Civic Life Lunch - Truth Under Fire: Journalism, Dissent, and Repression

Join us for a conversation with Lina Chawaf, a journalist, media consultant, and human rights advocate. For more than three decades, Chawaf has worked at the intersection of journalism, human rights, and civic life, reporting on the Syrian conflict while building media infrastructures that center civilian voices under conditions of violence, displacement, and repression.

As the founder and leader of Radio Rozana, Chawaf has helped create a transnational media network that delivers independent reporting, cultural programming, and public-interest journalism to Syrian audiences both inside the country and across the diaspora. Her work offers a rare, firsthand perspective on journalism under conditions of conflict, censorship, exile, and uneven power where access to information is contested and the risks of speaking truthfully are profound.

This conversation will explore how journalism operates when democratic norms are fragile or absent, how reporters navigate credibility, safety, and responsibility in moments of crisis, and how media shapes public understanding, accountability, and how we engage ethically in democratic life.

Registration required. Virtual option available. All are welcome. Lunch provided.

Learn more about Lina Chawaf.

This event is part of the 2026 Civic Life Lunch series, Everyday Democracy: Explore. Engage. Empower., a program dedicated to examining the functioning of democracy in everyday life and the role of participation in shaping civic outcomes.

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Host or Publisher Tisch College