Overview
The International Press Institute contacted me in 2010 to write about 20 press freedom heroes for their beautifully presented coffee-table book ‘Words of Freedom: A Tribute to 60 IPI World Press Freedom Heroes’. The book celebrates and commemorates the lengths some journalists go to defend freedom of the press, and it was a humbling, fascinating experience interviewing and researching my 20 heroes.
No longer in print, ‘Words of Freedom: A Tribute to 60 IPI World Press Freedom Heroes’ was reviewed by the Vienna Review, which commented that one of the profiles I wrote, Anna Politkovskaya, ‘jumped out’.
After writing the commemorative book, the IPI commissioned me to edit and subedit several reports and guides for journalists worldwide:
Writing skills
- English to English translation
- careful use of style sheet
- copy editing of award-winning journalists’ writing (having Sir Harold Evans give feedback on my editing was a high point!)
- subediting very different writing styles to maintain consistency across the publication
- research skills
- interview skills
Knowledgebase
- journalism
- conflict areas
- Palestine-Israel conflict
- international development goals
- language nuances
Example of copy editing
Reporter’s Guide to the Millennium Development Goals: Covering Development Commitments for 2015 and Beyond
Examples of subediting
Flags and Barriers: Essays on Reporting from Israel and Palestine: Essays by journalists from Israel and Palestine on the complex reality in which they operate
Use With Care: Glossary of Loaded Language in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
