Souad Mekhennet, a 2013 Nieman Fellow, has been selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Mekhennet is a German journalist, author, and associate at the Weatherhead Center at Harvard and at the School for Advanced and International Studied at Johns Hopkins University. Read more
Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa, King of Bahrain, came to the throne in 1999. Since then, he has expanded the rights of women, modernized his country, and established Bahrain as a financial center in the region. Two years ago, on February 14, 2011, several thousand demonstrators gathered in the Bahraini capital, Manama, to demand more popular political participation and reform. To many Western commentators and journalists, it was a sign that the Arab Spring was spreading to the Gulf countries. Read more
Souad Mekhennet, NF ’13, reports on the state of reform in Bahrain two years after the Arab Spring: “Western politicians, the public, and political organizations were quick to take the side of those who went on the street and protested. Some of them genuinely wanted democracy, but many were actually protesting against corruption or for more rights and resources. And, anyway, not everyone who claimed to be protesting for democracy was talking about rights and values but about voting systems.” Read more
Three current Nieman Fellows have won journalism awards this fall for work done online and on air. Homicide Watch D.C., co-founded by Nieman Fellow Laura Amico and her husband Chris, took home the Knight Award for Public Service at the Online News Association’s annual conference in San Francisco. The couple received a standing ovation when the award was announced, a hard-earned reward after running the website out of their home for two years and struggling for funding. Accepting the award, Laura said “We mark every death, we remember every victim and we follow every case.” Chris noted, “For everyone who is on their own, building a business from the ground up, this one’s for you.” Read more
