Afghanistan: Journalism Amid the Darkness
Despite brutal repression, independent outlets continue to provide a rare and precious source of information.
Ukraine Needs Justice, Not Charity
Expert calls for international agreement on the legal basis and conditions under which Russian assets can be used for reconstruction and reparations.
Tuesday, 30 April ‘24
This week’s overview of key events and links to essential reading.
Russian Captain to be Tried for Detention and Torture
Civilians were illegally detained and brutally treated during the occupation of strategic town.
Two Russians Sentenced to Life for Murder and Looting
The servicemen killed four civilians and took their mobile phones which helped investigators identify them.
Tuesday, 23 April ‘24
This week’s overview of key events and links to essential reading.
Why Ukraine’s Fight Must Continue
A premature deal would be wrong, not least because we already tried – and it failed.
Women Support Women
How survivors of sexual violence are working to gather testimony for future justice processes.
![The sister of Aurelio Cruz López holds a sign used in the search for the young man, who disappeared along the U.S.-Mexico border. © Andrea Godínez](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/mexico-migrants4-01-Andrea%20Godinez.jpg?h=89eaa8bb)
![Araceli cries while talking about her brother who disappeared along the border and whose remains were repatriated. © Andrea Godínez](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/mexico-migrants4-04-Andrea%20Godinez.jpg?h=06ac0d8c)
![Cecilia Delgado Grijalva is a buscadora (name adopted by mothers and relatives of missing persons who are devoted to finding the remains of their loves ones) and founder of Buscadoras por la Paz (Searchers for Peace), in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. © Andrea Godínez](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/mexico-migrants3-01-Andrea%20Godinez.jpg?h=93e53cd6)
![A search for family members gone missing in Sonora, Mexico. © Andrea Godínez](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/mexico-migrants3-04-Andrea%20Godinez.jpg?h=06ac0d8c)
![The portion of Evergreen Cemetery in Tucson, Arizona where deceased migrants whose remains are not claimed by their families are buried. © © Andrea Godínez](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/mexico-migrants2-01-Andrea%20Godinez.jpg?h=877dbd4e)
![Gene Hernández, forensic examiner at the Pima County morgue, inside the trailer that holds the remains of migrants who perished along the border. © Andrea Godínez](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/mexico-migrants2-02-Andrea%20Godinez.jpg?h=06ac0d8c)
![Gene Hernández, a forensic medical investigator in Pima County, holds the skull of a deceased migrant. © Andrea Godínez](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/mexico-migrants1-02-Andrea%20Godinez.jpg?h=06ac0d8c)
![Román Coc holds photos of his daughter Laura, who disappeared in the Arizona desert 13 years ago. © Andrea Godínez](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/mexico-migrants1-04-Andrea%20Godinez.jpg?h=06ac0d8c)
![A photograph shows Laura Coc (far right), a young woman from Guatemala, posing during a beauty pageant. © Andrea Godínez](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/mexico-migrants1-01-Andrea%20Godinez.jpg?h=7613783e)
![There are no statistics on cases of femicide - the killing of women on the grounds of hatred of women, with the acquiescence of the state - in Uzbekistan.](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/light-flasher-police-car.jpg?h=65f9a063)
![© Mariam Alimi](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/afghanistan-midwives-zan-times-mariam-alimi.jpg?h=a979cd41)
![Artwork by Mays Al-Saray.](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/iraq-Artwork-1-Mays-Al-Saray.jpg?h=e5565190)
!['Hope of Mother', an organization led by Lisbeth Surita, has registered 48 cases of Venezuelans missing in the border regions.](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/venezuela-48-missing.jpg?h=4362216e)
IWPR Women’s Prize for Journalism
IWPR’s inaugural award for outstanding journalism recognises the work of our network of women reporters worldwide. Working in often challenging environments, these journalists face additional threats such as harassment, gender-based violence and systemic misogyny.
"What was significant for all three of us [judges] was how the stories stayed with us - not just for the amazing yet harrowing insights into these women’s lives but the courage it took for them to keep going, to experience the harshness in which they lived and to tell the world about it through their stories."
![Journalists rush for cover inside a hospital in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on June 19, 2023 amid an Israeli army raid. Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank killed three Palestinians, in a raid that saw seven Israeli security personnel wounded and rare helicopter fire as the army said it pursued "wanted suspects".](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/GettyImages-1258811702.jpg?h=41f55a5b)
![Journalists visit the site of a destroyed Russian munitions depot in Biskvitne, Ukraine to the east of Kharkiv.](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/GettyImages-1397532113.jpg?h=93c822dd)
![A TV journalist prepares to do a piece to camera in front of an armoured personnel carrier on the frontline between Ukrainian forces and pro Russian separatists near the eastern Ukrainian city of Debaltseve, in the Donetsk region on 24, 2014.](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/GettyImages-460852192.jpg?h=6ed6b043)
![An Israeli soldier takes aim from behind a wall as journalists cover their patrol in the Jenin refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank on November 29, 2023, during an ongoing military operation in the camp.](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/GettyImages-1809556133.jpg?h=e295ff8c)
![Samson Wire, a photographer and Boniface Okendo, a videographer at Standard Group, a leading multi-media house in Kenya. Kenyan journalists are warning of escalating tensions and violence amid rising threats to press freedom © Francis Odee](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/kenya-samson-wire-boniface-okendo-standard-group-journos_0.jpg?h=41f55a5b)
![A man carries items on a bicycle while walking next to a woman as people remove possessions and inspect their homes following Israeli airstrikes on April 13, 2024 in Khan Yunis, Gaza.](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/GettyImages-2148520542.jpg?h=41f55a5b)
![Former female radio presenter Marya Sultani during an interview with AFP at radio station Urooj in Farah province on October 10, 2021. Radio station Urooj once teamed with journalists producing news bulletins, but since the Taliban came to town, Ebrahim Parhar sits alone, broadcasting hours of religious sermons. © AFP via Getty Images](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/GettyImages-1235907637.jpg?h=41f55a5b)
![A Guatemalan journalist protests against the arrest of Jose Ruben Zamora, president of the newspaper El Periodico, outside the Justice Palace in Guatemala City, on July 30, 2022. © JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP via Getty Images](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/GettyImages-1242203781.jpg?h=012f5aa1)
![In this picture taken on September 8, 2021, Afghan newspaper Etilaat Roz journalists Nematullah Naqdi (R) and Taqi Daryabi sit in their office after being released from Taliban custody in Kabul. - Two Afghan journalists have shown off ugly welts and bruises after being beaten and detained for hours by Taliban fighters for covering a protest in the Afghan capital. © WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/GettyImages-1235137200.jpg?h=4cb2014a)
![A news anchor waits for a broadcast as another 13 Israeli hostages are released from Gaza and brought back to Israel, during the third day of the temporary truce, outside The Museum of Modern Art known as the 'The Hostages and Missing Square' on November 25, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel.](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/GettyImages-1815405409.jpg?h=1987d397)
![Moldova blocked access to more than 20 Russian media websites in October of last year, including Russia Today, saying they had been used as part of an information war against the country. © Misha Friedman/Getty Images](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/GettyImages-1187916857.jpg?h=37f38098)
![Graffiti on Haaret's office, Tel Aviv, March 27, 2024. From left to right: "The law and Torah study or the death penalty for all of us," "The shills of Amalek (the existential Biblical enemy of the Jewish people), "Israel's al-Jazeera".](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/israel-graffiti-haaretz.jpg?h=41f55a5b)
![Journalists of Radio Liberty (Azattyk Ynalgysy) work in the bureau in Bishkek on April 28, 2023. - A court in Russia-allied Kyrgyzstan on April 27, 2023 ordered the closure of the local branch of US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which criticised the "outrageous" ruling. Award-winning Radio Azattyk is a prominent outlet in the Central Asian country that regularly reports on opposition groups and investigates alleged corruption. © VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO/AFP via Getty Images](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/focus_main_image_932_x_580_/public/images/story/GettyImages-1252254069.jpg?h=7205b073)
World Press Freedom Day 2024
On World Press Freedom Day we focus on local journalists facing myriad challenges in the tireless pursuit of truth and their enduring efforts to bring meaningful change.
Highlights from IWPR’s Consortium to Support Independent Journalism in Latin America (CAPIR).
An investigation by ContraCorriente, one of the investigative units IWPR supports in Honduras, revealed abuses including robbery, torture and kidnappings allegedly inflicted on citizens by police officers. The investigation also addressed how the state of emergency, in place since 2022, has allowed these abuses to occur with impunity. The authorities deny responsibility, claiming that organised criminal groups are using replica uniforms to pose as police officers.
A transnational publication by the investigative units of Plaza Pública and Criterio media revealed the huge extent of Asian cigarette smuggling in northern Central America. In addition to the health problems and millions of dollars lost to tax evasion, this also finances organised crime trafficking of drugs, weapons and humans. The investigation highlighted the failure of institutional efforts to stop this problem, aggravated by the complicity of officials who help falsify documents.
A story by the IWPR beneficiaries Guardiana and La Nube media outlets revealed the unauthorised sale of "medical preparations" to treat mental illnesses such as depression in a market in Cochabamba, one of Bolivia's largest cities. The story showed how products were marketed without information about their ingredients, including unlicensed natural remedies from Peru and Brazil. In response, the Cochabamba department of health announced it would increase the number of police operatives in the market where these products are sold.
Highlights from IWPR’s Central Asia network of analysis and investigations.
The construction of the Qosh Tepa canal in Afghanistan is causing water shortages in southern Uzbekistan, while in Kyrgyzstan the government is considering the construction of a nuclear power plant. In Kazakstan, conservation activists are working to save the Central Asian tortoise from extinction.
Elsewhere, CABAR delves into the efforts by Central Asian authorities to detect, reduce and prevent statelessness across the region.
Journalism in Conflict: Reporting from Ukraine and Beyond
Founder Anthony Borden reflects on the 30-year journey of IWPR and how local voices meet the challenge of global disinformation.
Human Rights in Africa
Six-part podcast looks at how telling crucial stories can change lives on the ground.
Moldovan Media and Officials Fight Fake News Together
A lack of accurate government information provides fertile ground for false narratives to feed distrust and ultimately destabilise the country.
Ukraine Justice Report
IWPR project will document long, painful and essential journey to bring Russia’s military impunity to an end.
Central Asian Analysts Meet Georgia’s Vibrant Civil Society
Cross-border visit supports delegates’ research and analytical skills and builds regional cooperation.
Vietnam: Former IWPR Mentor Receives International Press Freedom Award
Imprisoned writer honoured for her tireless work seeking to hold authorities to account.
Go Viral Festivals Spark Collaboration Across Central Asia
Events travel to region’s five capitals with the aim of inspiring creativity and cross-border connections.
Moldovan Journalists Explain High Cost of Disinformation
Media literacy seminars in more remote parts of the country highlight danger of fake news.
Moldovan Media Learn New Skills to Build Resilience
Programme provides emergency response to fighting fake news surrounding the Ukraine conflict.
![Buzova village resident Oleksandr looks on as police exhume the bodies of his mother, brother and son to investigate alleged war crimes by Russian forces during the invasion of Ukraine on May 21, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Buzova village resident Oleksandr looks on as police exhume the bodies of his mother, brother and son to investigate alleged war crimes by Russian forces during the invasion of Ukraine on May 21, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine.](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/grid_desktop_456_x_508_/public/images/focus/GettyImages-1398467434.jpg?h=41f55a5b)
Ukraine Justice Report
![A street in Chisinau, capital of Moldova. A street in Chisinau, capital of Moldova.](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/grid_desktop_456_x_508_/public/images/focus/Moldova-Chisinau-street-iwpr.jpg?h=41f55a5b)
Countering Disinformation in Moldova
![IWPR Founder and Executive Director Anthony Borden reporting from Mykolaiv, Ukraine, 10 May, 2022. IWPR Founder and Executive Director Anthony Borden reporting from Mykolaiv, Ukraine, 10 May, 2022.](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/q_glossy+ret_img/https://iwpr.net/sites/default/files/styles/grid_desktop_456_x_508_/public/images/focus/Tony-Borden-Mykolaiv.jpg?h=d1cb525d)
Ukraine War Diary by Anthony Borden
Democratic accountability comes from journalists investigating their own societies – IWPR provides a much needed platform and support for those reporting from some of the most dangerous and difficult places in the world.
Disinformation is a major global threat , especially in conflict and post-conflict areas. IWPR performs a vital mission, building up local voices as a bulwark against this challenge.
IWPR fills a critical gap by helping local journalists to focus on human rights and justice issues. In the process, it contributes to democratic transitions, and demonstrates that the best war reporting is not about military conflict, but human consequences.