World Press Freedom Day 2018

Michelle Betz is a senior media development consultant and former journalist and journalism educator with over 20 years of experience. Her areas of expertise include media in conflict and post-conflict, military-media relations, safety issues and rapid response interventions and she has a particular interest in the use of media in conflict prevention and resolution. Before returning to the U.S. in 2016, Michelle was based overseas for ten years -- in Ghana, Egypt and Austria -- where she consulted for numerous international NGOs, U.N. agencies and bilateral organizations. Most of her work has been in sub-Saharan Africa. 

In 2013, Michelle was one of 43 people convicted and sentenced in Egypt’s NGO trial. She was sentenced in absentia to five years hard labor in Egypt for work she was contracted to do while based in Washington, DC. 

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. 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.

Betz is an active researcher and her most recent book chapter is:  “Commitment amid conflict: The experience of Central African journalists covering their country’s war,” in Media and Mass Atrocity. Expected publication date late 2018.