A journalist from the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism (RCIJ) will be spending the next three months as a Reporter-in-Residence at The New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) based at Boston University.
BOSTON - A journalist from the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism (RCIJ) will be spending the next three months as a Reporter-in-Residence at The New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) based at Boston University.
Vlad Ursulean, who has reported for the Kamikaze weekly and Romania Libera, will be working on a transnational investigation focused on shale gas extraction’s impact on local communities.
NECIR director, Joe Bergantino: “Helping build the reporting capacity of other centers like ours around the world has been one of our main goals since launching in January 2009. We are excited about the opportunity to work with a talented young journalist like Vlad Ursulean and look forward to jointly producing an in-depth investigative report on a crucial issue for both Europe and the US.”
During his 12-week residency, funded by a grant from the Open Society Foundations, Ursulean will receive weekly investigative reporting training as well as editorial supervision and guidance. The overall goal of the program is to enhance Ursulean’s investigative journalism skills, to produce a transnational investigative report and return to Romania with the skills needed to boost the reporting capacity of the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism.
Ursulean is one of two reporters participating in the Reporter-in-Residency program from October 1st through December 21st in Boston. He will be joined by Emilia Diaz-Struck from Venezuela who is reporting for Connectas, a non-profit journalism project that promotes the production, sharing, training and dissemination of information with a transnational perspective on key issues for development in the Americas.
The New England Center for Investigative Reporting, launched in January 2009, is a nonprofit investigative reporting newsroom with two main missions: to ensure the survival of serious investigative journalism in the US and around the globe and to train a new generation of investigative reporters. NECIR‘s monthly investigations reach one million readers, viewers and listeners across the Northeastern region of the US. The center has won major national awards for its work and has inspired the creation of dozens of similar centers across the US.
The Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism’s mission is to deconstruct and expose corrupt structures of power, enhance investigative journalism and to create an interdisciplinary community of collectors and disseminators of relevant and verifiable information. Launched in 2001, RCIJ focused primarily on publishing investigative reports about organized crime (local and international), media, human rights abuses, networks of power, the environment, resources, energy and sports. Its location in Europe allows the center to be involved with a number of cross-border investigations and to publish its work in the European Union, the Balkans, and the Black Sea region. Since 2011 RCIJ established a collaborative Media Innovation Lab for Eastern Europe, the Sponge.
The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant societies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people. It seeks to strengthen the rule of law; respect for human rights, minorities, and a diversity of opinions; democratically elected governments; and a civil society that helps keep government power in check. The Foundations help to shape public policies that assure greater fairness in political, legal, and economic systems and safeguard fundamental rights.
