Awards at WIFP 50th Anniversary Celebration

Recipients of the 2022 Women and Media Award were announced on the occasion of WIFP’s 50th Anniversary, October 23, 2022:
Shireen Abu Akleh (posthumous), Birgitte Jallov, Sabrina Salvati, Frieda Werden, Abby Martin, Ariel Dougherty, Katie Halper, Rania Khalek, Kim Iversen, and Jennifer Barckley.

Birgitte Jallov

Birgitte Jallov is the founding Director of EMPOWERHOUSE, an initiative to advance communities access to strong, sustainable community media, which Birgitte has worked to advance since the early 80s where she was a part of the budding community radio movement in her home country of Denmark. Since then Birgitte has worked systematically with documenting how community media can advance women’s voices, rights and empowered lives in more than 70 countries worldwide, based on which she is presently preparing a podcast series about “Women on the Global Community Airwaves.” Birgitte is the author of EMPOWERMENT RADIO – Voices building the community on how to build sustainable community radio.

Sabrina Salvati

Sabrina Salvati is the host of Sabby Sabs podcast and the co-host of Revolutionary Blackout Network. She is also an activist and a former educator. As a military child, she spent most of her childhood growing up overseas Sarina’s platform focuses on censorship, healthcare, education, criminal justice and the failures of the two party system in the United States. Sabrina holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Education degree from Northeastern University.

Frieda Werden

Frieda Werden is the co-founder and series producer of the long-running radio series WINGS: Women’s International News Gathering Service. The series is produced in collaboration with women radio producers from around the world, and distributed to community radio stations in multiple countries. Prior to co-founding WINGS, Frieda had a background in radio production with Longhorn Radio Network and National Public Radio. She also worked in print media and as Associate Curator of the Texas Women’s History Project. In 2002 Frieda and her partner Suzette Cullen relocated to Canada where she continues to produce the WINGS program.

Abby Martin

Abby Martin is an American journalist, TV presenter and activist. She helped found the citizen journalism website Media Roots and serves on the board of directors of the Media Freedom Foundation, which manages Project Censored. In 2019, she launched The Empire Files: Gaza Fights for Freedom, an investigative documentary.

Ariel Dougherty

Ariel Dougherty is an independent filmmaker and feminist media strategist. Her work is grounded in fifty years of media advocacy for women’s cinematic story-telling, encouraging it to unleash from patriarchal domination. Co-founder of Women Make Movies, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022, she has mentored hundreds of women filmmakers, produced many dozens of works, and directed eight films of her own. She writes about the intersection of feminist media, women’s rights, and funding. She is completing a book about community-based feminist teaching groups, their successes and challenges.

Katie Halper

Katie Halper is a journalist, writer, filmmaker, podcaster and political commentator. She began her career performing as a stand-up comedian, including performing at Netroot Nation and on the annual Seminar Cruise of The Nation magazine. She is the host of the podcast The Katie Halper Show and co-host of the podcast Useful Idiots with Matt Taibbi. The Katie Halper Show takes a humorous look at the news segments and conversations with writers, journalists, activists, artists, and political comedians. 

Rania Khalek

Rania Khalek is a Lebanese-American journalist for Breakthrough News, where she hosts the show Dispatches. She also co-hosts the Unauthorized Disclosure podcast with Kevin Gosztola. Based in Beirut, Lebanon, she has written for many outlets, including The Nation, The Intercept, Al Jazeera, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), Salon, Vice, AlterNet, Truthout, and the Electronic Intifada, where she served on the editorial board. She has reported from around the world, including the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, and Latin America, where she has focuses on wars and the impact of imperialism. She has also covered social justice issues in the U.S., with a focus on racism, inequality, and police brutality.

Kim Iversen

Kim Iversen is a syndicated talk show host and co-founder of The Left Media Network, and the Kim Iversen Show. Kim as long been interested in polarization, immigration, Supreme Court rulings, policy, and social issues. She served as a spokesperson for Stop Child Trafficking Now which raises awareness and money to help victims of sex trafficking. Her mother is a Vietnamese refugee and her father is the son of a small town farmer Kim studied Philosophy with an emphasis in Ethics at the University of California – Davis.

Jennifer Barckley

Jennifer Barckley is the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for The Humane League, a global nonprofit ending the abuse of animals raised for food. Her life and career are centered around nourishing people and our planet – through care, curiosity, kindness, and plants.

Shireen Abu Akleh

Shireen Abu Akleh is a palestinian-American journalist who worked for the Arab-language channel Al Jazeera for 25 years, reporting for decades in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian Territories. On May 11, 2022, while wearing a blue vest with “PRESS” written on it, she was shot and killed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) while covering a raid. She was one of the first female field reporters in the Arab world. [Shireen’s niece Lina Abu Akleh is receiving the Award on her behalf.]