Linda Ngari is a freelance journalist from Kenya who covers gender rights, mis- and disinformation and climate change.

A 2024 Elliott Award winner, she still relies on what she learned at The Economist. "Thanks to the experience, I now report while questioning the possible global angle a local story could have. More often than not, there's a foreign influence in issues faced locally," Ngari says.

Photo by Students for Liberty

This interview has been edited.

How have you been involved with ICFJ over the years?

I was a recipient of ICFJ's Michael Elliott Award for Excellence in African Storytelling in 2024, which is my most notable interaction with ICFJ programs. The program involved travel to London, to intern at The Economist. This left me with a lot of lessons on how to tell stories with a global audience in mind. From this, I wrote learnings for IJNet on how media houses in Africa can learn from The Economist's digital transformation that is reporting millions of British pounds of profits from online subscribers.

Before this, I was part of ICFJ's Disarming Disinformation program and the inaugural Africa Academy for Open Source Investigation (AAOSI) - in partnership with Code for Africa - which were pivotal in shaping my skills as an investigative journalist and a trainer using OSINT skills, for instance on Follow the Money projects.

What was the biggest outcome from participating in the program?

One of the stories I produced as part of AAOSI, exposing a betting scam that conned hundreds of victims across East Africa won the best sports story in the print category at the Media Council of Kenya's Annual Journalism Excellence Awards 2024, as well as the AIPS sports awards in Spain and was featured on a panel session about how to investigate sports at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference this year.

ICFJ's capacity building programs in mis/disinformation also equipped me as a trainer in OSINT journalism. I'm proud to have delivered my first ever keynote speech on the topic; "Tackling Misinformation: The Confluence of Platform Integrity and Data Journalism" at the Digital Humanities conference at George Mason University in August 2024. I've trained journalists across Africa on OSINT, in partnership with organisations like the African Students for Liberty, and Nigeria's LIDA Network and co-authored a Misinformation Toolkit with Kenya's Baraza Media Lab.

Since the Michel Elliott award, I moved into freelance journalism, trying my hand at writing for a global audience. It's still a work in progress but I'm happy to have bylines at Open Democracy, African Arguments, GenderIT and Global Voices so far.

What is something impactful you have worked on since participating in an ICFJ program that you are proud of and would want to highlight?

Earlier this year I published a year-long investigation looking into carbon offsetting projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The two-part series looks into aspects like greenwashing, carbon profiteering and carbon colonialism. It exposed the role of an affluent American family as stakeholders in the larger DRC economy and their operations in carbon offsetting projects, where the promises they made to indigenous communities went unkept for a decade while they cashed in millions of dollars from multinational corporations in Europe and America, looking to offset their carbon emissions. With help from the Pulitzer Center, the story sets precedent for how journalists in Africa can report about carbon markets. It was presented at the Africa Investigative Journalism Conference in Johannesburg this year and its coverage diversified into different languages including French and Spanish.

I utilised some storytelling tips I learned from my time at The Economist in this investigation. Thanks to the experience, I now report while questioning the possible global angle a local story could have. More often than not, there's a foreign influence in issues faced locally. I might have even referred to The Economist style guide once or twice while writing this story.

Why is it so important right now to provide the kind of support to journalists that ICFJ does, especially in Africa?

Speaking as an East African, cases of human rights violations have increased in the region lately, and are speculated to get worse with the lineup of back to back elections (Tanzania-2025, Uganda-2026, Kenya-2027).

Photo by Malenga Byode

Since the beginning of anti-government protests in Kenya in 2024 and more recently with the election violence experienced in Tanzania, governments have become less tolerant to opposing views and have targeted journalists and activists in the region. Going by the cases of police brutality, abductions and killings already witnessed, support for journalists is much needed. Not to mention the war crimes in Sudan. Besides physical harms, governments have also taken to online tactics like internet shutdowns, surveillance and disinformation campaigns. Interventions to build capacity and also financially support African journalists to do their job under such hostile circumstances would go a long way.

What are you currently working on - or what do you want to work on - that you're excited about?

I'm currently working on my first academic-like report focusing on the role of AI-misinformation in wartime, for the Al Jazeera Media Institute. The study looks into the use of Artificial Intelligence to generate misinformation about ongoing wars and how fact-checkers and journalists are handling it. It analyzes AI-misinformation regarding the Israel-Gaza war, the Ukraine-Russia war and the Lake Chad conflict in West Africa. I spoke to fact-checkers from the Middle East, Europe and Africa and compared how different social media platforms are abused to instill fear and panic during conflict, looking especially at how this has scaled with the advent of AI.

What's the most impactful/meaningful story that you've worked on in your career?

Covering abortion rights in Kenya for BBC Africa Eye was especially meaningful to me as a young woman. I had the privilege to tell the stories of women and girls like me. Caught up in legal ambiguity and misinformation led by evangelical organisations in a Christian society. Left with almost no choice, a lot of women in my country seek the services of backstreet abortion providers who have little to no training and often end up with life threatening complications. I tell the story of some of my peers in high school who were found unconscious after drinking bleach and overdosing on painkillers while attempting to terminate unwanted pregnancies. The story was Lydia Namubiru's brainchild, from her extensive work in investigating Crisis Pregnancy Centers, which are funded by American evangelical organisations to misinform pregnant teenage girls. It was made possible by Zoe Flood's impeccable directing and produced by Rael Ombuor, Seyi Rhodes and Pete Murimi. This is the story that won me the Michael Elliott Award by ICFJ, as well as the Gaby Rado Newcomer award by Amnesty International and remains etched in my heart.

Why did you choose to become a journalist?

I've loved writing for as long as I can remember. That combined with insatiable curiosity and a passion for social justice led me into student journalism, and then an internship at a media house and I have never looked back since.

*ICFJ's Michael Elliott Award is celebrating its ten-year anniversary. You learn more about the program here, apply here and make a donation to support the program here.