Welcome Letizia, new Head of Comms at Sourcefabric
We’re happy to introduce you to our new head of communications at Sourcefabric. Letizia joined our team in the Berlin office in the beginning of May after she moved from Brussels. She brings with her a long experience in communications in various NGOs and has always kept her passion for journalism alive through volunteering and her own personal development projects.
Letizia, welcome to Sourcefabric! You’ve just moved to Berlin. How do you find it compared to Brussels?
I visited Berlin a couple of times before and every time I thought: one day, I would like to live here! Berlin is fantastic. It has a lot of space and it’s much greener than Brussels. During these first weeks I have already enjoyed its art galleries, open-air cafés, markets… The best decision of all was to bring our bikes to Berlin: it’s so nice to bike here. It’s flat, not hilly like Brussels and very bike-friendly. I’m looking forward to becoming a real Berliner.
Seven years ago you have left your home country, Italy. How did you end up in Brussels in the first place?
Like everyone else I arrived in Brussels... with an internship. Just after my studies, I decided to have an experience with a European touch. So I joined the European Youth Press team as an intern and organised an event for 300 young journalists to visit Brussels in partnership with the European Parliament. At the end of the project I was offered a position as Communications Coordinator at the European Youth Forum, the platform of youth organisations in Europe, a big opportunity for a 24-year-old! So I stayed and made my home base in Brussels for seven years.
Tell us more about your time in the World Organisation of the Scout Movement? How is it to work for one of the biggest volunteer-based organisations in the world?
In the past two years, I was responsible for external relations, funding and directed the Brussels office of the European Region of WOSM. Scouting is a great adventure for 40 million kids all around the world and it has been extremely interesting to work with committed volunteers to make this work visible and supported in Europe and beyond. Working for a value-based organisation really does make a difference: you are always surrounded by an incredible energy and never short of motivation to do better.
Despite working in communications, you have never abandoned your passion for journalism, and in 2011 you have directed and produced a short documentary called “The Caucasus Triangle”. What was it about?
The Caucasus Triangle was a project that went beyond documentary. During my travels I met incredible people from Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Following the arrest of Emin and Adnan, two young Azeri bloggers in 2009, I decided to spend some time in the region and create a visual tool that could tell the story of how young activists are changing their realities in South Caucasus.
[Watch The Caucasus Triangle here!]
You also are one of the masterminds behind EMAJ, Euro-Mediterranean Academy for Young Journalists. Can you tell us more about your experience?
At the heart of EMAJ there is the idea that how we report news is crucial to creating intercultural understanding - we call it ‘intercultural journalism’. So we raised funds to enable young journalists from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East to come together, get to know each other and report on key issue such as migration, employment, religion, etc. Following the three editions of the project we could see increased cooperation between the journalists: they worked hand in hand to publish their stories from both shores of the Mediterranean. This is the best impact we could have ever expected.
Finally, we are really curious, so tell us what is your vision for communications in Sourcefabric?
Sourcefabric sits in a privileged spot in the 21st century: at the intersection between journalism and technology. My goal is to convince everyone that open source projects like our flagship Superdesk are disruptive tools for the future of journalism and newsrooms desperately need them to serve their mission and tell their stories better. What I like about Sourcefabric is that it doesn’t make a difference for our teams if you are a small radio in the Horn of Africa or a huge news agency in Australia, you will get the best innovation to keep delivering quality journalism.
Do you want to become a part of the Sourcefabric team and help us build open source tools for journalists? We'd like to hear from you, have a look at our job openings.