NN’s Country Manager Mae Azango told visiting Nobel Laureates in Liberia this week that she writes about ordinary Liberians because politicians will just get fatter on her words. “I want to spend my ink on ordinary people,” Mae Azango told the Nobel Women’s Initiative “Women Forging Peace” Delegation in Liberia this week. See the Initiative’s spotlight on…
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NN’s Robtel Pailey and Chase Walker Release Children’s Book on Corruption
Robtel Pailey, opinion columnist for NN and FrontPage Africa, has teamed up with NN’s photographer and FrontPage graphic designer Chase Walker, to produce a groundbreaking book designed to teach children about corruption. “Gbagba” is the story of Sundaymah and Sundaygar, two siblings who live in Grand Bassa County in Liberia. On the way to visit their…
Mae Azango’s Acceptance Speech at the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Awards
“Ladies and Gentlemen. This is my shortest speech ever, because I can talk non-stop for hours without knowing it, but I will try my best to keep it short and simple, (KISS) as journalism requires. Please see video of speech here I am delighted and grateful that the Committee has chosen to recognize my work with…
NN’s Mae Azango Awarded CPJ Press Freedom Award in New York
New York – FrontPage Africa’s Mae Azango was awarded the Committee to Protect Journalists’ prestigious Press Freedom Award at a glittering ceremony in New York Tuesday night. The ceremony was attended by America’s media elite including the New Yorker’s David Remnick and CPJ board member Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post. Azango was one of…
Letter of Support from an Appreciative Reader
Letter from Liberian reader, Flomo Freeman to New Narratives: Today is a very all important one to extend thanks and appreciations to staff and team members at New Narratives media institution. You all are doing an amazing and sacrificial job that many people would otherwise do in a society where many parts remain inaccessible and…
NN’s Mae Azango Wins Major Canadian Press Freedom Award
Please see CJFE’s announcement below: CJFE announces 2012 International Press Freedom Award Winners 2012 International Press Freedom Award winner Mae Azango (CNW Group/Canadian Journalists for Free Expression) Media Mae Azango (Liberia) and Rami Jarrah (Syria) risked their lives to report the news in their countries TORONTO, Sept. 27, 2012 /CNW/ – Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE)…
NN’s Tecee Boley Named IJNET Journalist of the Month
New Narratives is delighted our senior fellow Tecee Boley has been named the International Journalists’ Network (IJNET) Journalist of the Month. Tecee joined NN in July 2010 and has since notched up a string of scoops and awards including a Pulitzer Center grant to cover Water and Sanitation issues and Liberia’s Development Reporter of the…
NN’s Mae Azango Wins Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Award
New Narratives is delighted one of our senior fellows Mae Azango has been chosen as one of four international journalists to receive the 2012 Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Award. The award recognizes Mae’s courage in reporting earlier this year on the health risks of female genital cutting in traditional societies in her…
NN’s Mae Azango is Awarded the Minnie Lee Walker fellowship
NN is proud to announce our reporter Mae Azango, of FrontPage Africa, has been awarded a newly created reporting fellowship in honor of Minnie Lee Walker. The fellowship is given by the Alliance for East Africa, an organization that supports grass roots programs in Africa. It was started by Mrs Walker’s daughter Jean Wr. The…
NN’s Mae Azango on her time in hiding after reporting on FGC
One would never know how real or powerful fear is unless he or she experiences it. I lived with fear for over three weeks after I did a story on female genital cutting that was published on March 8, 2012. I knew this story would attract attention because we published it on International Women’s Day. …
NN’s Tecee Boley Selected for State Department Reporting Tour of US
New Narratives fellow Tecee Boley has been selected for a 10 day reporting tour of the United States looking at “Youth in Politics” in the lead up to the American election. Tecee was chosen by the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Press Center for the tour that will take her to Washington on June 10…
NN’s Prue Clarke in The Guardian on How Donors Limit Impact by Not Funding Media
Mae Azango is one courageous reporter. But she is also a potent weapon in the fight for human rights. Azango’s reporting on female genital cutting (FGC) in her native Liberia brought death threats and sent her and her nine-year-old daughter into hiding. Three weeks later, the Liberian government, having never dared speak publicly about the traditional practice, had taken steps to…
NN’s Wade Williams Wins Prestigious Dag Hammerskjold Fellowship
NN is madly proud of our reporter Wade Williams of FrontPage Africa newspaper for becoming one of four journalists chosen for the 2012 Dag Hammerskjold fellowship. Wade will spend three months in New York learning about the United Nations and covering the 2012 General Assembly. This fellowship follows Wade’s recent double victory at Liberia’s national…
NN’s Mae Azango guest speaker at conference in New York on Saturday
NN’s Mae Azango will be guest speaker at the Campaign Against Female Genital Mutilation conference in New York City on June 16. The event will be held at the New York Academy of Medicine 1216 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street New York, NY Among the awardees at the awards event in the evening will be women’s rights…
Mae Azango exposed a secret ritual in Liberia, putting her life in danger
TODEE, LIBERIA It’s late afternoon in Todee, a village in rural Liberia, and the sun is starting to drop. Mae Azango settles into a taxi for the three-hour drive back to Monrovia, the capital. But this long day hasn’t been quite long enough. Ms. Azango, a journalist, needs to come back on Monday to finish reporting a…
NN’s Mae Azango on US public radio’s “On The Media”
Brook Gladstone intro: When Liberian journalist Mae Azango wrote an article about the taboo topic of female genital mutilation, she and her nine year-old daughter became the targets of multiple threats. Brooke talks to Mae about her reporting that forced the Liberian government to finally take a public position on the practice. GUESTS: Mae Azango…
NN Executive Director Prue Clarke to appear at Deutsche Welle 2012 Global Media Forum
New Narratives’ Executive Director Prue Clarke will present at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn on June 25-27. Prue will join a panel entitled Gender in Journalism and Media Training with experts from Tunisia, Ethiopia, Germany and the USA. Please see more on the conference here and see a video about the conference here. …
NN Reporters Win 4 National Reporting Awards, Most Ever for Women
New Narratives fellows won 4 awards and were finalists for most categories in Liberia’s annual national media awards presented by the Press Union of Liberia (PUL). Tetee Gebro of NN partner Sky FM won best business story of the year for her piece on the impact of the rise of food prices in the country. She…
NN’s Proudest Moment: Reporting Prompts Leaders to Herald End of Female Genital Cutting
In a powerful example of the impact support for African media can have, NN’s reporting has prompted Liberian leaders to announce the end of one of the most harmful practices endured by women in Africa. Reporting by NN’s Mae Azango and Tetee Gebro has prompted the Liberian government and traditional leaders to announce they had shut…
CBC Reports on the Role of NN’s Mae Azango in Leaders’ Decision to End Genital Cutting
Liberian journalist hides, for reporting sexual mutilation Mae Azango is a journalist in Liberia. She’s in hiding fearing for her safety after breaking a national taboo and writing a story about a secret sect that practices female genital mutilation. (Photo: New Narratives) On March 30 it was reported thattraditional tribal leaders have agreed to…
Article on the Difficulty Faced by NN’s Reporters Covering Female Genital Cutting
Monrovia, Liberia: When Kulah Borbor’s daughter was 13 years old, she asked her mother if she could join Liberia’s secret Sande Society. Most Liberian women are members of the Sande, so her daughter’s request was nothing unusual. But Borbor, a gender-based violence officer with the West Point Women for Health and Development Organisation, immediately discouraged…