Category Archives: News Stories

I also wrote about what an incredible opportunity the Simon Cumbers Media Fund is.

November – VICE News, Business Insider, Plan International (selected)

‘UK Offers New Powers to Scotland – But Independence Campaigners Say It’s Not Enough’, VICE News, Nov 27, 2014

‘Congolese Gynecologist Awarded EU’s Top Human Rights Prize for Work Treating Rape Victims’, VICE News, Nov 26, 2014 (This piece in Spanish) I travelled to Strasbourg to report on a European Parliament plenary session. This is a photo of Dr. Denis Mukwege that I took right after he was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

‘Pope Francis Warns European Union That the Mediterranean Risks Becoming a “Vast Migrant Cemetery”‘, VICE News, Nov 26, 2014 (and in Spanish)

‘Boko Haram Accused of Massacring Fish Sellers, as Nigerian Government Ends State of Emergency’, VICE News, Nov 24, 2014

‘British Government Threatens to Close Six Private Muslim Schools Where Students Risk “Radicalization”‘, VICE News, Nov 21, 2014

‘North Korea Might Already Be Preparing For a Fourth Nuclear Test’, VICE News, Nov 20, 2014

‘Caught Between the Islamic State and Shiite Militias, Gays are Dying in Iraq’, VICE News, Nov 20, 2014 (Here’s this piece in Dutch)

‘Five Women and a Baby Confirmed Dead as Police Storm Indian ‘Godman’s’ Compound’, VICE News, Nov 19, 2014

‘Video Shows Hong Kong Protesters Attempting to Smash into Government HQ’, VICE News, Nov 19, 2014

‘Organized Child Sexual Abuse in Britain Extends Well Beyond Rotherham’, VICE News, Nov 18, 2014

‘UK Police Investigating Alleged Murders in Government Child Abuse Scandal’, VICE News, Nov 17, 2014

‘FIFA’s Corruption Report Immediately Labeled “Erroneous” by Its Own Investigator’, VICE News, Nov 13, 2014

‘Sweden Accused of Forcing Teenager Back to North Korea Because of Asylum Errors’, VICE News, Nov 13, 2014

‘Europe’s Philae Probe Is the First Spacecraft to Land on a Comet’, VICE News, Nov 12, 2014

‘United Nations Condemns Australia Over “Inhuman” Treatment of Asylum Seekers’, VICE News, Nov 12, 2014

‘Kuwait Offers Stateless Arabs Citizenship in African Country 3,000 Miles Away’, VICE News, Nov 10, 2014 (This piece was also published on Business Insider)

‘Nigeria Suicide Bombing Kills at Least 48 Schoolchildren’, VICE News, Nov 10, 2014

”This Is What We Need’: Latvia’s Foreign Minister Announces He Is Gay’, VICE News, Nov 7, 2014

‘Leaked Documents Show Hundreds of Companies Like IKEA, FedEx, and Amazon are Dodging Tax in Luxembourg’, VICE News, Nov 6, 2014

‘Body of IRA Kidnapping Victim Brendan Megraw Found After 36 Years’, VICE News, Nov 4, 2014

”It’s a Form of Torture’: UNHCR Launches Campaign to Eradicate Statelessness’, VICE News, Nov 4, 2014

I was also asked to do a blog for Plan International’s ‘Because I am a Girl’ campaign.

I was taking photos at the ‘Occupy London’ protest at Parliament Square, Nov 22.

October – VICE News, HuffPost Live, University Observer, Suas 8×8 (selected)

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‘North Korea Quarantines Visiting Foreigners to Protect Against Ebola’, VICE News, Oct 31, 2014

‘Death of Zambia’s Michael Sata Brings Africa’s First White President Since Apartheid’, VICE News, Oct 29, 2014

‘This Woman Was Awarded $685,737 After Learning Her Boyfriend Was an Undercover Cop Sent to Spy on Her’, VICE News, Oct 29, 2014. (This interview was later aggregated by Gawker.)

‘Life with Boko Haram: The Escapees Speak Out’, VICE News, Oct 27, 2014 (This piece in Spanish)

‘We Spoke to One of the Cardinals Who Opposed the Church Welcoming Gay People’, VICE News, Oct 24, 2014

‘Britain’s Battle to End Female Genital Mutilation’, VICE News, Oct 24, 2014

‘Three Denver Girls Skipped School and Flew Off to Join the Islamic State’, VICE News, Oct 22, 2014

‘Soft Drinks Might Be Rotting Your DNA’, VICE News, Oct 21, 2014

‘Assisted Suicide Debate Highlighted By Starvation of UK Grandmother’, VICE News, Oct 20, 2014

‘No One Knows What Nigeria’s Government Is Doing to Rescue Our Kidnapped Schoolgirls’, VICE News, Oct 16, 2014. (As a result of this piece I was asked to appear as a guest on HuffPost Live’s WorldBrief to discuss the latest developments in Nigeria.)

‘Britain’s Student Union Votes Against Condemning the Islamic State – Because That Would Be Islamophobic’, VICE News, Oct 16, 2014

‘Protester Beaten by Hong Kong Police Says He Was Assaulted Again in Custody’, VICE News, Oct 15, 2014

‘Has the Catholic Church Changed Its Views on Same-Sex Relations?’, VICE News, Oct 14, 2014

‘Austrian Teenager Who Joined Islamic State “Wants to Come Home” – But Fears the Consequences’, VICE News, Oct 13, 2014

Several of my VICE News articles are also available in French.

And in German.

And Italian.

I was asked to contribute to the University Observer’s 20th anniversary special supplement, which also includes pieces from Dara O’Briain, Pat Leahy, Samantha Libreri, and many others.

A photo I took during the Rwandan genocide commemorations this year was published in a free supplement called ‘World’s Best News’, and included in an exhibition run as part of the Suas 8×8 festival. The exhibition is touring Irish campuses until the end of October.

(This photo of my photo is by James Brady)

Scottish Independence Referendum – VICE News

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I covered the Scottish independence referendum for VICE News.

‘Scotland Wraps Up Historic Day of Voting as First Referendum Results Are Declared’, 19th September, 2014, VICE News

‘Scotland’s First Minister Resigns as No Vote Leads to Hostility’, 19th September, 2014, VICE News

‘Residents of England’s Northernmost Town Share Their Thoughts on Scottish Independence’, 18th September, 2014, VICE News

No hay independencia para Escocia, pero el referendo les puede servir para mucho, 22nd September, 2014, VICE Mexico

We Spoke to Former Rwandan Genocidaires – VICE

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Editor’s note: All names have been changed.

At the entrance to Nyarugenge Prison in Kigali, Rwanda, armed guards stand beside painted letters that read, “No Corruption.” Through the gates, I spot guards escorting inmates around. Prisoners wear pink if they are awaiting a sentence, and orange if they are serving one.

During the three-month long Rwandan Genocide 20 years ago, 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died at the hands of their friends, neighbors, and colleagues. After the catastrophe ended, a huge amount of people needed to be prosecuted, but there were limited resources to conduct the trials. To speed up the prosecution procedure, a system of local justice called gacaca courts was brought in. Trials were held in villages, where victims and their families publicly confronted the accused before their communities.

Continue reading at Vice.com

Also on Vice News

Schindler’s Witch: How Sorcery Saved Lives During the Rwandan Genocide – VICE

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Twenty years after the Rwandan genocide, the country is still coming to terms with what took place during that period of extreme violence. Perpetrators are still being brought to justice, and heroic stories are still emerging.

One such story belongs to Zula Karuhimbi, a woman some Rwandans claim saved more than 100 people through “sorcery.”

After we learned that she lived in the southern Ruhango District, we drove from Kigali to find her. On the way, we stopped at a roadside restaurant, where we told the waiter we were searching for the “witch” who had saved lives during the genocide. “The witch who was honored by the government?” a customer asked. “I know where she lives. I’ll take you to her.”

He brought us to Musamo Village, where we abandoned our car and ploughed by foot through waist-high shrubbery. Turning into an enclosure, we found Karuhimbi asleep on a straw mat outside a tiny house. She was hugging a small child, who, we later discovered, was an orphaned boy she had recently adopted.

Read the rest at Vice.com

Also on Vice News

“Nothing happens that we did not predict”: Rwandan media is still suffering fallout of 1994 genocide – Irish Times

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The media put a stop to that. One of the most notorious hate-radio stations in history, Radio Television Libres des Milles Collines (RTLM), began broadcasting on July 8th, 1993, nine months before the genocide. Its reach was almost ubiquitous. Its presenters – who included Italian-born Belgian citizen Georges Ruggiu – preached violence, told listeners to “get to work”, and reminded them not to take pity on women and children.

In a country with a high illiteracy rate, radio was hugely influential, and many accepted anything said on it as fact.

Less accessible, but still incredibly influential, was the newspaper Kangura. In early 1994 it carried the headline “Habyarimana will die in March”, over an article explaining that Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana would soon be killed. The article opened with the words: “Nothing happens that we did not predict.”

Read the rest at IrishTimes.com

Thousands of Malian refugees ‘on verge of going home’ – Irish Times

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News of the intensifying clashes in their home country reaches the 12,000 Malian refugees in Mentao camp, Burkina Faso, mainly by word of mouth, meaning much of what they hear is vague or unconfirmed.

Most of them have been absent from their homeland for two years now, but while they still fear for their lives and fear that the violence is escalating, many are making the decision to return anyway.

The camp is just south of Djibo, in the Sahel region, where the temperature often reaches the high 40s. Flies buzz, chickens cluck, and the sound of babies crying is constantly in the air. Amid transient-looking tents with plastic coverings there are solar panels and satellite dishes.

Ali Kassoum (52) is an Arab from Timbuktu – 540km away – and the president of the camp’s mental centre committee. He has been living here since the violence broke out in 2012.

Read the rest at IrishTimes.com

Remembering the Genocide in Rwanda – Medium

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In Rwanda no one is playing music. We’re sitting in a bar called Papyrus.

“That’s where there’d usually be karaoke.” The guy I’m with points towards a corner. “The place would normally be packed; wall to wall.”

It’s twenty years since the genocide against the Tutsis — when 800,000 were murdered by their friends, neighbours, and acquaintances — and this is a week of mourning. “Kwibuka20” signs are hung prominently everywhere in capital city Kigali; their slogan: “Remember — unite — renew”.

The past few days have been heavy with disclosures, admissions, apologies. On Saturday a former genocidaire told a packed stadium never to listen to their parents, because his parents were the ones who told him to kill. A Belgian soldier testified that his colleagues had seen “killers wielding machetes” in their rear view mirrors as they left behind the Tutsis they had been protecting. A survivor told us about the moment a Hutu leader told a group of Interahamwe to “start the work”.

On Monday United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced: “We could have done much more. We should have done much more.”

The press have been told to respect the emotions of those we talk to, but on a bus a man asks loudly: “So are there Tutsi or Hutu neighbourhoods?” “Would they just go door to door?” “Were there many incidences where people tried to protect themselves?”

Read the rest at Medium.com

Rwanda genocide commemorations – Irish Times

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I was in Rwanda during the commemoration events for the 20th anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi. I appeared as a live TV correspondent for Arise News, as well as writing the following pieces for The Irish Times:

Rwanda remembers: “It simply should never have happened”, Irish Times, 8th April 2014

Mary Robinson reflects on Rwanda anniversary, Irish Times, 8th April 2014

(Photo: Press briefing with Rwandan president Paul Kagame and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon)

sallyhayden

Journalist

Category Archives: News Stories

December – VICE News, Simon Cumbers Media Fund (selected)

November – VICE News, Business Insider, Plan International (selected)

October – VICE News, HuffPost Live, University Observer, Suas 8×8 (selected)

Scottish Independence Referendum – VICE News

We Spoke to Former Rwandan Genocidaires – VICE

Schindler’s Witch: How Sorcery Saved Lives During the Rwandan Genocide – VICE

“Nothing happens that we did not predict”: Rwandan media is still suffering fallout of 1994 genocide – Irish Times

Thousands of Malian refugees ‘on verge of going home’ – Irish Times

Remembering the Genocide in Rwanda – Medium

Rwanda genocide commemorations – Irish Times