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When we organize a workshop at InquireFirst, we put journalists to work!

Iván Carrillo (right), co-founder of Historias Sin Fronteras, talks with Efrain Rincon, co-founder of the online science journalism site Shots de Ciencia, as Efrain selects a subject for his cross-border story pitch. Photo by S. Lynne Walker/InquireFirst

MEDELLIN, Colombia — When we organize a workshop at InquireFirst, we put journalists to work!

That’s exactly what happened during our day-long March 27 workshop at the World Conference of Science Journalists in Medellin. Almost 40 journalists from 14 countries joined us for our Historias Sin Fronteras workshop, which focused on strengthening science, health and environmental journalism through cross-border reporting.

We don’t want to brag, but we had a ‘league of nations’ at our workshop, with journalists from Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, the U.S., Germany and the Netherlands.

We started the day with a lively and informative discussion by Debbie Ponchner, editor of Knowable en español. Debbie talked with journalists about the dos and don’ts of making story pitches to U.S. science editors.

That was the perfect introduction to the day’s work, which put journalists in cross-border teams to come up with story pitches.

Inspired by Debbie’s talk, the journalists came up with 12 story ideas and made terrific pitches to our workshop group with the goal of being awarded a Historias Sin Fronteras reporting grant.

The pitches were so good that the judges – Historias Sin Fronteras co-founders Iván Carrillo and S. Lynne Walker – couldn’t pick just one.  So, for the first time in Historias Sin Fronteras history, two story proposals were chosen for grants. We’ll be publishing those projects in summer 2023.

But that’s not all.  On March 28, we conducted a panel discussion with Latin American journalists who’ve worked on Historias Sin Fronteras projects over the past four years.

Joining Iván on the panel were Valeria Román of Argentina, Eduardo Franco Berton of Bolivia, Johanna Osorio of Venezuela and Ximena Serrano of Colombia.

They talked about the challenges and lessons learned from cross-border science reporting. And they talked about the professional satisfaction of seeing their work published by media organizations across the Western Hemisphere.

Projects by Historias Sin Fronteras journalists have been published by 40 media organizations from Canada to Argentina since we launched at the World Conference of Science Journalists in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2019.  And we’re sure there will be more!

Thanks to our Sponsor

Salvador Rizzo joins InquireFirst Board of Directors

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Salvador Rizzo joins InquireFirst Board of Directors

Salvador Rizzo

InquireFirst is pleased to announce that Salvador Rizzo, crime and justice reporter for The Washington Post, has joined our Board of Directors.

Salvador reports on complex racketeering trials, financial fraud and espionage, international terrorism cases and major crimes in the Washington metro area. He previously was a reporter and deputy editor for The Washington Post Fact Checker from 2018 to 2021 and is co-author of “Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth” (Scribner, 2020).

His journalism career began at The Post, as a summer intern on the copy desk in 2008. In New Jersey from 2011 to 2017, Sal covered Chris Christie’s governorship and presidential campaign for the state’s major news organizations: the Star-Ledger and then the Bergen Record. He went on to be editor of New Jersey’s top politics blog for a year before rejoining The Post in 2018.

Salvador was a member of The Fact Checker team that documented Trump’s false and misleading statements while he was president, 30,573 of which were collected in a Washington Post database. With Glenn Kessler and Meg Kelly, he received an honorable mention for this work from the organizers of the Robin Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting in 2019.

Since 2019, Salvador has been a regular contributor to InquireFirst’s programs, speaking to journalists about fact-checking and other issues in journalism.

He grew up on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and is a native Spanish speaker with a degree in English from Emory University. He lives in Alexandria, Va., a couple of blocks away from the federal courthouse.

Meet the other members of the InquireFirst Board of Directors

National Geographic Brazil publishes Historias Sin Fronteras environmental investigation

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Photos by Lalo de Almeida/Folhapress

National Geographic Brazil publishes Historias Sin Fronteras environmental investigation

National Geographic Brazil has published our cross-border environmental investigation on Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s plans to build an international highway that will cut through the most biodiverse region in the Amazon and divide the territories of 10 indigenous communities in Peru and become a bridge for illegal activities of loggers and drug traffickers.

The investigation was conducted by Fabiano Maisonnave, Amazon correspondent for Brazil’s Folha de S. Paulo, and by Alexa Vélez, editor of Mongabay Latam, and Mongabay reporter Vanessa Romo in Peru as part of our Historias Sin Fronteras initiative.  With the support of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) Department of Science Education, InquireFirst launched the Historias Sin Fronteras cross-border science journalism grants program in Latin America last year.

To tell the visual story, photojournalist Lalo de Almeida traveled with Maisonnave to the Amazon to capture the breathtaking beauty of the untouched region and record the lives of indigenous people who live on the banks of the Moa River.  In 2021, de Almeida was named Ibero-American photographer of the year by Picture of the Year (POY) LatAm.

In Peru, photojournalist Sebastián Castañeda took readers to four indigenous communities in the Amazon that are terrorized by drug traffickers who have taken control of the territory.

Maisonnave and de Almeida sailed for more than 16 hours along the Moa River to reach Brazil’s Serra do Divisor National Park and meet with indigenous communities living in and around the park.

On the Peruvian side, Romo and Castañeda traveled along the Abujao River to visit four indigenous communities that live in fear of drug traffickers.

The journalists reported that the highway project is being proposed under the pretext of economic development.

But the project inevitably evokes the ghost of the Interoceanic Highway, a costly road built by the Brazilian company Odebrecht, which was supposed to stimulate commerce between Brazil and Peru and which ended up being investigated for mismanagement and which resulted in the loss of almost 500,000 acres of forests.

Why build a highway in the middle of the Amazon if everything indicates it will result in deforestation, drug trafficking, loss of biodiversity and illegal mining?

Despite all the questions, the project continues. On May 6, two weeks after Historias Sin Fronteras published the cross-border project, the Bolsonaro government renewed its promise to build the international highway.

During the inauguration of a bridge over the Madeira River, where Bolsonaro was greeted by a few thousand supporters, Minister of Infrastructure Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas told the crowd that the Brazil-Peru highway project is one of the government’s infrastructure priorities.

But money, for the time being, does not exist. Senator Márcio Bittar included $8 million in this year’s federal budget for “studies and projects” to expand the highway, but Bolsonaro vetoed the expense amid cuts to balance the budget during the pandemic.

We’ll continue to monitor the situation and provide you with updates.

Our thanks to National Geographic Brasil for publishing our Amazon project and to HHMI’s Department of Science Education for supporting our cross-border journalism on the health and environmental challenges facing Latin America.

Thanks to our Sponsor

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InquireFirst-HFPA Grant

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Content 2

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2022 symposiums

Photo by Shutterstock

Voces Emergentes Paraguay

Investigative Journalism
for the Next Generation of Latin American Reporters

April 18-May 27, 2022

The university journalism students and early-career journalists selected for this program will work in teams to produce unique and relevant multimedia projects. The subjects of their projects will focus on some of the most urgent problems confronting people in Paraguay.

The students and journalists will be guided by our team of experienced editors as they report and write an in-depth investigative project, as well as producing multimedia elements such as photo slideshows, interactive graphics, audio and videos. They will work with their editors to ensure that they handle their subjects with sensitivity, with accurate and careful reporting, and above all, with the highest standards of journalistic ethics and professionalism.

At the conclusion of the six-week program, the projects will be published on our website, vocesemergentes.com.

The Power of Cross-Border
Science Journalism

World Conference of Science Journalists (WCSJ)

Medellín, Colombia

June 27, 2022

On the inaugural day of the World Conference of Science Journalists (WCSJ) in Medellín, Colombia, InquireFirst will conduct its first in-person journalism workshop since the Covid pandemic began in February 2020.

During this workshop, which focuses on the power of cross-border science, health and the environmental reporting, we will meet with up to 75 Spanish-speaking science journalists to talk about ways that they can launch their own cross-border initiatives.

We’ll talk about the positive results of our InquireFirst cross-border reporting initiative, Historias Sin Fronteras, which has published six in-depth, collaborative projects since its launch at the 2019 World Conference of Science Journalists in Lausanne, Switzerland. The centerpiece of our day-long workshop in Medellín will be a pitch session by teams of journalists seeking a cross-border science grant offered by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which has funded Historias Sin Fronteras since its launch three years ago. The winning team will be announced at the WCSJ.

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Stay where you are (at least for a while).

Project

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Check out our science, health, environmental
and investigative reporting grants for Latin American journalists

An Investigative Journalism
Grants Project
For Latin American Reporters

Conocimiento en voz viva

Strengthening Science Journalism
In Latin America

VOICES FROM THE ANDES
AND THE AMAZON

Investigative Journalism
For The Next Generation
Of Latin American Reporters

Historias Sin Fronteras project is shortlisted for award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting

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Historias Sin Fronteras project is shortlisted for award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting

We are thrilled to announce that “Transgender in Latin America,” a cross-border science journalism project reported and written by Latin American science writers Valeria Román, Debbie Ponchner, Margaret López and Carmina de la Luz Ramírez has been shortlisted by the Fetisov Journalism Awards for Outstanding Investigative Reporting.

“Transgender in Latin America” was our first cross-border science journalism project under our Historias Sin Fronteras initiative, which we launched in July 2019 to provide grants to Latin American journalists for cross-border science, health and environmental projects.

H/T to Mexico-based science journalist and editor Ivan Carrillo, who edited the project and who is the co-founder of Historias Sin Fronteras.

Read the project on our website historiassinfronteras.com and join us in congratulating the team.

A special thanks to the Department of Science Education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute which supports Historias Sin Fronteras and believes in the power of science journalism when we work together across international borders.

The winners will be announced in February (fjawards.com/finalists) so stay tuned!

Tune in to our new radio program on science, health & the environment reported by indigenous journalists for Mexico’s indigenous communities

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Tune in to our new radio program on science, health & the environment reported by indigenous journalists for Mexico’s indigenous communities

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of En Común: conocimiento en voz viva, our new radio program on science, health and environment for Mexico’s indigenous communities. During our first season of En Común, we have partnered with indigenous journalists throughout Mexico who are reporting 9 of the 15 episodes.  You can hear all the episodes on our website: encomun.mx.

This is a first for Mexico – a radio program focused on science and reported primarily by indigenous journalists for indigenous communities and rural audiences.

Mexico’s indigenous people form a multicultural mosaic of diverse ethnic identities, ancestral knowledge and cultural values. But their communities and their unique stories have been overlooked by traditional media organizations and particularly by science, health and environment writers.
As a result, Mexico’s indigenous people – an estimated 15.7 million in 68 communities across the country – do not have access to carefully curated and reported information that could help them combat inequality, disease, pollution and ecological damage caused by the misuse of natural resources. Nor do they have the opportunity to share their generations-old knowledge on issues such as wildlife protection, the impact of illegal logging and the role of medicinal plants in disease prevention.

Iván Carrillo, a prominent Mexico-based science writer and editor, is the executive producer of the project.  He is joined by an experienced production team based in Mexico.

During our first season of En Común, we’ve taken on fascinating and little-reported science, health and environmental subjects.  For example:

In our episode titled, Los murciélagos y su relación con los virus, Mayan journalist Irma Yolanda Kauil Tuz interviews Dr. Rodrigo Medellín Legorreta, a researcher in the Institute of Ecology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), about the beneficial role that bats play in the ecological balance and myths about bats as carriers of disease.

In Las vacunas, prioridad mundial, indigenous journalist Yolotzin Hernández interviews residents in Amecameca in the State of Mexico about their views on vaccines and continues with an interview with Dr. Ricardo Martín Castro, of the Institute of Biotechnology at UNAM.

In the episode titled, Arqueoastronomía y las culturas Mesoamericanos, journalist Dora Cauich greets the audience in Maya and asks Mayan residents of Quintana Roo about their views on their ancestral legacy of astronomy and how they use it today.  As part of her report, Dora interviews archeologist Ivan Sprajc, a specialist in Mayan astronomy who has spent decades researching the Mayan culture and its relationship with the stars and the sky.

 Entendiendo el virus SARS Cov2 features Oaxacan journalist Genaro Bautista Gabriel with the Agencia Internacional de Prensa Indígena, interviews Dr. Ana Lorena Gutiérrez of the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV) at Mexico’s National Polytechnic Institute. 

In our episode titled, Cómo Enfrentan las Comunidades Indígenas la Pandemia, we hear the voices and viewpoints of residents on Oxchuc, Chiapas. 

InquireFirst has forged an alliance the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) and its Mexico affiliate, Red de Radios Comunitarias de México to broadcast our program across Mexico.

In addition, the Instituto Mexicano de la Radio (IMER) will be broadcasting the program on its affiliates in Sonora, Coahuila, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Yucatán and Mexico City. 

Tune in to our first season of En Común: conocimiento en voz viva at encomun.mx!

InquireFirst launches science podcast for Mexico’s rural communities

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InquireFirst launches science podcast for Mexico’s rural communities

En_Comun-Logo

Mexico’s indigenous people form a multicultural mosaic of diverse ethnic identities, ancestral knowledge and cultural values, but their communities and their unique stories have been overlooked by traditional media organizations and particularly by science, health and environment reporters.

As a result, Mexico’s indigenous people – an estimated 15.7 million in 68 communities across the country – do not have access to carefully curated and reported information that could help them combat inequality, disease, pollution and ecological damage caused by the misuse of natural resources. Nor do they have the opportunity to share their generations-old knowledge on issues such as wildlife protection, the impact of illegal logging and the role of medicinal plants in disease prevention.

We are pleased to announce that InquireFirst has forged an alliance with the Red de Radios Comunitarias de México, a radio network that reaches indigenous communities in 18 states in Mexico, to bring science-based news to the country’s rural and indigenous communities.

Iván Carrillo, a prominent science writer and editor, is the executive producer of the project.  He is joined by an experienced production team based in Mexico. Our reporters are journalists working not only in Mexico’s major cities but they are also indigenous journalists working in rural communities across the country.

We’ll be launching our 15-episode podcast, En común: Conocimiento en Voz Viva, in August 2020.

Stay tuned for our first episode!

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ONE JOURNALIST CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
1000 JOURNALISTS CAN RESHAPE THE FUTURE

Your contribution will provide reporting grants and professional training for Latin American journalists who are covering Covid-19 and the climate change and environmental issues that are devastating their region.
You are also supporting investigative journalists as they probe sensitive issues that affect the stability of their countries.

Here are examples of how your contribution will make an impact:

$25

Provides books and materials fora journalist during our training program

$50

Pays for a journalist to attend a networking session with journalists from other countries

$100

Sends a journalist on a field visit

$250

Provides travel funds for expert journalism instructors to conduct interactive training sessions

$500

Pays for a journalist’s international travel to our week-long training program

$,1000

Provides a journalist with a reporting grant for an investigative project

$2,000

Gives a team of reporters financial support for an in-depth health or environmental project

$3,000

Pays the tuition of a Latin American journalist to attend a 5-day training program in the U.S.

Donate Now

We thank those who have supported us over the years:

Joaquin Alvarado
Stephen Anderson
Kris Banvard
Walter Baranger
Dana Boyd Barr
Tony Cavin
Alfredo Corchado
Jennifer Jackson Cox
Sue Cross
Anne Da Vigo
Phyllis Weeks-Daniel and Bob Daniel
Jeffrey Davidow

Brenda Dianne
Carlos Diaz de Leon
Sandra Dibble
James Dickmeyer
Elizabeth Douglass
Mickie Enkoji
Steve Fainaru
Susan J. Ferriss
Jeff Franks
Lynne Friedmann
Harold Fuson
Jamie Gold

Kathleen Guerra
C. Ray Hall
Ken King
Angela Kocherga
Don Kohlbauer
Barry Locher
Elizabeth Lubrano
John Mann and Carol Landale
Steve Martarano
Jan McGirk
Jere McInerney

Mary-Rose Mueller and Bill Mueller
Patricia Muñoz
Genevieve Nauman
Edmund Ong
Sean Pyle
Sam Quinones
Rosalind Reid
Michael Salour
Ric Sandoval
Adam Schweigert
Carol Shealy

Patricia Smith
Alan Spector and Nancy Spector
Ginger Thompson
Eileen Truax
Jeanne Turner
Angela Vorhies
Glenda Winders
Susan White
Diying Wu
Nancy Wyld
Sandra Young

We are grateful to our founding donor, Cheryl Clark, a journalist and long-time San Diego resident, for the generous gift that allowed InquireFirst to put into place the infrastructure necessary to get our nonprofit started.

We are also appreciative of San Diego attorney Marie M. Stockton for her advice and counsel in establishing InquireFirst as a non-profit organization in California.

We thank the husband-wife design team of Kris and Deb Lindblad for their pro bono work on our promotional materials.

A special thanks to Anthony S. Da Vigo, a California attorney who is committed to improving the lives of Latin Americans, for his significant contribution which allowed InquireFirst to launch its investigative journalism project, Bajo la Lupa.

Our thanks go to Darryl Solberg and his associate, Jordan Tessier, at the San Diego firm of Hecht Solberg Robinson Goldberg & Bagley LLP, for assisting us pro bono with our 501(c)(3) tax exemption filing with the IRS.

Donate

InquireFirst is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

Your donations are tax deductible and will be used by InquireFirst to offer professional training to reporters and editors in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean in the areas of digital reporting, ethics and freedom of expression, investigative journalism and journalist safety, and science and public health coverage.
Your support will also help us fund in-depth reporting that examines complex national and international issues and explains why they are of vital importance.

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