News

  • MEKK’s 12th Annual Conference on the Safety of Journalists:

    Back to the Future: War Reporting Returns to the Safety Agenda

    The research group MEKK at OsloMet, in cooperation with the Fritt Ord Foundation and UNESCO Norway invites you to this year’s conference on the safety of journalists in war reporting. As armed conflicts continue in Gaza, Ukraine, Lebanon, Congo, Sudan, Myanmar and many other places, journalists and media workers face unprecedented risks. More journalists and media workers were killed in 2025 than in any other year since the Committee to Protect Journalists started collecting data more than three decades ago. We dedicate this year’s conference to examining journalist safety in conflict reporting, while maintaining our broader commitment to all aspects of journalist safety worldwide.

    Please register here: https://nettskjema.no/a/663709#/page/1https://nettskjema.no/a/663709#/page/1

    Programme Day 1:

    Monday 2nd of November 2026

    08:30: Registration and Coffee, OsloMet, Pilestredet 46, Athene. 

    09:00: Conference Opening 

    Welcome by Professors Kristin Skare Orgeret & Roy Krøvel, the MEKK group, OsloMet. 

    Opening by Tanja Storsul, Pro-Rector for Research and Development, OsloMet

    Opening Video from UNESCO, Paris 

    Kjersti Løken Stavrum, CEO of the Tinius Trust. 

    Music by Svein Amund Skara 

    Frédéric Chopin: Prelude in d minor, Opus 28 No.24 

    Edvard Grieg: Trolltog/March of the Trolls 

    Harald Sæverud: Ballad of Revolt 

    09:30: Opening Keynote:  

    Bruce Mutsvairo, Professor, Utrecht University/Interim Dean Amsterdam University:  

    No Ceasefire for Facts: Navigating New Realities of Conflict Journalism in an era of Perpetual Geopolitical Hostilities 

    10:00: Ghada Oueiss, Journalist and Principal Presenter, Al Jazeera:  

    When Journalism Becomes a War Zone: Violence, Surveillance, and Trauma. 

    10:30: Break 

    10:45: Nataliya Gumenyuk, Ukrainian journalist, CEO & Co-Funder, Public Interest Journalism Lab:

    Message from the Kill Zone: This Is What War Reporting Will Look Like

    11:15 -11:20 Oleksandra Hrybenko, Ph.D. Candidate and project coordinator OsloMet:  

    Introduction to the Shared Frontlines and Democracy Project. 

    11:20 – 11:45 Olha Kyrylenko, Reporter, Ukrainska Pravda:  

    On How Ukrainian Journalism Changed After the Russian Full-scale Invasion 

    11:45 : Q&A 

    12:00: Lunch 

    13:00 –  Paper Sessions, P46 3rd floor  (see detailed programme)

    Programme Day 2:

    3rd of November 2026

    09:00: Nabeelah Shabbir, Deputy Director of the Information Integrity Initiative, The Nerve. Presenting the 2026 UN Women report 

    09:30: A Conversation between Anders Hammer, Oscar and Emmy-nominated Documentary Filmmaker & Stefan Brenner, Ph.D. candidate at OsloMet  

    10:15: Break 

    10:30: Leire Iturregui Mardaras:

    Exploring Journalist Safety in Conflict Reporting Through Collaborative Research (JOSAFCON).

      

    11:00: Panel: “International Media and the Changing Landscape of Solidarity with Local Journalists“  

    • Hanan Badr, Professor of Public Spheres & Inequalities, University of Salzburg 
    • Vera Slavtcheva-Petkova, Professor of Global Journalism and Communication, University of Liverpool 
    • Thais Armengol, Independent investigative journalist and criminologist, and Ph.D. candidate at Blanquerna – Universitat Ramon Llull 
    • Maria Gabrielsen Jumbert, Senior Researcher, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) 

    12:00: Lunch 

    13:00: Keynote: Scott Griffen, Executive Director, The International Press Institute 

    Safety of Journalists and War Reporting, from the IPI Archive to the Impunity Day Campaign.  

    14:00: Break 

    14:15: Paper Sessions P46 3rd floor  (see detailed programme)

International Reporter (IR) joins the Ukraine project

International Reporter (IR) becomes partner in the project ‘Shared Frontlines and Democracy’, which aims to combat desinformation and provide Norwegian newsrooms and journalists with information about Ukraine.

Internasjonal reporter (IR) will be the project’s Norwegian partner, and Chair of the Board Vilde Skorpen Wikan believes the initiative is timely.

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–It is important for Internasjonal reporter to help ensure that journalists gain greater familiarity with issues related to Ukraine, says Wikan.

– Everyone who has worked in a Norwegian news newsroom in recent years knows how much the war and its ripple effects shape everyday life. This is not just about foreign affairs coverage. The situation in Europe and the relationship with Russia have major consequences for Norwegian politics and society

Read more about the project Shared Frontlines and Democracy here.

New Special Issue out:

Special Issue on Representations of Death in Global Journalism edited by Nechama Brodie and Kristin Skare Orgeret

Table of Contents:

Memento Mori: Noticing Death in Global Media by Nechama Brodie and Kristin Skare Orgeret

Missing Bodies, Silent Pages: How Turkish Media Portrays Journalist Murders and Silence by Önder Deniz, Hüseyin Vehbi İmamoğlu and Taybe Topsakal

Celebrity Suicides in China: How Social Media Shapes News Framing by Shiyu (Sharon) Zheng and Shiyi Zhang

Mediation of Gendered Life and Death Within Intersecting Regimes of Patriarchy, Authoritarianism, and Necropolitics by Melike İşleyen and Barış Çoban

Convening Black Sociability Over a Corpse: Obituaries in the Early South African Black Press by Lesley Mofokeng

The 1927 Mapleton Train Disaster, Memorialisation, and the Media’s Role in Narrating the Dead by Laurence Stewart and Thandi Bombi

Ethical Principles in the Portrayal of Death and Suffering: Finnish Photographers Covering the Russia–Ukraine War by Liia-Maria Raippalinna, Suvi Mononen, Markus Mykkänen and Turo Uskali

You Have not Disappeared: Digital Mourning Spaces After a Social Media Celebrity’s Self-Obituary by Chuanlin Ning

Cut-Off Low (DANA) in Valencia: Visual Representation of Death and Grief in Photojournalism by Montse Morcate and Rebeca Pardo

New Project: Shared Frontlines and Democracy: Strengthening Ukraine Expertise and Collaboration in Norwegian Journalism and Education

We are very please to have received funding from HK-Dir to the new project Shared Frontlines and Democracy! Read more about it here.