Nearly 60 applicants from 30 countries applied for 2018 fellowships administered by Alfred Friendly Press Partners, including many facing severe media restrictions from increasingly authoritarian governments and several forced to work in exile.

The applicants come from the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia — from Mexico and the tiny Caribbean island of St. Lucia to Russia and India and on down to Zimbabwe and South Africa. There also will be seven journalists from Macedonia as part of a new, short-term fellowship project.

Explore our interactive map at the bottom of this page to see where the applicants are working as reporters, editors and broadcasters.

Daniel Pearl Fellows

About a third of the journalists aspired to be Daniel Pearl Fellows. The Daniel Pearl Foundation was formed in 2002 in the name of the Wall Street Journal’s South Asia bureau chief who was slain by terrorists in Pakistan, and the family has funded more than two-dozen participants from Muslim-majority countries in the fellowship program.

The applicants for the two Daniel Pearl Fellowships came from 12 different countries, in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. One potential fellow is from Azerbaijan and another is from Sudan, countries from which the program has have never previously had a fellow. Another is from Gaza, which is noteworthy because the program hasn’t had a Palestinian fellow since 1996.

Newly sponsored fellowships for Indians

This will be the second year that the Frank Islam and Debbie Driesman Foundation has sponsored a fellowship for a journalist from India. Eight Indian journalists have applied as of early November, and more were expected. The newsrooms they work include some of the most prestigious in the country, including the Hindustan Times and The Hindu. 

Alfred Friendly Fellows       

Another 40 or so journalists from 20 different countries applied for the general Alfred Friendly fellowships. We received applicants from Saint Lucia, Senegal, South Sudan, and Venezuela — all countries from which we have never previously had a fellow. We had an unusually high number of applicants from Latin America, with three potential fellows from Brazil, one from Mexico and one from Venezuela. We continue to receive multiple applicants from Russia, as well as a large number from throughout the Middle East and Africa.

Our organization is extremely thankful to all of the journalists who applied for a fellowship.