Blessed Mhlanga is a Harare-based senior political reporter at NewsDay Zimbabwe, head of news and current affairs at HSTV Zimbabwe and talk show host at FreeTalk. Mhlanga is passionate about elections, investigative and political reporting. His mantra is “smiling is a way of life.” Mhlanga was arrested and detained by Zimbabwean police while he was covering the attempted arrest of an opposition politician during the 2018 presidential campaign. In 2019, Mhlanga won a Zimbabwe Election Reporting Award.
Ahead of US-Africa Summit: A Conversation on Press Freedom on the African Continent
Dec 6 2022
WHEN:
Dec 6, 2022 at 12:00pm
CONTACT INFO:
Claude Porsella
MORE INFO:
Special Event
This event is open only to NPC Members. Please login to register.
African journalists and media experts will discuss the current state of press freedom in Africa at a virtual event at 12 noon on Tuesday, Dec. 6. Click here to Register.
The program will take place a week before the Biden administration hosts the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, which will draw leaders from across the African continent to Washington.
The panelists will discuss the challenges facing independent journalists in Africa and what can be done to support their work. This free event is hosted by the Club’s International Correspondents Committee. The one-hour discussion will be moderated by former chief of the Voice of America French-to-Africa service, Claude Porsella. He is currently a correspondent for Medi 1 radio, which broadcasts throughout North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.
Registered participants will receive a unique Zoom link to access the event in their confirmation email after completing registration. Attendees are invited to submit questions before the event by emailing [email protected].
Culton Scovia Nakamya is an award-winning Ugandan journalist based in Kampala and founder of the HerStoryFoundation. Her work has focused on human rights, health and education with a solutions-based approach. Nakamya strives to bridge the underrepresentation of women in the media and empower women and girls through storytelling. She was arrested and briefly detained by police while reporting on the arrest of opposition presidential candidate Bobbi Wine.
Pearl Matibe is a Washington-based State Department and White House correspondent, and media commentator with expertise on U.S. foreign and defense policy, including national security. She is a contributing writer for the Wilson Center’s Africa Program’s blog Africa Up Close. Matibe has done extensive coverage of, and been published widely on, U.S.-Africa relations and democracy.
Angela Quintal is the Africa Program Coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Before joining CPJ in 2016, Quintal worked as an editor and journalist for more than two decades in South Africa. She was presidential correspondent during Nelson Mandela’s term as South Africa’s first democratically elected president. She has served as the secretary-general and treasurer of the SA National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) and before joining CPJ was media freedom committee chair in South Africa for Wan-Ifra’s program on strengthening media and society. Quintal is a recipient of SANEF’s Steve Wrottesley Award for her commitment to media freedom in Africa and is one of 50 recipients of Rhodes University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies’ distinguished alumni awards to mark its 50th anniversary.