Journalism Innovation and Leadership 2022

Programme Participants

Nicola Adam is an editor, journalist and writer. Currently Editor of Blackpool Gazette and associate editor of Lancashire Post, she’s a columnist, author and travel writer. A former presenter at BBC Radio Lancashire, she provides news analysis to Times Radio and BBC Radio 4.

Aida Amir Aslani is an Iranian journalist based in London. She started her career at the age of 14 in Tehran, she worked as a journalist in various newspapers and TV channels inside Iran for more than 15 years. After she studied a Master course in international relations in Italy, she joined an Iranian TV station in the UK, where in the first year she was covering social and political stories related to Iran and in the second year she changed her role and started working as an audience insight analyst and was helping the newsroom to produce more customised and targeted content for the audience. Since then she has been trying to improve her data skills, and learn how to use various analytical tools and programming languages.

RLara Ayoud is a Digital media strategist, communications specialist at the UN and Co-founder of a Jordanian NGO, SADAQA, which advocates for an enabling work environment for women. Board Member of Save the Children – Jordan & WAN -IFRA Middle East.

Ranoba Baoa is a second-generation Banaban who settled on Rabi Island in Fiji from Kiribati during the Colonial period. She is the Managing Editor – Production at the Fiji Sun, Fiji and the Pacific’s biggest newspaper.

Amina Bedjaoui Chaouche is a tri-lingual journalist and editor at Radio Algerian based in Tlemcen, located in the extreme northwest of the country. She is President of the Algerian National Media Forum in Tlemcen

Andrew Dagnell has spent the last 15 years working in journalism – first in regional and then national newspapers, before moving into broadcast news. He currently runs the newsgathering department at ITV News, overseeing a team of 130 in the UK and foreign bureaux. He is passionate about driving original journalism and breaking stories, building strong teams, nurturing new, diverse talent and bringing about change that prepares our newsroom for the future.He is keen to learn how to develop news operations so that they embrace digital innovation wholeheartedly.

Rhiannon J Davies is the founder and editor of Greater Govanhill, an award-winning magazine and social enterprise. Greater Govanhill is a solutions-focused, free, multilingual community magazine and website. The aim of the magazine was to reimagine hyperlocal community news, creating something constructive, inspirational and inclusive, providing a platform for underrepresented voices. Although only launched in 2020, it has already won ‘Regional Magazine of the Year’ at News Awards UK, and ‘One to Watch’ at Social Enterprise Scotland Awards. Rhiannon is also shortlisted for the ‘Georgina Henry Awards for Digital Innovation’ at the British Journalism Awards.

Tendai Kamhungira has told the Zimbabwean story from different angles over the past 10 years. He covered the Solomon Mujuru inquest, one of the country’s most decorated generals, who died in an inferno at his farm, 80km from Harare. He has also written about the election disputes in Zimbabwe between the late former president Robert Mugabe and the late opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Having worked for The Herald, he joined The Daily News in 2011, starting off as a junior reporter, rising to become the News Editor before being transferred to the Financial Gazette, where he is currently the News Editor.

Laura Elvin-Knight is currently head of news content discovery at SWNS, an international news gathering machine, feeding the national and international media with stories. She manages its first non-geographical news gathering team, providing exclusives to the national and international press. She started at SWNS as a reporter, and in 2016 won the NAPAs award for news spec story of the year for breaking a series of stories on Olive Cooke. She was Britain’s oldest poppy seller who was hounded for donations until her death, and ultimately the stories led to a change in the law. Before becoming a news editor at SWNS and then heading up both their news selling websites, she started her career in journalism as a reporter at daily newspaper, the Leicester Mercury.

Rachael Krishna says the core of her career to date has been covering social media and the culture it creates. This has taken her from working as a reporter on global internet cultures, through fact-checking misinformation to working for a social media company on the Trends product, specialising still in combatting misinformation.

Hussein Melele worked on various position on communication field such as the very first National Communication Officer of Youth of United Nations Association of Tanzania (YUNA) and Advocacy and Communication Manager at Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDC).He has been able to write various publications such as the Human Rights Defenders Situation Report of Tanzania and the report was annually being submitted to UN Human Rights Commission. Currently, he has started recording a TV program that covers the outstanding works of young leaders on Human Rights promotion and their works on Sustainable Development Goals.

Maureen Mudi has been a practicing journalist for 18 years. She worked for The Standard Newspaper, and Baraka FM. Maureen has also been the chief correspondent for The Star Newspaper-Radio Africa Group, before joining Media Council of Kenya, as regional coordinator for Coast. She is a Media Viability Consultant with DWA, training media houses on Audience Research and Content Prototyping, Basic Human Resource, Basic Accounting and Financial Modelling. She is a ToT on E-Training, Mentoring program under DW. She has been an Association of Media Women in Kenya exchange program participant under Fredskorpset program, working in Uganda Media Women Association. She is an alumnus of the professional fellows at International Centre for Journalists, where she was at the United States.

Churchill Otieno is a Kenyan editor and a digital journalist. He currently serve as the President of the Kenya Editors Guild and a senior editor at Nation Media Group Plc, where he is responsible for the newsroom effort to transform into a digital publisher. He has led nation.africa to win several awards at INMA and an WAN-Ifra, and was a Freedom Forum fellow in 2000.

Zweli Sibanda is Managing Director of 3TV, Zimabwe’s first private television station which will debute in 2022. He took that role having joined the holding company, Jester Media Services, in the print division as Finance Manager. He began his career as an accounting graduate trainee at a Murray and Roberts plastic manufacturing division called Proplastics and has worked as managemennt account and financial manager in variety of industries before moving to the media sector.

Rachel Sibley is the Podcast Lead for Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), one of Australia’s public broadcasters. She supports all podcast projects across the organisation, from inception to release and beyond. Before working at SBS, Rachel began her career in commercial radio, first at Nova Entertainment, then at startup radio station Kinderling Kids Radio. It was here that her passion for podcasts was first ignited, and since then she’s been unable to press the pause button. She was nominated for the Radio Today 30 Under 30 in 2020.

Jenna Verster is the night news editor for News24, South Africa’s most trusted and largest news brand. She lead sa small team to push accurate, breaking news and prepare stories of interest for an early morning audience. Prior to entering management, she covered the country’s most gripping and tragic murder trials for our readers. Before that, she was a bureau chief and journalist at SA Press Association, the country’s oldest news wire service.

Ed Walker is Audience and Content Director for Reach PLC’s regional titles. He works as part of the senior leadership team at the largest multimedia publisher in the UK, with brands including the Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo and Ed is also responsible for the company’s central news output covering UK & trending news, video and the Reach Live network’s late newsdesk operation. He is also editor-in-chief for InYourArea, Reach’s hyperlocal community news and information platform. In 2020 it was named as the third-most downloaded news app in the UK by Press Gazette. Ed has worked in senior editorial roles at Reach for Birmingham Live, Liverpool Echo, WalesOnline, Newcastle Chronicle, Berkshire Live and Cheshire Live since joining the company in 2010. Ed also founded Blog Preston in 2009 and it has gone on to become one of the UK’s largest independent news websites, spending a decade reporting on the city before moving into a non-executive role for the Community Interest Company.

Raymond Zarurai is a media researcher, journalist and communications specialist who has been working within Zimbabwe’s civic society for the past five years. Currently he is working with a media startup called CommuTalk News which seeks address the problem of inadequate access to information for the citizens of Zimbabwe and lack of informed decision making, with a focus of humanitarian information. He has previously worked with Media Monitors in the quest for better journalism standards in Zimbabwe. He also contributes to the Tenacity Post as a foreign policy journalist.