4 Journalists

EXHIBITION, PANEL DISCUSSION

4 Journalists

4 Interrupted Lives Exhibition

This exhibition is dedicated to four journalists who died in the line of duty: Veronica Guerin (Ireland), Anna Politkovskaya (Russia), Natalia Estemirova (Chechnya) and Daphne Caruana Galizia (Malta). It celebrates their courage, their resilience, their belief in freedom of expression, the importance of bearing witness and chronicling the truth without fear or favour, and the universality of human rights.

These four women wove their lives around a singular idea, that of a society free of corruption, brutality and oppression. We believe their lives and work exemplify values that are worth living by and ideals worth aspiring to.

They personify the values-based approach to journalism that not only records facts but also speaks to human values and emotional truth. We hope that glimpses into their achievements and struggles – their twinned personal and professional realities as people, mothers, professionals – will kickstart a dialogue on the shifting interface between journalistic investigations and the ethics and function of truth in contemporary society.

This exhibition will juxtapose short films displaying extracts from their work or their descriptions of it with material evoking rituals from their personal lives. This will provide a basis for panel discussions and leiturias in a companion event at Casa Fernando Pessoa on April 14 on journalistic truth, freedom and narrativization with journalists and activists who have a lived-in experience of truth telling and standing up to power hierarchies.

This is how we remember them and honour them and their ethos.

We will kick off the exhibition with a vernissage on April 13 at 4 pm with an introduction by Lana Estemirova (journalist) and Martina Urso (activist from the Daphne Foundation).

13-18 APRIL 2023

FRIDAY, APRIL 14

PANEL DISCUSSION

This event celebrates the audacity of truth-telling while raising questions. What is the biggest worry of journalists working in the field today? How effective are the organisations that have sprung up over the last two decades to protect journalists? Are activist organisations playing a complementary role? What is the role of the public apart from consumption of news? What else can the public do?

How has social media changed the journalistic landscape in the last couple of decades? Is social media a friend or a foe of today’s journalist? In a world torn by conflict, is there a dividing line between “impartial” journalism and activism or have they become impossibly intertwined?
These issues will be highlighted through a panel discussion with journalists and activists who have experienced the harsh choices and harsher consequences of bearing witness to the truth in troubled corners of the world, ranging from Lebanon and Yemen to Chechnya and Malta, closer to home.

LANA ESTEMIROVA is a writer and activist working with the Justice for Journalists foundation. Her first book ‘Please, Live!’ is set to be published by the John Murray Publishing House in spring 2025.

AFRAH NASSER, is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC. She formerly worked as the Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch. Afrah is a Yemeni journalist, researcher and human rights advocate for nearly 15 years, who lives between Yemen and Sweden.

Trained in Cinema, Journalism, Photography, Sound Engineering and Communication, NADA RAPHAEL runs her own production company in Montreal in 2003 which produces documentaries and organizes photo exhibits between Lebanon and Canada, chronicling various aspects of the ever-changing dynamic of violent turmoil that is Lebanon, through which she aims to change the narrative and initiate positive change.

TINA URSO is Chief Operations Officer at the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation. She has been with the Foundation since 2020, where she focuses on accountability and press freedom projects. Before that, Tina ran an anti-corruption grassroots activism group that campaigned for justice for Daphne both in Malta and internationally.

The 4 Journalists

IRELAND

Veronica Guerin

Veronica Guerin (5 July 1959 – 26 June 1996) was born in Dublin, Ireland. A teenage standout at both basketball and football, she went on to represent Ireland in both sports. She studied accounting at Trinity College, and worked for a while in PR but it wasn’t until she moved sideways to journalism that Veronica found her true calling. Starting off as a business reporter, she then moved to investigative reporting and crime investigations, at a time when Dublin was awash in drugs. The gangs that controlled the drug trade were furious when she turned the spotlight onto their activities. In 1995, a gunman rang her doorbell and shot her in the leg. She refused to be daunted, continuing her reporting. In June 1996, the drug lords had her assassinated.

RUSSIA

Anna Politkovskaya

Born to Ukrainian Soviet diplomat parents, Anna Politkovskaya (30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) lived almost her entire life in Russia. After graduating from journalism school in Moscow, she became a reporter and worked for several different news outlets. It was her 7 years at Novaya Gazeta, from 1999 to 2006, when she reported on the Second Chechen War, that made her name. An opponent of the Putin regime from the outset, she published a book in 2004 called “Putin’s Russia” which set out all the reasons for detesting the regime and fearing where it would lead. On 7 October 2006, the same day as Putin’s birthday, she was assassinated in the elevator of her block of apartments.

Chechenya

Natalya Estemirova

Natalya Estemirova (28 February 1958 – 15 July 2009) lived almost all her life in Chechenya. She worked as a history teacher before moving to journalism and then becoming an activist on social and human rights issues. In the last nine years of her life, as well as contributing articles to news sites and to Novaya Gazeta, she worked for the human rights organisation, Memorial. She visited villages, battle sites and hospitals, taking photographs and documenting the horrors of the war. She was passionate about social issues, helping people kicked out of refugee centres, visiting orphanages and raising money for various causes. On 15 July 2009, Natalya was abducted and murdered. As for Memorial, it has been banned in Russia since April 2022. (Natalya’s daughter Lana will be speaking at the Festival.)

Malta

Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia (26 August 1964 – 16 October 2017) lived and blogged in a small town in Malta called Bidnija. She had a long journalistic association with The Malta Independent but it was the blog she started in 2008, Running Commentary, that really forged her reputation as a fearless investigator. When the Panama Papers were leaked, she trawled through them, unearthing information about the financial dealings of Malta’s political elite, and publishing hard-hitting and widely-read articles on her blog. Despite constant threats and acts of intimidation which culminated in her assassination in October 2017, Daphne never let up on exposing the runaway corruption on this small European island.