In 2025, our small, but passionate team continued to show up for countless journalism events and support our vast network of journalists from all over the world with trainings , awards and resources. We also noticeably increased the output of our global feminist newsroom, Unbias the News, covering topics ranging from climate to migration to democracy with our characteristic attention to undertold stories with global relevance.
Over the past year, Hostwriter membership kept growing, with well above 7700 journalists and media professionals from 166 countries worldwide. Our team had the pleasure of amplifying many in-house opportunities this year again with the Hostwriter Journalism x AI Fellowship, the Hostwriter Creators Prize and networking and learning opportunities within the Display Europe project. Read on for more details of our successes this year:
The 2025 Hostwriter Creators Prize
For the 2025 Hostwriter Prize, we responded to the shift to social media and personality-driven content by celebrating the diverse voices shaping our journalism today, from news creators who produce explainers to video podcasters and documentary filmmakers who are redefining storytelling in 2025.
Unbias the News Democracy Playbook
Our cross-border reporting series Democracy Playbook maps responses to authoritarian threats and elite capture, through rigorous, context-rich reporting on movements across the globe fighting for free speech, climate protection and independent judiciary. The stories emerging from this series have inspired readers, been nominated for awards, and helped create a type of reporting that resists the idea that journalism can be neutral on the concept of democracy and free speech.
The Hostwriter European Journalism x AI Fellowship
The Fellowship, in collaboration with the Centre for Public Impact, was designed to democratize access to generative AI literacy, positioning Hostwriter Network members to not only adapt but thrive in this rapidly evolving media landscape. Recognizing that time away from professional duties is critical, we invested in our participants by providing all 100 Hostwriter network members with a stipend.
Display Europe Networking and Learning
Display Europe continued to provide a framework for multi-day events and workshops for journalists. In Lisbon and Belgrade, participants received training and engaged in discussions on climate journalism, housing, local resilience building and power structures in European media in the context of democratic struggles. Beyond that, Unbias the News editor Ruby Russell spearheaded online skill-building workshops, “Display Narratives”, on climate sensitive and feminist reporting.
Engaging in Advocacy Internationally
Throughout the year, the Hostwriter and Unbias the News team jumped from one journalism event to another, advocating for collaborative cross-border journalism strategies in a challenging media landscape while reflecting on media bias and solutions journalism as inspired by our project, Democracy Playbook. From the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, our home base Berlin with roundtables, conferences and podcasts, Bern, Amsterdam to Leuven, we made sure to show up for our mission for a more inclusive and equitable journalism wherever we could. Some of the highlights were Christina Lee’ s, Unbias the News Editor-in-Chief, keynote at the annual Dutch Investigative Journalism Network (VVOJ) conference in Leuven, Belgium, highlighting the Democracy Playbook and strategies for handling media consolidation and threats from AI and Gabriela Ramírez’, Unbias the News Multimedia Editor, live journalism reading at the True Story festival in Bern, Switzerland. Coming up, you will be able to meet our editor Ruby representing Unbias the News at the 2026 Dataharvest in Mechelen, Belgium.
Innovative Climate and Migration Reporting and New Website
By the end of the year, Unbias the News doubled down on a new website design to create space for multimedia and digital storytelling. Sofia Kounti’s design is beautiful to look at, allows for smoother reading and more innovative storytelling. The efforts have already paid off with the first story launched winning the Voices Award for Digital Storytelling.
Throughout 2025, Unbias the News website grew immensely with many Climate and Migration stories. Editor Ruby Russell drafted an open call that resulted in over 700 pitches from all over the world, from which our editorial team, under the leadership of Christina Lee, selected incredible underreported stories. Our migration coverage focused on fresh perspectives on ongoing debates over migration in Europe – and particularly stories on how migrants support one another, advocate of their own rights and, through their activism, inspire positive change for wider society. The climate coverage approached ecological issues from new angles, such as community reporting and multimedia storytelling to convey the learnings from deeply interconnected issues.
Thankful for Our Incredible Network
To our supporters, network members and collaborators, we are incredibly grateful for your trust, insights and participation! Collaboration and growth is at the core of our work and we couldn’t do it without you.
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