Global Press

Mission:

Global Press creates a more informed and inclusive world by training and employing local women journalists in some of the world’s least-covered places to produce ethical, accurate news for local and global audiences.

To date, Global Press  has trained more than 250 women journalists all over the world. They currently operate 37 news bureaus in 11 countries.

Global Press builds news bureaus in places where people lack independent access to information. They recruit, train, and hire professional women journalists to report on their local communities and Global Press publishes their stories in English and the local language on their award-winning news publication Global Press Journal. They distribute these stories to local and international news partners to maximize  reach and impact. Global Press pays their reporters strong salaries, health benefits, vacation, and paid family leave, and ensure they stay safe through GP’s award-winning Duty of Care program.

Global Press Journal also produces Multimedia and in-depth Special Reports on critical issues that are often under-covered or misunderstood. Utilizing a team of reporters across the world, these reports are often multi-national and emphasize the global connectedness of issues and ideas.

In addition, Global Press has a products and services division, Global Press News Services (GPNS), that helps ensure its reporters’ journalism gets picked up by mainstream media outlets.

Channel Grants:

2021-24: Channel made a three year general operating grant to Global Press to continue supporting their work training and employing local women journalists to produce ethical, accurate news coverage from the world’s least-covered places. 

In June 2022 Global Press Journal received the Women’s Solutions Reporting Award for a package of 19 stories entitled “Women’s Rights in the Pandemic,” which revealed systemic mistreatment of women, worsened by the pandemic, in Argentina, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, Uganda and Zimbabwe.  

2020: Channel made a general operating support grant to support Global Press, with a particular interest in the investigative journalism multimedia projects of GP’s Enterprise Division as well as its all women staffed news bureaus and reporters in Africa and Asia.

2017-2019: Channel made annual grants to the Global Press (GP) to continue support for their news bureaus in Uganda and Sri Lanka and to support their Enterprise Division’s multimedia investigative journalism projects. GP’s Enterprise Division uses original data, local expertise and authentic storytelling to drive investigative projects to support informed policy, movement building and programming.

In a powerful example of what the Enterprise Division has made possible, GPI published a multimedia immersive storytelling experience on refugees in the DRC in 2019: I Will Not Leave This Place.

GP featured a video interview with Sri Lanka Regional Program Manager Manori Wijesekera discussing the June 2018 opening of the first GP News Desk in Northern Sri Lanka in Jaffna. Stories from the Sri Lanka News Desk can be found here.

Stories from the Uganda News Desk can be found here.

2016: Channel made a grant to the Global Press Institute (GPI) to support their Regional Program Managers in Africa and Asia along with ongoing GPI News Bureau content production in Uganda and Sri Lanka.

2015: Channel made a grant to the Global Press Institute to continue supporting their Asia news desks and two major editorial initiatives, Women in Politics and LGBT Issues. These global series included story packages from every GPI country around the world in a combination of narrative, video, photos and data-based story assets including interactive maps and infographics.

2014: Channel made a grant to the Global Press Institute in order to support the regional news hub in Sri Lanka and to support journalists and content production there and in several other post-conflict news desks – Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Guatemala.

2013: Channel made a grant to the Global Press Institute to provide support for expanding their video journalism training and production in Sri Lanka as well as ongoing support for the Uganda and Sri Lanka News Desks.

2012: Channel made a grant to the Global Press Institute to support journalist and video training for GPI reporters in Uganda and Kashmir as well as ongoing support for the Uganda and Sri Lanka News Desks.

2011: Channel made a grant to the Global Press Institute to support 1) continued content creation out of the Uganda and Sri Lanka News Desks in Kampala and Colombo; 2) expansion of the Gender and Post-Conflict Reporting Training Program to four additional sites in Egypt, Liberia, Kosovo and Kashmir; and 3) hiring and capacity building of regional editors in East Africa and South America in order to boost content production, training projects, and global presence.

2010: Channel made a grant to the Global Press Institute for the purposes of supporting the creation and implementation of a multi-faceted topical journalism training and employment program, “Reporting Gender Issues in Post-Conflict Regions,” to be implemented in two Press Institute News Desk Sites – Sri Lanka and Uganda.

Resources: 

In 2019, GPI published a multimedia immersive storytelling experience on refugees in the DRC: I Will Not Leave This Place. 

In September 2018 GPI launched their new The Global Press Style Guide at the Online News Association (ONA). The Style Guide is a living document that establishes rules for referring to the people and places around the world where Global Press Journal reporters work. Each entry was crafted with the assistance of Global Press Journal reporters and editors, who live and work in the communities they cover.

The Global Press Style Guide is not intended to replace the widely used Associated Press Stylebook, but it augments AP style in key ways by providing guidance for word choice regarding people, places and issues on which the AP’s book is silent. Other entries in this guide intentionally deviate from AP style. Thorough rationales are provided for all entries.

Each entry is crafted with the specific intention of promoting dignity and precision in the practice of international journalism.

GPI also launched an industry-leading Duty of Care strategy that mitigates risk for journalists.

Awards: 

Global Press reporters and Founder and Executive Director Cristi Hegranes have won numerous awards and recognition over the years. The full list can be found here.

Highlights include the following:

In June 2022 the Global Press Journal received the Women’s Solutions Reporting Award for a package of 19 stories entitled “Women’s Rights in the Pandemic,” which revealed systemic mistreatment of women, worsened by the pandemic, in Argentina, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, Uganda and Zimbabwe.  

In 2018, The Global Press Journal team in Nepal won the Clarion Award for their 7-part series Long After Quake, Nepal Waits for Help.

In 2015, three GP reporters were awarded the Miel fellowship from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

In May 2013, Global Press Institute (GPI) founder Cristi Hegranes was named one of the five 2013 Ashoka Fellows who are recognized for their innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems.

In 2012 Hegranes won the prestigious Young Innovator for Social Justice Prize from Grinnell College. Watch this video to find out more about GPI and the award.

In 2011 Gertrude Pswarayi, a reporter at GPI’s Zimbabwe News Desk, won the Kurt Schork Award, the world’s only journalism prize that specifically honors foreign news by reporters living and working in the developing world and countries in transition.

In 2011 Ugandan GPI reporter Jackee Budesta Batanda was named the 2011-2012 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow by the International Women’s Media Foundation.

In 2011 GPI Hegranes won a Jefferson Award for Public Service “for using journalism as a catalyst for economic empowerment, global awareness, and social change.” Hegranes and the organization are featured in a May 11, 2011 CBS News story and news clip.