Journalism Mentorship Programme
2023 programme
2022 programme

2022 winner
Sonia Teodoriu, Euronews Romania journalist, is the winner of the 2022 Journalism Mentorship Programme. She was selected for the podcast she produced within the programme, coordinated by her mentor – Alex Nedea (Recorder.ro) – and will attend the 2022 Reuters Journalist Fellowship Summer School, taking place from 27 June to 1 July. Listen to the podcast here (Romanian):
Congratulations to all the 2022 mentees!
Andreea Chițu, BA student, Ovidius University (Constanța), Faculty of Letters, Journalism department
Adrian Anton, BA student, Ovidius University, Faculty of Letters, Journalism department
Vlad Iaviță, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) • MSc in European and International Public Policy
Andreea Smerea, MA Hebrew, University of Jerusalem, Rothberg International School, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Jerusalem, Israel; former Junior Communication Consultant within OMAVision
Alina Cristea, Contributing writer Cultura la Dubă
Andreea Coscai, Bennington College, Vermont Media, Communications, Chinese
Norbert Nemeș, MA student, Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences Journalism and Political Communication
Roberta Vântu, Collaborator at “ObiectivSM” Online News
Irina Șerban, BA student, BBU Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Journalism
Teodorina Constantin, Contributing writer DOR (Decât o Revistă)
Andreea Scridon, PhD student BBU, Faculty of Letters
2022 PROGRAMME
We are pleased to announce that 7 mentor-mentee working teams have been created for the 2022 Mentorship Programme. Thus, the professional journalists will work in individual sessions with the assigned young journalists and will also coordinate a series of webinars within the project, covering topics like:
- Approaching the marginals in media – impact and ethical sides
- How to write an investigative feature
- How we can trace plagiarism?
- Avoiding/fighting the fake news
2022 AGENDA
- Training/webinars (February – April 2022)
- Offline workshop (May-June 2022) – two days of interactive panels and fieldwork
- Mentors-mentees working teams – one-on-one working sessions
THE CONTExt
- Romania ranked to 48out of 180 countries in World Press Freedom Index 2020 (dropping from 47 in 2019). “Despite many changes atthe highest level of government, respect for press freedom has not improved.The attitude towards journalism and free speech that prevails within the state and the political class continues to encourage censorship and self-censorship.The media’s funding mechanisms are opaque or even corrupt, and editorial policies are subordinated to owner interests”. More details, here.Launched in 2015 to promote investigative journalism and journalists, the Ion Ratiu Journalism Award is inspired by theexample of Ion Ratiu who fought forthe freedom of press. The fifth edition of the Award and the challenging national context highlight the necessity to further support the development of a national network of professional, committed, and independent journalists.Benefiting of the important expertise of our mentors, Ion Ratiu Journalism Awardees and prominent Romanian journalists, the 14 selected mentees – young journalists interested in promoting democratic principles through their work – will have the opportunity to work with seasoned professionals and to improve their reporting skills.
objectives
- Develop and improve young jour
nalists’ reporting skills through one-to-one activities - Empower young journalists and support them in developing independent funding skills – sharing national and international calls for applications, access to various learning resources, training sessions etc.
- Support mentees to produce at least one meaningful story
Read the personal data note here (Romanian).
2022 mentors
Diana Oncioiu

Currently a reporter working for the alternative publication Dela0, Diana Oncioiu is also a member of the Să Fie Lumină project, initiated by Dela0.ro and the Center for Media Investigations. She has a background in broadcasting, having worked for five years for Realitatea TV and Digi24. She covers mainly social topics – domestic violence, education, social assistance, extreme poverty, social exclusion – and is the author of a series of in depth reportages covering topic like: the social reintegration of former inmates, life in the undergrounds of the Bucharest neighbourhood Ferentari, human trafficking and the trialing of sexual crimes with child victims. Diana Oncioiu is the 2020 recipient of the Ion Ratiu Journalism Award.
Paul Radu

Paul Radu (@IDashboard) is a co-founder and co-executive director of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a co-creator of the Investigative Dashboard concept, of Visual investigative Scenarios visualization software and a co-founder of RISE Project, a platform for investigative reporters and hackers in Romania. He has held a number of fellowships, including the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship in 2001, the Milena Jesenska Press Fellowship in 2002, the Rosalyn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism in 2007, the 2008 Knight International Journalism fellowship with the International Center for Journalists as well as a 2009-2010 Stanford Knight Journalism Fellowship.He is the recipient of numerous awards including in 2004, the Knight International Journalism Award and the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, in 2007, the Global Shining Light Award, the Tom Renner Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, the 2011 Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting, 2015 European Press Prize, the 2020 Sigma Data Journalism Award and 2020 Eppy Awards. Paul is an Ashoka Global fellow and a board member with the Global Investigative Journalism Network and other organizations.
Alex Nedea

Alison Mutler

Emilia Şercan

Ovidiu Vanghele

Ovidiu Vanghele started his career in 2002 when, at the end of his first university year, was hired by Mediafax news agency. During his ten years in the agency, he gradually became interested in more detailed subjects, closer to investigative journalism. In 2012 he joined the Pro TV news team, but also contributed to the network’s premium show “România, te iubesc!”. In 2013 he left mainstream media to set up the Center for Investigative Media (CIM), an NGO he heads ever since. He published several press investigations tracing millions of Euro spent pointlessly, illegally or simply stolen. His best known investigations focused on the abuses from mental health centers, on the Romanian Academy monetary frauds, on the National Railway Company’s contracts or the acquisitions made by the leaders of what was known as “Republica Constanța”. Most of these also became judiciary investigations. He has spent almost the entire 2016 documenting, together with Ana Poenariu (RISE Project), the series “Toți oamenii generalului”, an investigative saga on the personal and financial development of Gabriel Oprea, one of the biggest paradoxes of Romanian politics. Aside from investigative journalism, Ovidiu formed and headed the editorial team of EurActiv Romania, but also collaborated with Factual (a Funky Citizens fact-checking initiative) or Ziare.com sometime in 2020. Ovidiu has been teaching investigative journalism at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences – University of Bucharest since 2016. At the same time, since 2017, he coordinates the Let There Be Light Project (Să Fie Lumină) together with Vlad Stoicescu. With his partners in this project, Ovidiu published the first ever investigative report sending an Orthodox bishop in court for sexual assault on seminar boys. Starting 2021, Ovidiu and his longtime partner Vlad Stoicescu have a new joint project: “The Latest Inquest” (Judecata de Acum), a weekly live video podcast where they unveil and debate important Romanian current affairs.
victor ilie

2021 programme
- 7 mentor-mentee teams have been created and their members started working together in March 201
- our mentors have coordinated a series of Zoom workshops that were open to the young journalists (mentees)