This event will be held in English.
Co-organized by Columbia Global Centers | Paris and Forbidden Stories
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“Don’t think that they can stop these investigations by arresting us one by one.”
As part of the #TheBakuConnection Project, Forbidden Stories investigated how Azerbaijan manipulates election observers to give this rights-abusing regime an illusion of democracy. The project brought together 40 journalists from 15 media outlets to continue the work of their colleagues arrested in Azerbaijan since November 2023.
Watch the trailer.
Join us for an engaging panel discussion with Laurent Richard, CEO and founder of Forbidden Stories. The event will also include a 20-minute documentary screening. More details to follow soon.
The Baku Connection
Behind prison walls today, journalists from Abzas Media were among the last in the country to investigate the abuses of the Aliyev regime, covering issues of corruption, pollution, and human rights. Moreover, these stories illustrate how what may appear as a local matter actually carries global implications. In February 2024, the #BakuConnectionProject materialized into three investigations. Learn more.
The first chapter focused on how the EU indirectly supports the penitentiary system - where torture is widespread - through the Council of Europe. The second chapter shed light on the environmental impact of the Gedabek Gold Mine, an issue on which authorities and clients have remained silent (Anglo Asian Mining, MKS, Tesla, HP, Microsoft, Apple). The final chapter scrutinized the conditions under which the Azerbaijani ‘elections’ took place, specifically highlighting biased monitoring by international observers.
Speakers
Laurent Richard is a French award-winning documentary filmmaker, producer, and founder of Forbidden Stories, a global network of journalists whose mission is to pursue the investigations of reporters who have been murdered, jailed or threatened. He has directed documentaries for 20 years and was a Knight-Wallace Fellow in 2017 at the University of Michigan. He was named European Journalist of the year 2018 by the Prix Europa in Berlin.
Karina Chabour has been a journalist at France 24 since 2006. As a presenter and reporter, she covers news both in France and abroad. Within France 24's investigative bureau, she has produced reports on repression in Russia, the failure of sewage treatment plants in Guadeloupe, and co-directed a documentary on sexual scandals within the Foreign Missions of Paris.
Roméo Langlois is an investigative journalist. He has notably worked for France 24 and Le Figaro, where he was a correspondent in Bogota. Regarded as one of the leading experts on the Colombian conflict, he won the Albert Londres Prize in 2013 for his piece “Colombie : à balles réelles,” broadcast on France 24. Today, he is a senior reporter and the head of the Investigations Desk at France 24.
Organizers
Columbia Global Centers | Paris addresses pressing global issues that are at the forefront of international education and research: agency and gender; climate and the environment; critical dialogues for just societies; encounters in the arts; and health and medical science.
Forbidden Stories is a network of journalists whose mission is to protect, pursue, and publish the work of other journalists facing threats, prison, or murder. It is the only existing program with this mission, with the message that killing the journalist won’t kill the story.
Venue
Nestled in the Montparnasse district, Reid Hall hosts several Columbia University initiatives: Columbia Global Centers | Paris, the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, Columbia Undergraduate Programs, M.A. in History and Literature, and the GSAPP Shape of Two Cities Program. This unique combination of resources is enhanced by our global network whose mission is to expand the University's engagement the world over through educational programs, research initiatives, regional partnerships, and public events.
The views and opinions expressed by speakers and guests do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of Columbia Global Centers | Paris or its affiliates.
