Bonn, Germany, June 19 – The Harbingers’ Magazine team’s presence at the DW Global Media Forum underscored the potential of youth-driven media initiatives to contribute to the global conversation on journalism and media solutions.
This year’s Harbingers’ Magazine Competition, unfolding in two stages, invites seven exceptional teenagers from across the globe to join our project for the 2024/25 academic year
Ahead of this year’s US Presidential Election, Harbingers’ Magazine opens a pop-up newsroom for eight students in Washington D.C. While witnessing the US Independence Day and the NATO Summit, we will prepare a team of teenage journalists who will cover the election and its aftermath in the upcoming academic year.
For the third time, Harbingers’ Magazine opens its annual pop-up newsroom in Oxford. Ten students will attend daily editorials, write articles with the support of experienced journalists, explore the medieval city housing one of the world‘s most famous universities, and make friends with people from all over the world.
This comprehensive online course allows young adults with no prior experience in journalism to prepare their first articles for Harbingers’ Magazine. The course can be taught individually or in a group of up to three students and should result in every student having published three or four articles.
Editor-in-chief Director
During a career of over 15 years, Stas was a co-founder and deputy editor-in-chief of the NGO-run fact-checking and investigative journalism outlet OKO.press, the managing editor of the Gazeta Wyborcza opinion section and its UK and international affairs correspondent. Between 2010 and 2016, he was the producer of political interviews at Radio ZET.
He graduated from the Warsaw University’s Institute of Applied Social Sciences with a specialisation in political philosophy. His writing appeared in Die Welt, Le Figaro, and The Diplomat; he also commented for the BBC. In 2016, he won the Grand Press News Award for an investigation into corruption at the Ministry of Defence of Poland, and the Green Prus Award.
In 2021, after a year of research, Stas founded the Oxford School for the Future of Journalism and its Harbingers’ Magazine project.
Deputy editor-in-chief Academic director
Based in Armenia, Tatev is an international investigative journalist and editor with 13 years of editorial experience. Until August of 2023, she was openDemocracy’s Europe and Eurasia editor. Her writing has appeared in numerous international media outlets, including the BBC, Euronews, and the Guardian.
Tatev is also a lecturer at the Yerevan Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences.
In 2023, Tatev received the Journalists for Human Rights 2023 award for her investigation into illegal adoptions. In 2022, she won an Emma Goldman Award for innovative research on feminist and inequality issues in Europe – the first time a journalist has won the award.
Publisher & fact-checker Head of operations
Emily is a graduate from the University of East Anglia. Having joined the OXSFJ in 2021, she is the proofreader, fact-checker, and publisher of Harbingers’ Magazine.
Working to ensure inclusivity, she has worked previously in schools assisting students with disabilities and/or additional learning needs for both mental health intervention and academic support while self-learning British Sign Language.
Chief reporter Head of partnerships
Before joining the OXSFJ, Sarah was a Specialist Reporter at Archant Media Group’s Eastern Daily Press, where she covered the cost of living crisis, deprivation and mental health, and the war in Ukraine.
With almost a decade of experience in the industry, Sarah holds the Level 6 National Qualification in Journalism and received the 2022 NQJ Media Law and Ethics in Practice Award. She has conducted high-profile interviews with Liz Truss and Jeremy Corbyn amongst others.
Managing editor Head of communications
Kimberly Yanez is a seasoned Venezuelan Communications Specialist based in Canada. Her career has seen her transition seamlessly between the fast-paced world of beat journalism, where she covered everything from community issues to national crises, and the creative realm of copywriting, crafting compelling narratives for products and brands.
Whether reporting on the ground or developing engaging content strategies, her work is characterized by a commitment to storytelling that resonates with diverse audiences.
She holds a Joint University Master’s Degree in Journalism, Media, and Globalization from Aarhus University and the University of Amsterdam, a testament
to her academic pursuit of understanding the media’s intricate dance with society.
But beyond the degrees and accolades, it’s the stories that have shaped her – the whispered confessions of a community in crisis, the triumphant tales of brands
breaking barriers. Now, she pretty much loves passing her knowledge to a new generation of ethical writers at Harbinger’s Magazine.
Managing editor
Cath Phillips has more than 30 years’ experience as an editor, copy editor and proofreader in the UK across a variety of publications. Among these are international news website openDemocracy, travel outlet Time Out – including numerous city guides (Europe, the US, Asia and Australia), restaurant guides for London and the UK – plus museum exhibition catalogues and art books,and architecture and design magazines.
Multimedia editor
Originally from Boston, now based in Yerevan, Lucy is a freelance, multimedia journalist reporting on human rights issues across Eastern Europe, the South
Caucasus, and Central Asia. Previously, they investigated backlash against LGBTIQ and women’s rights in Europe and Eurasia for openDemocracy.
Before that, Lucy produced radio for a daily American foreign affairs show, “The World”, a co-production of PRX/PRI, GBH, and formerly the BBC World Service in Boston.
Lucy holds a dual master’s degree in journalism and international human rights and humanitarian action from Sciences Po in Paris. They speak English/French/Russian and are currently learning Armenian.
Photo editor
Born and based in Warsaw, Zuzanna is an audiovisual artist. She graduated from Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and now combines working at the OXSFJ alongside theatres. She is closest to the film medium, but she also enjoys working in graphics, photography and music.
She has had several group and solo exhibitions in Warsaw, Bristol, Venice, Lublin, Zamość and Łódź. In the meantime, she creates set designs and costumes for theatre (Theater and Dance Center in Warsaw, Rampa Theatre, Klub Komediowy) and works as an acoustician.
Publisher
Based in Austria, originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, Sofiya is a former editor-in-chief of Harbingers’ Magazine, who is now a part of the Harbinger Fellow programme. For Harbingers’ she wrote about Women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights and the War in Ukraine.
Sofiya is also a student at the University of Vienna and will start her studies in Biology in September.
Journalist
Tharushi Weerasinghe is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, specializing in environmental issues, politics, and social justice reporting. Her work appears in the Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) and other regional publications.
Her climate journalism includes on-ground reporting from the United Nation’s COP27 (Egypt) and COP28 (UAE) have exposed state mismanagement of resources and ecologically damaging policy-making within Sri Lanka. She was also an on-ground reporter of the “Aragalaya”, the Sri Lankan anti-government protests that took place in 2022.
Weerasinghe is a multiple grant awardee fellow at the Earth Journalism Network and Stanley Centre for Peace and Security. She was awarded the Denzil Peiris Young Reporter of the Year 2023 award and the Upali Wijewardene Best Feature Writer of the Year 2023 award by the Sri Lanka Press Institute and Editor’s Guild. She was also the two-time winner of the aforementioned Young Reporter of the Year Merit award in 2021 and 2022. She is also the Lakshman Kadirgamar Scholar of 2024 to the Manorama School of Communication in Kerala, India where she is currently studying journalism alongside a law degree from the University of London.
Journalist
Carolina Loza León is a freelance journalist and producer covering the intersection of the Global South, human rights and foreign policy, covering Ecuador, Colombia and beyond. Carolina has contributed to outlets such as The New York Times, NPR, Rest of World, TRT World among others. In 2021, her investigation on illegal detentions of Ecuadorian fishermen on high seas was recognized with Ecuador’s premier journalism prize, the Jorge Mantilla Ortega Award.
Journalist
Bal Krishna Sah holds a master’s and bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication from Tribhuvan University in Nepal, with an expertise in knowledge management.
He started his journalism career with The Himalayan Times, Nepal’s No. 1 English National Daily. Prior to this he taught social studies and science in an English boarding school located in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, for five years.
He chiefly writes for The Himalayan Times on science and politics, including diplomacy, human rights, and social issues, and manages OXSFJ’s Nepal project.
Journalist
Shristi Kafle is a freelance journalist based in Kathmandu, Nepal with a decade-long experience in media. She mostly writes on foreign affairs, Nepal-China relations, environment and climate change, among other contemporary issues.
She started her journalism career by working on Nepali Television channels Sagarmatha TV and Mountain TV. In 2015, she joined Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency (Nepal Bureau) as a Correspondent, where her major tasks included producing news, interviews, special reports and feature stories for Xinhua wire service, in addition to producing video stories.
She has covered the earthquake of 2015, the pandemic in 2020, air crashes in Nepal, and various other disasters. Her stories are picked by different national and international media. Some of her works can be read here.
In 2021, she left her full-time job to pursue freelancing and consultancy work. Since then, she mostly contributes to different Chinese media platforms and the national English daily Annapurna Express. She also writes on environment and climate change for The Third Pole. Besides this, she is also an Executive Board Member at the Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ), where she assists in executing projects and activities related to the environment.
Apart from journalism, Kafle is a co-founder of the Nepali podcast Period Kaa Kura, focused on women’s health and menstruation. She holds a Masters Degree in English Literature and Bachelors in Journalism from Tribhuvan University. She has been associated with OXSFJ’s Nepal project since October, 2023.
Journalist
Eleanor Margolis is a freelance journalist. She started off her career writing a column – Lez Miserable – for the New Statesman, in 2013, and now covers culture and society for the Guardian, the i, the Telegraph, and more. She writes about culture and LGBTQ issues, but has also branched out into everything from food to politics. She also does interviews and features.
When we daydream, imagination takes us a decade forward to a world where people who made their first steps in journalism by joining Harbingers’ Magazine are spread throughout newsrooms in every corner of the world. Reporters, investigators, analysts, podcasters, columnists, broadcasters, producers, anchors, managers — all making a difference much earlier than the previous generations were able to.
Please note that the OXSFJ and Harbingers’ Magazine are fully digital organisations. Effectively, we do not hold a permanent office, and the abovementioned address is for correspondence only.
