‘Patriotic Trolling’ to ‘Astro-Turfing’: Lessons from Maria Ressa on dealing with online hate

Posted on March 9, 2020 by beenasarwar

Last Thursday, I attended a talk by journalist Maria Ressa at Harvard. She talked about the “pounding” journalists get on social media and “trends” set by fake accounts. Women are attacked online at least 10 times more than men, and research shows online violence leads to actual violence on the ground. It reminded me not only of the challenges journalists face in Pakistan but also what organisers of the forthcoming Aurat March commemorating International Women’s Day are up against. Here’s what I wrote, published in The News International, Pakistan and The Wire, India.

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Filed under: Gender, Media | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Lessons for journalists from a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer

Posted on December 28, 2016 by beenasarwar

Beena Sarwar

Notes from the Nieman Pulitzer 100 event in Cambridge MA, “POWER: Accountability and Abuse,” presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University 

wynton-marsalis-nieman-pulitzer-100
Sep. 9, 2016

Cambridge, MA: The thousand-seater Sanders Theatre filled up fast in anticipation of the Wynton Marsalis concert that was kicking off the Nieman Pulitzer 100 event, a few days before my first journalism class at Princeton University. No photography or videos of the performance were allowed but I figured the rule didn’t apply before they started playing so I sneaked a quick photo. Continue reading →

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Free Dorothy; Osama; ‘agencies’; and some great links

Posted on May 17, 2011 by beenasarwar

Post sent earlier to my yahoogroup

Dear all,

I’m on the train to New York where Aman ki Asha has been nominated for an award at the International Newspaper Media Association (INMA) annual congress. Group Director Jang Group Shahrukh Hasan will be there and so will Laleh Habib, the Aman ki Asha coordinator.

The train left on the dot at the scheduled time, 11.13 am. And it has wi-fi, so I can catch upon things. This is a year of reunions for me. My 25th college reunion in two weeks, and this past weekend many many fellow Niemans at occasions honouring the outgoing curator Bob Giles. Many journalists requested everyone to keep the pressure on for the release of Al Jazeera journalist Dorothy Parvaz (Nieman ’09) who has been missing for over two weeks now, since she entered Syria… Continue reading →

Filed under: Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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