Silenced ARTICLE 19

Though it rarely makes news headlines, in the Southern Caucasus a geopolitical battle is underway. Georgia is locked between democracy - with closer ties to Europe - and authoritarianism, with the Russian bear looming ever larger.
It all started in April 2024, when a new law was introduced dubbed the 'foreign agent law', which mandated that any organisation receiving more than 20 per cent of its funds from abroad needed to register as organisations pursuing the interests of a foreign power. 
In response, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets calling for closer union with NATO and the EU, and for the government to turn away from Russia. 
Here, Nicola Kelly speaks to Georgian journalist Tornike Mandaria about the growing movement and what these demonstrations tell us about the future of this embattled nation and its people.
Presented by Nicola KellyProducer: Kevin Caners

On 29 March 2023, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was on a field trip in the Ural mountains of Russia when he was arrested on spurious charges of espionage.
Russia’s FSB - the successor to the Soviet-era KGB - had accused Evan of attempting to obtain classified information about a large military industrial complex, charging him with spying; charges the Journal, the US government and Evan’s family have always strenuously denied.
In this episode of 'Silenced', host Nicola Kelly speaks to Ann Simmons, Moscow Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal and Evan's boss. Ann describes the ways in which the climate has changed for reporters covering Russia over recent years. She also sets out what happened on the day of Evan's arrest, the conditions in which he is being held and the chilling precedent his case sets for all those trying to get reliable, impartial information out of Russia.
Presented by Nicola Kelly
Producer: Kevin Caners

With western media outlets dubbing the conflict in Sudan a “forgotten war”, what role do journalists play in making sure the world doesn’t look away?
On the morning of 15 April 2023, Al Jazeera’s Sudan correspondent Hiba Morgan was up early, preparing to head out on a reporting trip northwest of the capital Khartoum. 
There had been something in the air for months; a sense that a feud between two generals - one from the Sudanese army, and the other from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF - was about to come to a head. But nobody could have known the scale of the war that was about to unfold around them. 
In this episode, Nicola talks to Hiba, the last remaining international correspondent based in Khartoum. She describes the atrocities she has witnessed, the complexities of verifying information when the situation is unclear and changing rapidly, and the determination to continue reporting from inside Sudan.
Presented by Nicola KellyProducer: Kevin Caners

In the early hours of 7 October 2023, news rolled in which was a completely different scale to anything Israeli photojournalist Oren Ziv had ever covered before. He grabbed his cameras and headed south to the border villages. Not long after that, he and his colleagues came under fire from Hamas militants who had broken through the border wall.

Later, Oren visited the site of the Nova music festival and kibbutz where Israelis had attempted to flee the attacks. He spoke to the families of those taken hostage by Hamas, attended funerals and morgues, and covered the looting of Palestinians' homes in the West Bank.

In this episode, Oren tells host Nicola Kelly about the attacks on 7 October, how it felt to come under fire from Hamas and what it has been like to cover the war from the frontline. 

Presented by Nicola Kelly
Producer: Kevin Caners

How do you report on a war when the war is at home?

In this episode host Nicola Kelly speaks to Al Jazeera Gaza correspondent Youmna ElSayed. 

Youmna describes the challenges of reporting on the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks and Israel's devastating bombardment of the beseiged Gaza Strip in the months that have followed. She sets out the personal and professional costs of covering the war, the impact it has had on her family and the moment the Israeli Defence Forces called her home to issue a threat.

Presented by Nicola Kelly
Producer: Kevin Caners

In a new season of 'Silenced', host Nicola Kelly speaks to journalists around the world who have risked it all to report the truth. 
In episode one, Nicola speaks to Youmna El-Sayed, Gaza correspondent for Al-Jazeera, about the Hamas attacks on October 7 2023 and Israel's ongoing bombardment of the Gaza strip. How do you report on a war when the war is at home?
Future episodes include:- Oren Ziv, Israeli journalist and photographer, one of the first to report from the frontline following the October 7 attacks; - Hiba Morgan, Al-Jazeera Sudan correspondent, one of the last Sudanese journalists still reporting from inside the country; - Ann Simmons, Wall Street Journal Moscow Bureau Chief, on the case of her colleague Evan Gershkovich who has been detained in Russia for more than a year on charges of espionage denied by the paper, the US government and Evan's family. 
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Presented by Nicola Kelly.Producer: Kevin Caners.