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JULIANA RUHFUS

Investigative Journalist & Filmmaker

Media Consultant & Trainer

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I am an award-winning filmmaker, investigative journalist and executive producer who has also led the work of the Dart Centre for Journalism Trauma (Europe). I am now working as a freelance media consultant, trainer and mentor, often with a specific focus on trauma-informed media production and investigative journalism. 

 

As a filmmaker and journalist I am probably best known as the senior reporter for Al Jazeera English's which I joined as part of the launch team in 2006 after having started my career as a freelancer for Channel 4's Unreported World, the BBC, WDR, RTL and NHK .  Once at Al Jazeera I went on to report and produce over 50 films in nearly as many countries for People & Power investigative and current affairs strand, including some of the show’s highest-rating and award-winning episodes often from places of conflict and crisis. After leaving the channel in 2021 I joined BBC Worldservice Eye Investigations as an executive producer tasked with setting up a unit in India.

 

In July 2022 I took over as the European director of the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma (DCE), a relationship that had started in 2010 after receiving the Ochberg Fellowship and a scholarship for Harvard's Global Trauma Programme a year later. As DCE's director I grew the range and reach of Dart Centre's training offer and worked with some of Europe's leading broadcasters, investigative newsroom and TV production companies.  I initiated and led projects including a retreat for climate reporters, a peer support helpline for journalists in Germany, and I continue to provide training with a focus on trauma-informed storytelling. 

 

I thrive on creative storytelling.  To give audiences a deeper insight into the investigative process I created and produced the multi-award winning "Pirate Fishing - Interactive Investigation" and “Hacked” digital journalism projects. In 2017 I successfully applied for Google DNI funding to develop an open source chat-based storytelling tool and in 2022 received funding to write a fictional TV series about the environmental movement in Germany, an ongoing project.

 

Outside journalism I have served as a consultant to the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee consultant tasked with investigating breaches of the arms embargo on Somalia. I serve on the board of trustees for the Environmental Justice Foundation, and on the advisory board for eyeWitness to Atrocities, a project of the International Bar Association.

RECENT FILMS & FAVOURITE PROJECTS

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How did a former US Green Beret manage to organise a plot to kidnap Venezuela’s President Maduro claiming it was backed by the American government?

An homage to one of Brazil’s most famous activists whose killing reveals the close links between Rio’s militia groups and President Bolsonaro’s family.

A journey deep into the Sahara that assesses the impact of the EU’s decision to turn one of the world’s poorest nations into its most southern border.

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Pirate Fishing Interactive Investigation
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A film that unravels why so many young Muslims from the Caribbean island nation Trinidad and Tobago are being drawn to fight in the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

The multi-award winning gamified version of the Pirate fishing documentary in which the user takes the role of a journalist researching illegal fishing in Sierra Leone.

An undercover investigation into the exploitation of children through the ‘voluntourism’ business that helped change the industry forever.

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©2021 by Juliana Ruhfus.

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