Beyond "hubs and spokes": decolonising journalism support for the world's majority
Wed 15 April 2026
17:00
Free
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As Report for the World evolves from a global journalism service program to a decentralised media ecosystem, join our annual community event at IJF.
Please participate in this roundtable discussion with 12 speakers - RFW staff, newsroom leaders, partners and advisers, who are co-designing regionally led "Report fors" across Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America.
We invite your critique and collaboration in building a shared infrastructure at RFW that nurtures equitable relationships, pooled resources, common goals and cross-border journalism for local public interest media.
Come for the discussion and stay on for aperitivo!
AGENDA
Talks: 17:00 to 18:30
The session will feature a roundtable discussion, where our speakers set the context, and respond to questions, comments and live polls from the audiences. The topics of discussion include:
> Partnerships and mergers as a means beyond survival: solutions from South Asia
> Equity, access and decolonisation: Levant-led cross-border collaborations in the Med
> Sanctuary and innovation: Nairobi as gathering ground for East African media
Aperitivo: 18:30 to 20:00 - register here.
Sponsored by Report for the World.
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Dinesh Balliah
Dinesh Balliah is the Director of the Wits Centre for Journalism. She is the former deputy public advocate of the Press Council of South Africa, and former chair of the board of the Health-e News Service. She also served as a member of the advisory committee of the South African Media Innovation Project (SAMIP), run by the New York-based Media Development Investment Fund, and of the editorial advisory committee at Newzroom Afrika. Dinesh sits on the board of the Ground Truth Project, home to Report for the World and Report for America.
Rawan Damen
Rawan Damen is Director-General of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ). She is a media consultant with 25+ years of experience in television and digital production and training in addition to media management. Before joining ARIJ in January 2020, Rawan worked on producing and directing more than 30 hours of documentaries and investigative TV stories, published in different languages. She was a senior commissioner at Al Jazeera Network for 10 years (2006-2016), leading a team who produced more than 250 documentary and investigative TV episodes. She also led large interactive multi-language international platforms. Rawan received a master’s degree with honours in media and communication from the University of Leeds in the UK, 2003. She was also awarded the Media Creativity Award from the Arab Thought Foundation in Beirut, 2015.
Virginiah Gitome
Virginiah Gitome is a programs and operations leader based in Kenya with more than 12 years of experience designing and implementing programs across the nonprofit and development sectors. Over the past several years, her work has focused on strengthening journalism ecosystems across Africa. At Code for Africa, Virginiah led initiatives that strengthened the information ecosystem across the continent, managing programs that built newsroom capacity, supported collaborative reporting across regions, and promoted data-driven storytelling through fellowships and training for journalists, researchers, and civil society actors. She also managed partnerships with organizations across the US, Europe, and Africa, including multilateral institutions. Virginiah works at the intersection of strategy and day-to-day delivery, helping journalism initiatives take root, scale, and stick. She believes that strong journalism ecosystems aren't built on reporting alone, they're built on well-run programs, thoughtful partnerships, and the operational foundations that allow teams to focus on the stories that matter. Virginiah’s values are rooted in integrity, collaboration and a belief that thoughtful, people-centered approach leads to stronger outcomes. She holds an MSc. Business Psychology from the University of Hertfordshire (UK) and an MSc. Entrepreneurship from the University of Nottingham (UK).
Mais Katt
Mais Katt is a Syrian-Dutch award-winning investigative journalist and international trainer specializing in conflict reporting. She has collaborated with leading Arab and international media including Lighthouse Reports, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, and ARIJ. She has trained thousands of journalists and media organizations across the Middle East and North Africa, and has worked with international training centers such as Internews, CFI, RNW, and DW Akademie. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Women Who Won the War, an Arab women investigative journalists network. Following the fall of the Syrian regime in late 2024, Mais now lives between the Netherlands and Damascus.
Peter Matjasic
Peter Matjašič is Executive Director at Investigate Europe (IE). He co-leads the cooperative and is responsible for external representation, financial management, fundraising, organisational development, and outreach to readers. Before joining IE, Matjašič was a Senior Program Officer for the Open Society Initiative for Europe responsible for grantmaking in the thematic areas related to accountability, democracy, participation, LGBTI issues, technopolitics and new forms of engagement. He has been active in the field of youth work for over a decade: starting as a volunteer in Slovenia and completing a European volunteer service in Barcelona, continuing as a youth trainer and facilitator at the European level, and an activists and youth representative with the Young European Federalists. He set up the English version of Le Taurillon webzine, serving as its first editor-in-chief. From 2011 to 2014, Matjašič was president of the European Youth Forum, the main advocacy platform for the rights of young people in Europe. Matjašič holds an honors degree in international relations from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.