World Press Freedom Day 2017

Michelle Betz is a senior media development consultant with 15 years of experience in project design, implementation, management and evaluation. Her areas of expertise include media in conflict and post-conflict, military-media relations and safety issues. She has a particular interest in the use of media in conflict prevention and resolution. 

Michelle has trained hundreds of journalists around the world and has conducted conflict sensitive journalism training in Ukraine, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She is also an active researcher and has authored numerous book chapters and papers including Conflict Sensitive Journalism: Moving Towards a Holistic Framework. In 2003, Michelle was awarded a Knight International Journalism Fellowship and spent four months working with journalists in Rwanda. Michelle was awarded a second Knight International Press Fellowship in 2005 and spent five months in Morocco training journalists. 

Michelle began her career as a network journalist with the Canadian Broadcast Corporation where she covered both national and international stories. She then spent six years teaching journalism at the University of Central Florida. She received a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of British Columbia and a Master of Journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.