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October update
Welcome to the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s October update. In this newsletter, you’ll find highlights from across our areas of work, as well as the latest opportunities for you to get involved. If you don’t regularly receive our newsletter, you can subscribe here.
Next week: Trust Conference!
We are delighted to be welcoming delegates to London for our flagship event, Trust Conference, next week on 26 & 27 October.
From the need to build more inclusive and sustainable economies amidst a climate crisis to surging attacks on media freedom and emerging digital rights risks, Trust Conference will tackle some of the most critical issues of our time. See the full agenda here, or read on for more details about our stellar lineup of speakers and sessions.
With less than a week to go, there's still a chance to get one of the last remaining tickets.
What can you expect at Trust Conference?
Day one of Trust Conference features a series of sessions on media freedom and digital rights, including:
- A keynote speech by Dmitry Muratov, Nobel Laureate and Editor-in-Chief of Novaya Gazeta, on how the crisis in Ukraine is affecting the media’s ability to operate independently and hold power to account, and our collective responsibility to protect this pillar of democratic society
- CNN Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour CBE in conversation with winners of the Kurt Schork award, which recognises excellence in the reporting of conflict, corruption, and justice
- An opportunity to hear Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe speak about being detained in Iran, how she survived solitary confinement and her insight into Iran’s justice system and the protests currently spreading across the country
- Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Brittany Kaiser, data rights advocate Professor David Carroll, and others discussing the notorious data breach, and what has changed in the five years since
The second day of Trust Conference focuses on global efforts to create inclusive, green economies. Sessions include:
- Climate activist Vanessa Nakate will open the day with a keynote speech on her campaigning to highlight the interdependencies of climate change, gender inequality and poverty
- Looking ahead to COP27 with Inger Andersen, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme, who will give her view on the key climate issues facing the global leaders, institutions, and companies gathering at the yearly conference.
- A discussion on designing sustainable development strategies that aim to tackle inequality with Oxfam GB CEO Dr. Dhananjayan Skriskandarajah, Open Society Foundations president Lord Mark Malloch-Brown and SVP, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Sancia Dalley
2022 Kurt Schork Awards winners announced
The Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism celebrate the debt we owe to brave journalists who report on conflict, corruption and injustice. Now in their 21st year, the Awards are named in honour of the late American journalist Kurt Schork, who was killed in Sierra Leone while on assignment for Reuters in 2000.
This year’s News Fixer Award went to Kyaw Ye Lynn from Myanmar. In the wake of the military coup – and despite the junta’s tightened media restrictions for international reporters – Kyaw worked in dangerous conditions to track down sources, verify information and recommend story angles to international news outlets that were covering the unfolding events from afar.
Kenneth R. Rosen, an American journalist, won the Freelance Award for his multifaceted investigative work. Kenneth travelled to the frontlines in Ukraine to shine a light on Russian cyber warfare, whilst also reporting on the control of oil resources in Syria and the inhumane treatment of migrants in Europe.
For the first time, a selection of the 2022 and 2021 winners will discuss their award-winning stories - as well as their motivations for putting themselves at risk to keep the world informed - at Trust Conference. The conversation will be moderated by CNN’s Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour CBE, who reported on the frontlines of the Bosnian War alongside Kurt.
What does it take to drive social change on a global scale?
A new blog by our CEO, Antonio Zappulla OMRI
Ahead of this year’s Trust Conference, Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO Antonio Zappulla OMRI sets out his vision for combatting the complex, interlinked challenges the world faces.
As the crisis in Ukraine disrupts fuel security and exacerbates the need to shift towards green energy, climate change is already generating record-breaking heatwaves and unprecedented wildfires. As the situation worsens, it is becoming increasingly clear that the climate crisis disproportionately affects the young, the old, women, and the poor, deepening inequality. This is just one example of the knock-on effect global crises initiate.
When faced with such threats, it is vital to convene global players to share expertise, discuss solutions, and identify avenues for collaboration.
October updates across the Foundation
Media Freedom:
Pre-launch of TrustLaw CPJ Know Your Rights Guide at The Media Rumble
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has begun a series of activities to build interest ahead of the launch of the Know Your Rights Guide for Journalists, which TrustLaw
facilitated with support from the law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. The guide equips Indian journalists with a working understanding of the rights, remedies, and protection measures available to them under Indian law. The need for the guide was discussed at an event at the Asian College of Journalism on Monday 10 October, and this was covered in a news article by The Hindu.
Throughout the week, CPJ carried out pre-launch discussions across the country, which culminated at The Media Rumble on Friday 14 October, where the guide was previewed. Nanditha from TrustLaw was present at The Media Rumble to talk about the ways in which the Foundation is developing tools and resources to support journalists.
Inclusive Economies:
Just Transition Podcast is now LIVE!
Hosted by the award-winning Iman Amrani, the Just Transition Podcast takes you around the world with our correspondents Fábio Teixeira, Anuradha Nagaraj, Roli Srivastava and Avi Asher-Schapiro to meet extraordinary people at the sharp end of the inequalities resulting from the shift to greener economies.
In Episode 1: The Price of Sweetness, we explore how thousands of workers on Brazil’s sugarcane plantations are forced to endure slave-like conditions at a time when the country’s sugarcane industry becomes a major global supplier of ethanol - a biofuel meant to help cut the use of fossil fuels and carbon emissions.
Check it out, and please review, rate, share, and subscribe! (Website - Apple - Spotify - Amazon - Google - Stitcher)
Human Rights:
Your manager is an algorithm. Here’s how to fight back
Workers in the gig economy are increasingly exposed to an unprecedented level of monitoring. To make matters worse, automated decisions that workers can’t make sense of or challenge are controlling millions of working lives. The algorithms that dictate these decisions are opaque, and the consequences of managing people in this way are poorly understood.
A new piece by data rights experts Ravi Naik and Alex Lawrence-Archer explains how we ended up in a situation where so many livelihoods are at the whim of data-driven tech, where the tech is heading, and how workers can fight back. Read more.
Discover more in our focus areas:
This month we recommend
Read: OPINION: Turkey must five me the evidence it has about the murder of my husband, Jamal Khashoggi | Hanan El Khashoggi, Guardian
Read: OPINION: Is the world keeping its COP26 promises? | William Worley, Devex
Watch: Video - Crypto firms are trading digital tokens backed by carbon credits, but is it more about profit than the planet and people? | Context
Attend: The Social Enterprise’s biannual event Summit of Summits: Business As Unusual is just a few weeks away! Don’t miss your chance to hear from leaders across the social enterprise space as they address a range of crucial topics such as advocacy and policy, human wellness, access to markets, and innovative and adaptive practices. You can save 10% off on tickets with our Community Partner discount using the code 'TRUSTLAW10'.
New tools and guidance from our partner, Impact Management Platform
The Impact Management Platform is a collaboration between the leading providers of sustainability standards and guidance that are coordinating efforts to mainstream the practice of impact management. The ‘actions and landscape of impact management’ is the Partners’ consensus view of impact management and how their resources can support its practice.
This guidance can be found on the Platform website, and is intended both for organisations, and for investors and financial institutions. To ensure that this content meets the needs of practitioners and stays in line with the evolving landscape of standards and guidance, the Platform Partners have released a survey to gain insights from those that use the website. It will take less than 10 minutes to complete, but will inform improvements planned for early 2023.
Click here to access the survey and be part of the Platform’s first round of content iterations since it launched in November 2021. The survey will close on 31st October.
Opportunities:
Programme Officer, North America and the Caribbean, TrustLaw. Based in New York, the Programme Officer will support, engage, and devise strategies to expand a community of NGO and social enterprise members across the region, working closely with the regional Legal Programme Manager and Legal Officer.
Legal Officer, North America and the Caribbean, TrustLaw. Based in New York, the Legal Officer will manage legal pro bono projects from TrustLaw’s community of NGOs and social enterprises and support the team on thought leadership initiatives.
Social Media Manager, Openly. Based in London, United Kingdom, the Social Media Manager will help run editorial channels for Openly, our global digital platform delivering impartial LGBTQ+ news across the world.
We are the corporate foundation of Thomson Reuters, the global news and information services company. We work to advance media freedom, foster more inclusive economies, and promote human rights.
