting Project in Liberia and Sierra Leone
New Narratives kicked off an 18-month project this month reporting on the extractives sectors in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The project, supported by German Development Cooperation, will allow ten of the top journalists in each country to learn about and report on developments in these sectors which are crucial to the economies of both countries….
Call for Applications: New Reporting Project on Land Rights and Climate Change
New Narratives, a non-governmental organization that has been driving improvements in Liberia’s media sector for 9 years, is excited to announce a new reporting project, with support from the American Jewish World Service. The project will run a 10-month project that supports Liberian journalists and news organizations to cover issues related to land, water and…
Blogpost Spotlights New Narratives Reporting on Mining
The Regional Resource Governance in West Africa (ReGo) Programme, funded by German Development Cooperation and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, strengthens the investigative skills of 34 local journalists in three countries to report on the impacts of the mining sector and contribute to a well-informed public debate. Reporting on the mining…
NN Writes on our Role in the Ban on Female Genital Cutting
NN’s Mae Azango and Prue Clarke write on the role of good journalism in breaking the taboo around female genital cutting in Liberia that led to its eventual ban for the Columbia Journalism Review. PRESIDENT ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF left office in January with a tremendous, if overdue, parting gift for the girls of Liberia….
New Narratives Reporters Profiled in Forbes Africa
“I like to talk to the common people, I don’t like politics.” Mae Azango sits on the edge of her bed in her old home that is wedged in a rocky enclave between the gray United States embassy and the modern apartments occupied by expatriate workers in Mamba Point, the poshest part of Monrovia, Liberia….
New Narratives Coverage of Warlord Trial Makes International Media
New Narratives reporters covered the trial of Mohammed Jabateh, convicted of immigration fraud in a Philadelphia court in October 2017. Reporters Tetee Gebro, Jackson Kanneh, James Harding Giahyue provided extensive reporting in Liberia and in the court and Liberian community in Philadelphia. Court art was also done by NN visual artist Chase Walker. Please see…
NN editors launch “African Muckraking” at Global Journalism Conference
If you’re going to the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Johannesburg please come and join us for the launch of “African Muckraking: 100 Years of African Investigative Journalism” edited by Anya Schiffrin, Anton Harber and George Lugalambi. The book features groundbreaking work by our Mae Azango, introduced by our Executive Director Prue Clarke and by Liberian journalist legend…
NN’s Prue Clarke and Mae Azango on Sirleaf’s Legacy for Foreign Policy
The Tearing Down of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf MONROVIA, Liberia — Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will leave office in January as one of the most celebrated African leaders of recent memory — outside of Liberia, that is. The first woman elected to lead a government in Africa, she has presided over a period of peace…
New Narratives/Thomson Reuters Begin Two New Reporting Projects
Monrovia – The new year will see two new training and reporting projects kick off for Liberia’s top journalists. The continuing collaboration between New Narratives Liberia and the Thomson Reuters Foundation will offer journalists the chance to learn about extractives industries and gain ongoing editorial and financial support to report on the mining, forestries, oil…
Call for Applicants for Extractives Reporting Program
The Thomson Reuters Foundation is working with New Narratives, a non-governmental organization that has been driving improvements in Liberia’s media sector for seven years, to run a program that supports Liberian media to cover the country’s extractives industry. Support for the project comes from GIZ. The program has a focus on mining, which is an…
RIP to our dear friend and colleague Prince Collins
We are shocked and saddened at the sudden death of our reporter, leading Liberian journalist Prince Collins. Prince was a presenter with Voice of Firestone radio station and a regular contributor to Voice of America. He was also a proud and loving husband and father. He died today after a short illness. Prince had a long, proud career as…
Liberian students get scholarship U-turn after journalist reports funding collapse
A Liberian journalist taking part in the Foundation’s Wealth of Nations programme has helped force a U-turn after he reported on dozens of students who had had their funding cut by Liberia’s national oil company, NOCAL. NOCAL hit the headlines in June 2015 when it suddenly announced it was close to bankruptcy. The story figured strongly…
Call for Applications: New Narratives and Thomson Reuters Foundation Wealth of Nations project
Take part in our new project, run in collaboration with New Narratives, that supports Liberian journalists and news organizations in covering the country’s oil industry. The call for applications is now closed. Please read on for general information about the scheme. The project will run from 2015-16 and will feature training, mentoring and capacity building…
CPJ Calls on President Sirleaf to Release NN’s Rodney Sieh
Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf President of the Republic of Liberia Executive Mansion Capitol Hill, Monrovia Republic of Liberia Dear President Sirleaf A year ago, you became only the second African head of state to endorse the Declaration of Table Mountain, which calls for the repeal of criminal defamation and “insult” laws throughout Africa. Now,…
New Narratives teams with Thomson Reuters for 3-year Oil Reporting Program
New Narratives is delighted to announce it has partnered with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the corporate charity of Thomson Reuters to run a project that supports Liberian journalists and news organizations to cover the country’s oil industry. The project will run from 2014-16 and will feature training, mentoring and capacity building for Liberian journalists and news organizations….