International Visitor Leadership Program

Back in February, the US State Department asked me to speak to a foreign delegation about APR’s coverage of human trafficking. One member of that group was an investigative reporter from Ukraine. When I was done, we were all smiling and taking pictures and shaking hands, and this journalist came up and pressed a book into my hands. It was poetry written by Ukrainians about the war with Russia. The stories of pain and loss hammered home for me the fact that I don't know firsthand what it's like in Ukraine, but one part time resident of Huntsville, does.

Based on Donald Trump's first term and his campaign statements, the United States will become less predictable, more chaotic, colder to allies and warmer to some strongmen, and much more transactional in picking friends globally than before. European country where all this seems okay is Serbia. That’s according to Tamara Bajcic. She’s CEO of the fact checking, anti-disinformation, think tank in Belgrade called DEMOSTAT. APR first met Bajcic at the invitation of the U.S. State Department.

This story isn’t part of Alabama Public Radio’s investigative series on the newly redrawn Congressional seat in District 2—But it could provide an interesting perspective—from the view from the former Soviet nation of Belarus.

The Alabama Public Radio newsroom addressed a delegation of expatriate journalists from the former Soviet nation of Belarus. The topic was APR’s national award-winning investigative journalism and how that type of reporting works in the United States.

The Alabama Public Radio news team addressed an international delegation with the U.S. State Department. The subject was how APR teaches student interns how to avoid news disinformation.