Trauma and Reporting in Somalia

The Dart Centre Europe is hosting this event at the Frontline Club about covering long term traumatic events in Somalia. What effects does the continuing insurgency of Al-Shabaab have on Somali society and how do journalists deal with covering the conflict for a long time?  

BBC Africa Editor and Dart network member Mary Harper has recently published her book "Everything you have told me is true: living in the shadow of Al-Shabaab". Together with the rest of the panel of experts on Somalia she will discuss how her work has affected her as a journalist as well as focus on her observations on the effects of long-term trauma on society. 

CHAIR

Juliana Ruhfus is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker for Al Jazeera English specialised in human rights and investigative work. Prior to Al Jazeera Juliana worked as a freelance reporter/ producer for international broadcasters and twice as a consultant to the UN as part of a Security Council monitoring group tasked with investigating breaches of the arms embargo on Somalia.

In 2013 “Action on Armed Violence” named Juliana as one of the top 100 journalists covering armed violence. Her interest in journalism that deals responsibly with conflict and tragedy earned her the Ochberg Fellowship and a scholarship for Harvard’s Global Trauma Programme. Juliana now serves on the European board of the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma and the advisory board for the International Bar Association eyeWitness project.

PANELISTS

Mary Harper, the BBC Africa Editor, has reported on Africa and from its conflict zones for a quarter-century. The author of Getting Somalia Wrong?, she has served as an expert witness and advised the European Commission on the Horn of Africa, and contributes to The Times, The Guardian and The Economist. Her latest book, Everything You Have Told Me Is True: The Many Faces Of Al Shabaab recounts her extraordinary experiences following the extremist jihadist

Ismail Einashe is a journalist. He has written for the Guardian, the Sunday Times, NBC News, the Nation, Foreign Policy, NPR and the New York Times, among many other places. He is the Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellow for 2019 and is spending this year reporting across Africa on China’s role on the continent. He is an associate at The Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement at the University of Cambridge. He was a 2017 Ochberg Fellow at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University.

Dr. Idil Osman has worked for over 12 years as a national and international journalist for the BBC, the Guardian and the Voice of America, spending the majority of her career covering stories from the Horn of Africa. Through her work, she has developed a vast network of media contacts including those based in the region and the diaspora. She has authored publications that focus on media, migration, development, conflicts in the Horn of Africa and diaspora communities in Europe. She completed her PhD in Journalism and is an expert on diasporic media and development communications.