Annual Report 2011
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ANNUAL REPORT 2011 Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting PULITZER CENTER ON CRISIS REPORTING | ANNUAL REPORT 2011 | 1 We will illuminate “dark places and, with a deep sense of responsibility, interpret these troubled times. JOSEPH PULITZER III (1913-1993)” Founded in 2006, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is a leader in sponsoring Pulitzer Center on the independent journalism that media organizations are increasingly less able to Crisis Reporting undertake on their own. The Pulitzer Center’s mission is to raise the standard of coverage of global affairs and to do so in a way that engages the broad public and 1779 Massachusetts Avenue, NW government policy-makers. Suite 615 Washington, DC 20036 The Pulitzer Center is a bold initiative, in keeping with its sponsorship by a family whose name for more than a century has been a watchword for journalistic 202-332-0982 independence, integrity and courage. The Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. www.pulitzercenter.org TABLE OF CONTENTS Letter from Board Chair and 3 Executive Director 2011 Reporting Projects 6 Global Gateway 12 Campus Consortium 16 Event Highlights 19 Awards and Honors 20 Staff, Board of Directors and 22 Advisory Council Donors 23 ” Contact Information and Credits 24 PULITZER CENTER ON CRISIS REPORTING | ANNUAL REPORT 2011 | 1 one on water and sanitation in West Africa and the second on reproductive health issues across Africa. Each pairs an international journalist with local journalists recruited from African countries. LETTER FROM BOARD CHAIR Thanks to a generous group of diverse donors we had the opportunity in 2011 to expand greatly our coverage of gold, AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR oil and other extractive industries as well as commodities in general. The rapid industrialization of countries such as ollaboration was a principal characteristic of our work in India, China and Brazil and a voracious consumer culture C 2011, from reporting and news media placements to our in Europe, the United States and Japan mean ever greater work with schools and universities. It was the hallmark of new demand for these raw materials—and ever greater pressures partnerships we forged to showcase our photography. And, on the individuals, communities and environments that bear not least, it was a key factor in significant new grants that the costs of providing them. In our projects we’ve tried to extend our work. expose those costs, from remote Amazon gold mines to the displacement caused by palm oil plantations in southeast Asia. Anna Badkhen’s year-long project produced 38 unforgettable The projects are showcased on Global Goods, Local Costs, our reports from the villages of northern Afghanistan, in newest Gateway. partnership with Foreign Policy and The New Republic. Another long-term collaboration, our project with Rebecca Hamilton on the turbulent birth of South Sudan, produced 48 reports for outlets ranging from The Washington Post and In 2011, we launched 58 new projects, Foreign Policy to PBS NewsHour, The Atlanticand Foreign providing $911,000 in reporting grants. Affairs. Yet another initiative, Nick Miroff’s groundbreaking project on the spread of Mexico’s drug wars to its neighbors These projects resulted in 320 external in Central America, was featured on the front page of The placements in more than 100 outlets, as Washington Post and on NPR’s Morning Edition. well as over 300 Untold Stories. Uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East were the story of the year, producing steady coverage even by We had more than 200 new videos posted media outlets that have drastically reduced their reporting to YouTube—where we’ve now had close budgets. Our role was to facilitate sustained attention to to two million views on our channels. underreported themes, like Ellen Knickmeyer’s reporting from five countries on how the region’s youth bulge helped fuel revolutions, Bill Wheeler’s searing indictment of In our continuing effort to reach new Europe’s closed-door response to African migrant workers audiences online, we doubled our Twitter fleeing the war in Libya, and the sobering accounts by Yochi followers and Facebook fans. Dreazen and David Enders on the likely future for Iraq. A six-month grant to Sharif Abdel Kouddous made possible a stream of memorable reports from Tahrir Square and beyond for Democracy Now! and The Nation, while Reese Erlich got Photography and video have featured in our work from the rare access in Syria to produce first-hand radio reports for beginning but this past year marked a major advance in Marketplace and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. our use of visual media. Collaboration, again, was key. A partnership with Human Rights Watch, photographer Marcus In this ever-shrinking world we are increasingly conscious of Bleasdale and print journalist Joe Bavier documented as has our responsibility to draw on journalists from the countries no one else the vicious assault on Central African villages by on which we report, making sure that their voices—and their the Lord’s Resistance Army. We funded a multimedia version expertise—are part of the public debate. That challenge is at of Stephanie Sinclair’s project on child brides and then the heart of the Persephone Miel Fellowship we launched in worked with National Geographic and our university partners 2011, in partnership with Internews, with the express intent to bring the project to the widest possible public. We made of giving non-American journalists access to the international Marcus and Stephanie’s work the centerpiece of our summer media market. Shaheen Buneri, the first of our Miel Fellows, exhibit Speaking to Silence, and then featured them along with produced reports from Pakistan’s Swat Valley for Radio six other Pulitzer Center photographers in the Beyond Witness Free Europe, our own Untold Stories, and Boston Review. In exhibit we presented this fall at FotoWeekDC. Among the 2011 we also launched two collaborative reporting projects, photographers was Richard Mosse, the subject of yet another PULITZER CENTER ON CRISIS REPORTING | ANNUAL REPORT 2011 | 3 collaboration—this time with Aperture Foundation, with A significant grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates whom we co-published the book “Infra,” Richard’s unique Foundation gives us the opportunity to take our full model exploration of conflict in the eastern Congo through the to Europe. We will partner with news media outlets there and prism of infra-red photography. with schools and universities to engage Europeans in our work on issues related to health and development. We’re grateful Part of our excitement in expanding the visual-media work is for this support, for the faith it shows in the multi-pronged seeing how valuable those assets are in our education outreach strategy of issue-awareness campaigns we have pursued. and public engagement. The multimedia performance piece that we created out of our video poetry project on We appreciate as well the foundations and individuals who post-earthquake Haiti was a featured presentation at the have given us sustained support—from the Kendeda Fund National Black Theatre Festival; it was also part of our and Humanity United to the MAC AIDS Fund, Wallace submission that won the National Press Club’s prize for best Global Fund, the Educational Foundation of America, Stanley online journalism. In early 2012 we are staging additional Foundation and McCormick Foundation. That represents an performances in Port-au-Prince and at the University of essential collaboration too, on the side of donors. We intend Miami, one of the newest of our Campus Consortium to do everything we can to merit their continued confidence. partners. That consortium now numbers 14, a diverse range We invite others to join us in this rewarding work. of colleges and universities that has helped us develop a wide array of approaches in using our journalism, from Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Board Chair large campus events to intense seminar experiences and Jon Sawyer, Executive Director individual student opportunities for reporting abroad. Our Global Gateway work with secondary and primary schools is growing, too, with a mix of in-person journalism visits and online resources that reached more than 200,000 individuals during 2011. 4 PULITZER CENTER ON CRISIS REPORTING | ANNUAL REPORT 2011 | 7 2011 REPORTING PROJECTS East Africa: The Not-Inevitable Crisis Sky-rocketing food prices, drought, conflict and an insufficient international response have left populations in the Horn of Africa on the brink of famine. SAM LOEWENBERG reports that this is a crisis that didn’t have to happen. Ghana: Avoiding the Oil Curse CHRISTIANE BADGLEY looks at Ghana’s efforts to transform newly productive oil fields into an economic blessing instead of a curse. Uganda: Broken Warriors MAX DELANY, MARC HOFER and DUNCAN WOODSIDE travel to Uganda’s Karamoja region, home to tribes of cattle-herding, Kalashnikov-wielding nomads AFRICA who have been trapped in a cycle of violence and poverty for generations. Nigeria: Divided Under God JOE BAVIER and BÉNÉDICTE KURZEN explore the sectarian violence sparked by a deepening rift between Nigeria’s Muslims and Christians. The conflict has killed thousands over the past decade and threatens the future unity of Africa’s most populous nation. Tanzania: A Refugee Chooses Between Two Worlds MARY WILTENBURG looks at the difficult choices facing one refugee who is offered asylum in the US. Ethiopia: Somali Refugees Flee Fighting and Famine FRED DE SAM LAZARO examines how famine and war have pushed tens of thousands of Somali refugees to camps along the Ethiopian border. Ivory Coast: Elections Turn to War Ethiopia: Casualties of the Adoption Boom Instead of a turn to peace and prosperity, Ivory Coast’s KATHRYN JOYCE uncovers corruption and heartbreak as long-delayed presidential elections marked a return to Ethiopia cashes in on the international adoption boom.