JULIANA RUHFUS
Investigative Journalist, Presenter, Filmmaker
Juliana Ruhfus is an award-winning broadcaster, investigative journalist and filmmaker who now leads
the European work of the “Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma”, a resource centre dedicated to improving media coverage of trauma, conflict and tragedy, headquartered at Columbia University, NYC.
Juliana has a career that spans over 25 years in journalism and TV. She is best known as the face of Al Jazeera English's flagship "People and Power" strand which she joined in 2006 as part of the channel's launch team. She stayed for sixteen years, directing, presenting and producing over 60 films in nearly 50 countries including some of "People and Power's" highest-rating episodes. In 2022 she left and joined BBC World Service TV Investigations as an executive producer tasked with setting up a unit in India. Other credits include presenting for Channel 4's "Unreported World" series and producing and directing work for international broadcasters including WDR (Germany) and NHK (Japan).
Juliana loves story-telling and narratives in all forms and shapes. She has created and produced the multi-award winning "Pirate Fishing - Interactive Investigation" and “Hacked” digital projects and received Google DNI funding to develop an open source chat-based storytelling tool. More recently, in 2022 she won a grant to write a fictional TV series about the environmental movement in Germany, an ongoing project.
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Her involvement with the Dart Centre's advocacy work for more trauma-informed coverage of tragedy and violence begun in 2010, with the prestigious Ochberg Fellowship, followed, a year later, by a funded scholarship for Harvard University’s Global Trauma Programme, and a ten year-long appointment to Dart Centre Europe's board of trustees.
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Today Juliana combines her work for the Dart Centre with TV production, journalism, as well as training and mentoring of investigative and cross-border teams of journalists. She is a trustee for the Environmental Justice Foundation, and sits on the advisory board for eyeWitness to Atrocities, a project of the International Bar Association. Outside media Juliana has served as a consultant to the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee tasked with investigating breaches of the arms embargo on Somalia.
RECENT FILMS & FAVOURITE PROJECTS
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.
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.