Sahara Reporters

Sahara Reporters
Type News agency
Format Online
Owner(s) Omoyele Sowore
Founded 2006
Language English
Website saharareporters.com

Sahara Reporters is an online news agency based in New York City that focuses on promoting citizen journalism by encouraging everyday people to report stories about corruption, human rights abuses and other political misconduct in Nigeria. A frontier news source for advocacy journalism Sahara Reporters has been referred to as the “Wikileaks of Africa” by The Daily Beast.[1]

History

Based in New York City, Sahara Reporters was founded in 2006 by Omoyele Sowore. Sahara Reporters is supported by grants donated by the Ford Foundation which has donated $175,000 to the organization over the past two years. Sahara Reporters has also received a $450,000 grant from The Omidyar Foundation.[1][2]

Since 2006, Sahara Reporters has published over 5,000 reports.

In December 2009, Sahara Reporters drew worldwide attention by being the first news source to identify and publish the photo of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, known more commonly as the “underwear bomber”, who is a suspected terrorist accused of attempting to blow-up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day by detonating a plastic bomb that exploded in his underwear.[2]

Sahara Reporters has gained a large following both in Nigeria and amongst Nigerians abroad.[3] Although Sahara Reporters report from New York and are protected by the First Amendment, both Omoyele Sowore and the organization have received various threats from individuals whose illegal activities have been exposed on the Sahara Reporters website, as well as the Nigerian government.

Controversies

There have been several controversies about the reportage of Sahara Reporters, many claim that Sahara Reporters is a 'strong media tool used by Omoyele to extort money from politicians'. The most popular being that Omoyele received money from sitting president Muhammadu Buhari to ridicule former president Goodluck Jonathan.[4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Shenon, Philip (12 August 2010). "Africa's Wikileaks". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  2. 1 2 Spiegal, Brendan (20 November 2011). "From Safety of New York, Reporting on a Distant Homeland". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  3. ↑ Thamm, Marianne (5 June 2015). "Nigeria’s favourite satirist goes global after ambushing Robert Mugabe". Daily Maverick - Guardian Africa network. The Guardian. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  4. ↑ "Meet Omoyele Sowore, The Founder Of Sahara Reporters [Photos] - INFORMATION NIGERIA".
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