Our IARJ colleagues are active in many media networks around the world, including the Religion & Media Interest Group of the Association of Educators of Journalism and Mass Communication. The Winter 2022-23 issue of that group’s Religion & Media UPDATE includes stories about two of our colleagues.

In our fourth global discussion about religion and politics, IARJ members from Europe discuss current challenges journalists face in navigating political and religious forces in their countries. Joining moderator Jelena Jorgacevic are Georgia Geleoudi, a religion blogger covering Greece and Cyprus; Hendro Munsterman, Vatican and Rome Correspondent for the Dutch daily newspaper Nederlands Dagblad; and Jonah Mandel, an IARJ founding member and a correspondent in Israel for the French news agency AFP.

In our third global discussion about religion and politics, IARJ members from Africa discuss current challenges journalists face in navigating political and religious forces in their countries.

The International Association of Religion Journalists (IARJ) is launching a second global series of dialogues with journalists on the challenges of Religion and Politics. The new chair of our IARJ board Uday Basu moderated this first panel, which features IARJ members from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

David Crumm, Elisa Di Benedetto and Larbi Megari encourage religion journalists to report on the once-in-a-lifetime experience of major holidays in all three Abrahamic faiths interrupted by a global crisis—including links to some of the stories we already are seeing from reporters around the world.

Investigative journalist Erick Kabendera, a founding member of the International Association of Religion Journalists (IARJ), has been released from prison in Tanzania. The IARJ joins in the responses of Amnesty International and the Committee to Project Journalists in decrying this harsh treatment of a journalist whose only goal has been to make the world a better place with honest, fair and balanced reporting.

A VIEW OF RACIAL DIVERSITY FROM THE U.S. and ITALY—The photo at left shows the Rev. Dr. France A. Davis, pastor emeritus of Utah’s largest predominantly black church. As a young man, Dr. Davis marched twice with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Davis also has played a major role in groundbreaking relations with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which dominates life in Utah. Recently, two founding members of the International Association of Religion Journalists were involved in lifting up Dr. Davis’s prophetic voice to a global audience. In 2020, regular readers of the IARJ website will be able to enjoy occasional columns featuring stories that connect religion writers on different continents.

A REMINDER TO JOURNALISTS across Europe and around the Mediterranean basin that the deadline is looming for the first Piazza Grande Religion Journalism Award. This column also has links to the entry page, contest details—and answers to frequently asked questions.

All of us at the International Association of Religion Journalists are celebrating with our co-founder Rachael Kohn, who was honored recently with one of Australia’s highest civil honors for public service. On September 4, she was inducted as an Officer of the Order of Australia. The investiture took place at Government House. This story includes a video of the ceremony.

The International Association of Religion Journalists (IARJ) and the Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose Giovanni XXIII (FSCIRE), an Italian research institute focused on religious studies, are launching a new award for religion reporting, the Piazza Grande Religion Journalism Award. The new prize will honor the work of journalists in newspapers, magazines or news websites that publish regularly in Europe, including Iceland and Russia, and the countries surrounding the Mediterranean basin.