On 30 May, a new report produced by the digital rights organisation Access Now and Citizen Lab revealed the details of the latest Pegasus attack on Russian and Belarusian journalists and activists. Pegasus, a sophisticated spyware made by Israel’s NSO Group made headlines in 2021 when it was discovered to have been targeted at thousands of people f…

Online harassment, intimidation, lack of access, government monopolies on media - we’re used to seeing such offences in countries with poor media freedom records. But what if all this was happening right on our doorstep, here in Europe? In this episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana discusses the declining state of media freedoms in the EU with Ol…

On the 28th May, the Georgian parliament overturned the presidential veto of the highly contentious ‘Foreign Agents’ law that had sparked weeks-long mass protests across the country and was strongly condemned by the international community. Should it come into force, any non-profit or media that receives over 20% of funding from overseas sources wi…

In this new episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana secures an exclusive with Rana Ayyub, one of India’s most prominent journalists. In 2016 she published an investigative book titled the ‘Gujarat files’ looking into the 2002 Gujarat riots that took the lives of nearly 1000 people, mainly Muslims. In 2024, Rana reflects on how the current anti-Musl…

Before 2019, Natalia Zubkova was a homemaker and a mother of three from a coal-mining Siberian city of Kiselyovsk. But when extreme air pollution caused by open-pit coal mining covered white snowy cityscape with black soot, it was time to act. ‘Black Snow’, a documentary directed by Alina Simone and produced by Kirstine Baford, tracks Natalia’s jou…

In this episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana speaks with the founder of the Tehran Bureau media Kelly Golnoush Niknejad. As a teenager, Golnush left Iran with her family following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and later became a journalist in the US. In 2008 she launched Tehran Bureau, at first as a blog and then as a website. Since then, this Eng…

In 2022, Kyrgyzstan was ranked 72nd out of 180 countries on the press freedom index but in 2023, it plunged all the way to the 122nd spot, the sharpest decline of any country ever. Despite high levels of corruption and state-mandated human rights violation, Kyrgyzstan has always had a strong civil society and thriving independent media. However, si…

Russia’s illegal and brutal war against Ukraine has entered its third year. For two years, Ukrainian journalists have tirelessly covered the full-scale invasion while taking cover in bomb shelters and arranging the evacuation of their loved ones. Not only have they uncovered the horrific massacres of Bucha and Irpin and documented the siege of Mari…

In Ecuador, 2024 set off to a dramatic start, as the whole country anxiously watched masked gunmen storm a local TV station and take journalists hostage on live broadcast. This was part of a series of coordinated attacks that spread across the country like wildfire, resulting in 30 car explosions and kidnapping of seven police officers - a grim rea…

In this episode of Trouble with the Truth, we pivot from our usual themes by delving into the murky world of disinformation campaigns amplified on social media platforms and the ways to combat it with a Coda Story senior reporter Isobel Cockerell. The rapid advancement of Big Tech over the past decade and the more recent AI revolution is irrevocabl…

In this episode, Lana talks to the Financial Times correspondent Polina Ivanova about the arrest of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges by Russian authorities, and the inspiring campaign for his release. It has been ten months since the arrest of US citizen Evan Gershkovich, whose parents emigrated from the Soviet…

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion on 24 February, Ukraine has become one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. There is evidence that the Russian army has been deliberately targeting journalists who are telling the truth about the war. At least eight media workers have been killed so far, countless more kidnapped, …

SLAPPs or Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation are lawsuits that are designed not to win in court but rather to silence, intimidate and bankrupt the defendants. Over the past years, this type of vexatious litigation has become a tool to stifle independent journalists all over the world, especially those who write about the rich and power…

From early January of this year Kazakhstan was rocked by a wave of protests. They started in Zhanaozen over fuel price hikes but soon spread all over the country. The initial demands –economic reforms and regime change –were overshadowed by looting and violence. It’s been reported that 225 people lost their lives in the bloodshed, although the real…

In this new episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana talks with a journalist from Uzbekistan about the state of media freedom in the country. The 25 year old dictatorship of Islam Karimov was accompanied by human rights abuses and silencing of independent voices. When president Shavkat Mirziyoyev took power in 2016, it appeared that Uzbekistan was t…

In this new episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana Estemirova interviews journalist and writer Sonya Winterberg about the challenging evacuation of Afghan journalists after the Taliban takeover. Sonya learned of the Taliban entering Kabul while she was a recording an interview for a radio show. Her first thoughts were about friends and colleagues …

In this new episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana interviews Lebanese journalist Mohamed Kleit. They discuss the horrors that unfolded on the day of the explosion and the political and economic turnmoil that followed. Mohamed shares his own personal journey and the struggles he faced in the aftermath of the blast. On 4 August 2020, an enormous am…

In this new episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana speaks to a senior investigator from the Sentry about the Central African Republic- one of the most dangerous countries in the world. They discuss a recent Sentry report that exposes the links between a major French sugar refinery and local militias implicated in massacres and human rights violati…

In the latest episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana meets Jake Hanrahan, the founder of Popular Front. He vowed to produce a different kind of conflict reporting – raw, independent, accessible, and sponsored solely through public donations. Popular Front has released documentaries, podcasts and articles on conflicts all over the world- Palestine,…

She was threatened, harassed, attacked and sent to prison for 2.5 years but it only made Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova more determined to pursue the truth. For years she’s been exposing the corrupt underbelly of the Azerbaijani elite, linking it to international firms and European politicians. Her work, including the Panama Papers inves…

In 1990 Columbia was shocked by the horrific murder of popular investigative journalist Silvia Duzan. She was working on a hopeful story about how several peasant leaders banned together against the violence of cartel rule but ended up being assassinated alongside her interviewees. Thirty years later, filmmaker Paola Desiderio is exploring the trag…

In this episode of Trouble with the Truth journalist Mariam Nikuradze recalls the shocking attacks on journalists that took place in Tbilisi on 5 July. That day was supposed to be a celebration of Pride but the organizers were forced to cancel the event because of numerous threats. Despite, the cancellation far-right mobs still turned out in force …

Journalist and filmmaker Dairus Bazargan talks to us about his upcoming documentary on Nazanin-Zaghari Ratcliffe and his undercover work investigating ritual killings in Malawi that almost cost him his life. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian citizen, has been held hostage by the Iranian government since 2016, following her arrest on trum…

Last year’s protests in Belarus seemed like a watershed moment that was poised to bring an end to the 26-year rule of president Alexander Lukashenko. The peaceful demonstrations that started with songs, chants and red-and-white flags were soon met with state-sanctioned violence that saw thousands of people imprisoned and many more fleeing the count…

It’s been over three months since the military coup in Myanmar that has resulted in violence and mass protests. Press freedom has suffered immensely, as the military junta shut down the internet, muzzled and attacked journalists. In this latest episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana speaks about the origins and the consequences of the coup with UK…

We have reached a grim milestone with the ten-year anniversary of the Syrian revolution that turned into a bloody war and tore the country apart. In the latest episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana interviews a very special guest: Syrian journalist Zaina Erhaim, who is currently based in London. It takes an unsurpassed kind of bravery to report o…

In the latest episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana interviews Somali journalist Abdalle Ahmed Mumin. Somalia has an appalling record when it comes to press freedom – more than 70 journalists have been killed since 1992, their murderers enjoying total impunity. Abdalle has received numerous threats because of his reporting and narrowly survived a…

In this new episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana interviews journalist Clare Rewcastle-Brown who helped to uncover the infamous 1MDB corruption scandal in 2015. The focus of their discussion wasn’t the investigation itself but the legal turmoil and harassment that followed it. Not only has she been banned from entering Malaysia but while living …

In their latest investigation, Roman and his colleagues examined the suspects involved in the murder of Belarussian journalist Pavel Sheremet, who was working in Ukraine. Pavel was killed by a car bomb as he was leaving his home in 2016. It took three years for the Ukrainian police to come up with the murder suspects. The investigation has proved c…

In this new episode of Trouble with the Truth Lana interviews Evin Barış Altıntaş, a journalist and the founder of the Media and Law Studies Association. MLSA provides legal support to journalists, promotes press freedom and the rights of minority groups. The past few years have been disastrous for Turkish independent journalists. In 2016, using th…

In the new episode on Trouble with the Truth, Lana interviews Roman Dobrokhotov from The Insider- an investigative media outlet that together with Bellingcat uncovered the names of the would-be murderers of the Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny. Journalist Timur Kuashev, activist Ruslan Magomedragimov and a politician Nikita Isaev (once …

In the new episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana talks to Susan Coughtrie, from Foreign Policy Centre. Susan is the editor of their latest report “Unsafe for Scrutiny…” that “explores the role that the United Kingdom plays as a hub for the facilitation of global financial crime and corruption, as well as for services that can be utilised against …

In 2020’s final episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana reflects on the year that has passed and takes a closer look at the mission and work of the Justice for Journalists Foundation - the organisation that has helped bring this podcast to life. Maria Ordzhonikidze, the JFJ’s Director, talks about the origins of the foundation, the projects it spon…

In this episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana chats to the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Coda Story Natalia Antelava. The news about vaccine was met with glee but also contributed to the spread of conspiracy theories and false information online. What impact has the continuous disinformation had on independent journalism before and during the…

In this new episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana Estemirova continues to explore Mexico’s appalling record on journalists’ safety. Special guests are freelance journalist and writer Paula Mónaco Felipe and Juan Sebastián Salamanca from Article 19. Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist. More than 140 journa…

In the new episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana interviews Rebecca Vincent from Reporters without Borders. Rebecca has been monitoring the extradition trial of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. After spending seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy, the journalist has been arrested by the Met police in 2019 and if extradited to the US, he’s fa…

In this new episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana Estemirova investigates why writing about women’s rights in the North Caucuses leads to threats and intimidation of journalists and activists. “I’ve been given orders to handle the feminists,”- said man’s voice on the phone. It wasn’t the first time Dagestani journalist Svetlana Anokhina has been …

In this new episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana Estemirova interviews Andres Arturo Solis Àlvarez, a freelance journalist and teacher based in Mexico. Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist. More than 140 journalists have been killed there since 2000 and countless more have been intimidated, harassed, atta…

London, 8th October- in the new episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana Estemirova interviews Bektour Iskender, a journalist from Kyrgyzstan and one of the founders of Kloop media. Several days prior to Kyrgyzstan’s post-election protests that resulted in toppling of the government, Lana recorded an interview with Bektour Iskender, one of the found…

On the 7th of September, a shocking video started circulating across Chechen social media. In the video, a young man called Salman Tepsurkaev denounces his work for Adat telegram channel and is forced to rape himself with a bottle. Adat is one of the few outlets that writes about human rights abuses in Chechnya and corruption amongst the elites. In…

London, 9th September- in the new episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana Estemirova interviews Caroline Muscat, the founder of The Shift News, based in Malta. It’s impossible to talk about independent media in Malta without mentioning Daphne Caruana Galizia- a courageous investigative journalist who was killed three years ago for exposing the corr…

London, 30th August- in our second episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana Estemirova interviews Anna Nemtsova, a Moscow-based journalist for the Daily Beast. They discuss the case of Ivan Safronov, a former journalist who was arrested and charged with treason in what appears to be a politically motivated move. A correspondent for Kommersant and Ve…

London, 18 August 2020 – In the first episode of Trouble with the Truth, Lana Estemirova interviews Mariya Sadouskaya Komlach, Belarussian journalist and a media analyst based in Europe. The conversation is focused on the challenges of reporting in times of the revolution, how and why the protests started, what is happening with the President-elect…