Feminist investigative journalism fellows are at the heart of openDemocracy’s Tracking the Backlash project, which has two goals – to expose and challenge the backlash against universal human rights, and to challenge exclusion in the media.
In 2018, we launched our new fellowship programme for young women and LGBTIQ people, to help them develop their skills and confidence in investigative journalism while working on groundbreaking projects. Each fellowship lasts six months, with each fellow being mentored by a more senior journalist. Every year, these opportunities receive hundreds of applications from around the world, and so far we have trained fellows from Armenia, Georgia, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Uganda, the UK and the US.
Our fellows have worked on many of our biggest stories – including our 18-country investigation into anti-abortion misinformation and our work revealing $280m of ‘dark money’ from US Christian right groups flowing around the world. They’ve learned new skills in data journalism, undercover reporting, feature writing and much more.
