SEJ Member Spotlight: Stefano Valentino

New member Stefano Valentino from Italy is developing an innovative, independent web platform, Federated Reporters for Earth and the Environment (FREE), for news dissemination, marketing and crowdsourcing, dedicated to "green globalization." This platform helps affiliated reporters, readers and editors connect, collaborate and share content on the topic he calls "abusive vs. sustainable management of our planet." Last summer, Stefano was awarded a grant through SEJ's Fund for Environmental Journalism to expose impacts that public policies and corporate practices related to natural resources, bioenergy and climate change have on the environment, development and human rights, in the context of North-South relationships. His first investigative story was published in April on Christian Science Monitor, with more stories in the coming months, including a multimedia story Stefano will be co-producing with the Italian Broadcasting Corporation.

Stefano is a freelance investigative and entrepreneurial journalist based in Brussels. Over the last 13 years he has served as a foreign correspondent, covering the EU as well as social, economic and political conflicts around the world, mostly in the Middle-East, Africa and Asia. He contributes to the global newswire Inter Press Service (IPS) and to major print and online publications in different countries, including the Guardian (UK), the Christian Science Monitor (USA), Le Monde Diplomatique (France), la Repubblica (Italy), and NRC Handelsblad (the Netherlands).

Following his mid-career training in digital journalism at UC Berkeley School of Journalism in 2009/2010, Stefano embarked on a pioneer ICT venture called Mobile Reporter, a crowdsourcing smartphone app intended to raise public support and funding for independent collaborative investigations on crucial issues that are under-reported by mainstream media, such as the environment. This project won the Google-funded IPI News Innovation Contest 2012. Prototype implementation is under way.

Please welcome Stefano to the SEJ family.