Worldfocus Radio: Failed states
I produced this online radio show for Worldfocus.org.
Somalia, Zimbabwe and Sudan topped the list of failed states this year — rankings based on human rights, governance, economic activity and other indicators.
Also among the top 10 are Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Poverty is endemic in many failed or failing states; in others, the government has lost legitimacy and control. As economic pressures increase with the global financial crisis, and environmental pressures contribute to water and food shortages, even more countries are at risk of failure.
But these dire conditions have implications far beyond individual borders, as failed states — with their high rates of poverty and violence — may serve as breeding grounds for terrorists with global ambitions.
Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explores what it means for a state to fail, from the impact on daily life to widespread geopolitical ripple effects.
Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosts a panel of guests:
Pauline Baker is the president of The Fund for Peace, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing war and alleviating the conditions that cause conflict. She has also served as an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and is a professorial lecturer at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Christopher Boucek is a research associate in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he focuses on regional security challenges. Before joining the Carnegie Endowment, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University and lecturer in Politics at the Woodrow Wilson School. Boucek has written widely on the Middle East, Central Asia, and terrorism.
Georgette Gagnon is the director of the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch and led a research mission to Darfur in 2004. She previously investigated human rights violations in Rwanda and directed the Human Rights Department at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Worldfocus: Crisis in Congo videos receive Emmy nomination
Worldfocus was nominated for an Emmy in the “Best story in a regularly scheduled newscast” category for our coverage of the “Crisis in Congo” (Executive Producer: Marc Rosenwasser, Correspondent: Michael J. Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center, Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Taylor Krauss).
The “Crisis in Congo” videos also won the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in the international television category.
War in DR Congo: The story of Pascal and Vestine
Rape as a weapon of war
For original article: Worldfocus receives two Emmy nominations!
Columbia J-School: Lisa Biagiotti wins RFK Journalism Award
Lisa Biagiotti ‘08 has won a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in the international television category for “War in DR Congo,” a Worldfocus production.
“War in DR Congo” honors the victims of a humanitarian crisis often ignored by the mainstream media. Over five million people have died, mostly from preventable disease and starvation, in Congo’s decade-long civil war. In the last year alone, more than a million people have fled the fighting. Such staggering data on death and displacement in the region often overshadows the personal stories of human suffering, which this report brings to life.
Marc Rosenwasser, Michael J. Kavanagh and Taylor Krauss share this honor with Biagiotti, who specialized in new media at the Journalism School.
Biagiotti is also the executive editor of Worldfocus.org and has produced online content for the PBS foreign affairs documentary series “Wide Angle,” the J-School Web magazine NYC24 and the Queens blog “Junction BLVD.” In 2001, Lisa received a Fulbright grant to research Muslim immigration in Italy and currently serves on the New York board of the Fulbright Association.
The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights announced winners in nine professional and four student categories of the 41st Annual Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards. The winning pieces examine the causes, conditions and remedies of injustice and analyze relevant public policies and attitudes and private endeavors.
For original article: Lisa Biagiotti ‘08 wins RFK Journalism Award
Worldfocus: Pascal and Vestine are alive in Congo, but still not home
I produced and edited this video for Worldfocus.org.
Worldfocus has been reporting on the crisis in Congo in the country’s volatile eastern region since last fall. In December, we followed one family caught up in the fighting and displaced by the war in “War in DR Congo: The story of Pascal and Vestine.” Since then, the Bumbari family has been forced to flee for a third time.
Last month, Michael J. Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting went back to eastern Congo to find out what happened. Together with Lisa Biagiotti, he produced the update to Pascal and Vestine’s story.
Worldfocus: Rape as a weapon of war in DR Congo
War has raged through the Democratic Republic of Congo for more than a decade — it has been called the deadliest conflict since World War II.
The United Nations estimates that 200,000 women and girls have been raped in that time, some victims as young as three years old.
Both the Congolese army and rebel groups have used rape as a weapon of war.
Armed groups use rape to tear apart families, spread disease and weaken communities. Women are often victimized doubly — first by their rapists and secondly by spouses or family members who then find it dishonorable or socially unacceptable to associate with them.
Worldfocus correspondent Michael J. Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and video journalist Taylor Krauss recently reported from eastern Congo. Together with Lisa Biagiotti, they produced this signature story.
Watch a companion Web-original video: Rehabilitating rape victims and families in Congo.
Theme design by Borja Fernandez.