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Journalism from the heart of crises

A letter from our CEO as TNH marks 30 years

A portrait image of Tammam Aloudat in black and white. He looks at the camera and smiles without showing teeth. He wears a dark v-neck sweater

Dear readers of The New Humanitarian,

On behalf of the editors, journalists, and staff of The New Humanitarian, I would like to wish you a happy 2025.

Yet as I do so, I am acutely aware of how distant that notion of a happy new year is from many of the places and people we report on every day. Those who are subjected to extreme structural violence – whether through conflict, displacement, inequality, or the consequences of the climate catastrophe – will again in 2025 have journeys filled with fear, anxiety, and great loss. 

Born as IRIN News after the horrors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, The New Humanitarian is turning 30 this year. Across those three decades, we have seen the unfolding of many new humanitarian crises, many new obstacles to the aid response system, and many new reform ideas that challenge the status quo. Throughout, we have not only been reporting from the heart of crises, but we have been doing so as much as possible by amplifying the voices and agency of the people and communities affected.

We do so for two main reasons:

First, we have seen what humanitarians – both local and international – can achieve when they are driven by principled ethics of care and compassion. But when they lose sight of these principles, we have also seen how humanitarians can be co-opted by the same systems of oppression that cause the suffering in the first place. Humanitarians succeed when they give greater power and agency to those affected by oppression and crises. They fail when they become complicit, putting the system, funding, politics, or a misguided Eurocentric view of the world above the people they serve. The New Humanitarian has been consistent in engaging with those affected by crises, listening to their voices, digging beyond the superficial coverage of most media outlets, and exposing the shortcomings of the system to make accountability more feasible and real.

Secondly, we have to make strategic choices at The New Humanitarian. We are a mission-driven, impact-seeking, decolonial organisation. We are striving not just to report the news and comment on it. We want to go further. We want our reporting to be in the service of decentring humanitarianism as a static system – a system at the mercy of government and private donors who often cause harm by prioritising their political inclinations above the aid they provide. By decentring the dominant Western narrative of what humanitarian action can be, replacing it with a pluriversal eco-system that originates largely from those receiving or providing aid, mutual aid, and solidarity, we can act in service of humanitarianism and the better world we want to see.

This 30-year anniversary is a huge milestone for all of us at The New Humanitarian. We are a unique newsroom at the intersection of journalism and humanitarianism. Reporting fact-based, people-focused, and impact-driven narratives remains the primary goal of an ethical journalistic organisation. Our commitment here is unwavering. Yet, we realise there is much to be done going forward.

More than 100 years ago, Antonio Gramsci wrote: “Those who do not produce things (in the wide sense) cannot produce words.”

I take that close to heart. 

Journalism subjugated to power is propaganda. Little shows that more than desperate narratives in much of the “reputable” media outlets who distort what many Palestinians, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN, and MSF describe as a genocide in Gaza; who ignore Sudan, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and who claim to be neutral while amplifying only some voices – certainly not those who suffer oppression and exclusion.

Through our scrupulous journalism, our diversity of perspectives and positionalities, our commitment to decolonial narratives, and our constant focus on the agency and voices of those affected, The New Humanitarian aims to expose truths above and beyond any one event that is covered on our pages.

As part of our 30-year commemorations, we will be driving forward our groundbreaking work on Rethinking Humanitarianism. As we continue to bring together some of the most influential and disruptive voices to write on our pages and speak in our podcasts, we will now be moving towards Remaking Humanitarianism. This is an acknowledgement that we need not only to think but to act, collectively, towards a better world. This approach of praxis (thinking, acting, thinking, adjusting) is at the centre of decolonial thought and resistance.

We will bring more perspectives and voices. We will engage with our audiences more deeply and expand our media presence. And we will connect with those who share our values and goals towards a more sustainable world. For that, we need you, our readers: to be informed by you as well as to inform you; to rely on you as we need strength and persistence; to have you be part of our journey.

In the meantime, I want to share with you some of the most impactful coverage by the journalists and editors of The New Humanitarian in 2024.

Investigations

Our Aid and Policy page, with regular Inklings and Cheat Sheets bringing our readers all the latest news and humanitarian updates. Our coverage on Environment and Disasters, including insightful first person takes on COP29 from Baku, Azerbaijan.

This all came on top of our regular coverage of conflicts, from Gaza, Ukraine, and Syria to those that were more neglected or ignored such as Haiti, Sudan, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In our recent editorial, we called out the silence and complicity of aid organisations when it comes to the war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide in Gaza.

We have also grown our podcasts and other media outputs. Our flagship Rethinking Humanitarianism podcast continues to widen the discourse on humanitarian aid, but is now one of several audio streams, including: What’s Unsaid, Fixing Aid, and First Person stories.

And in keeping with our key strategic priority of decolonising our journalism, our Decolonise How? columns address some of the most pressing issues in aid and media inequity.

In 2025, we will not deviate from our mission. We will continue to publish impactful humanitarian journalism that centres people who are too often excluded from the decision-making processes that dictate their lives and futures. We look forward to hearing from you and hope we can be part of each other’s journeys towards a better world.

As we say in my mother tongue, Salam.

Tammam Aloudat

CEO, The New Humanitarian

Our ability to deliver compelling, field-based reporting on humanitarian crises rests on a few key principles: deep expertise, an unwavering commitment to amplifying affected voices, and a belief in the power of independent journalism to drive real change.

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