The IWMF’s ¡Exprésate! LGBTQI+ and Women’s Rights Reporting Initiative supports the production of high-quality journalism by and about women and LGBTQI+ people in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. Established with the generous support of the Foundation for a Just Society, this Initiative allows the IWMF to expand its support of journalists and nuanced, inclusive reporting in Latin America by providing fellowships with a focus on gender and sexual diversity.
From 2024 to 2025, the IWMF will select 120 journalists in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico to participate in the ¡Exprésate! Initiative. The IWMF previously trained 60 journalists in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico in 2023. The selected journalists will complete our training course on Periodismo más incluyente (More Inclusive Journalism), as well as physical and digital safety training workshops for journalists in the region. They will also have the opportunity to apply for reporting grants to fund LGBTQI+ and gender-focused stories.
Our course seeks to teach journalists how to accurately, inclusively and safely cover issues that disproportionately impact women and LGBTQI+ people in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. Our five training modules cover topics ranging from the current media landscape and coverage of LGBTQI+ and women’s issues, to appropriate and inclusive language and best practices for journalists, human rights from a gender perspective, a regional analysis of LGBTQI+ and women’s rights and the influence of religion and power on society. Participants learn how to better identify expert sources and develop theoretical tools to advance their reporting, as well as put their knowledge into practice. The course is led by a team of local media trainers and is supported by expert voices on LGBTQI+ and women’s rights, in addition to well-known journalists from Latin America with experience reporting on these themes.
The Initiative also supports the production of in-depth reporting on women and LGBTQI+ people and forms mentorship relationships between grantees and experienced editors in the region. Journalists who complete the Periodismo más incluyente course are eligible to apply for individual and collaborative reporting grants, ranging from approximately $800 to $4,000 USD, which include additional support from mentors. Through this combination of journalism training, open dialogue, collaboration, funding, and mentorship, the IWMF seeks to reshape mainstream media narratives about women and LGBTQI+ people in these four countries.
¡Exprésate! Lead Trainers
Guatemala
Daniel Villatoro García is a journalist. He coordinates the courses of the Latin American Journalism Initiative on LGBTIQ+ people with IWMF. Recipient of the Erasmus Mundus scholarship, he is pursuing a Master’s degree in Journalism and Innovation at Aarhus University in Denmark and City University of London. His work can be seen in media such as ProPublica and Radio Ambulante (USA), Plaza Pública (Guatemala), Travesias Media (Mexico) or InfoBae (Iberoamerica) and in his book “El registro de la violencia contra las personas LGBTI.” He has coordinated journalistic initiatives with various media and organizations supporting the profession. In recognition of his work, he was a human rights fellow at Columbia University (2021-2022) and won the “Journalist of the Year” award from the One Young World Global Youth Forum in 2022. He is a two-time winner of the TRACE Award for Investigative Journalism and the Inter American Press Association’s Award for Excellence in Journalism. Finalist in the Gabriel García Márquez, Roche, the Idea Initiative for Innovation in Sexual and Reproductive Rights, and the Media Innovation Fellowship of the International Center for Journalists and The Wall Street Journal. His areas of work are storytelling, data and social innovation, as well as discrimination based on sexual orientation.
El Salvador
María Luz Nóchez is a journalist and independent researcher.
She worked at El Faro between 2011 and September 2023, where she served for the last five years as Opinion editor. Since 2019 she has been coordinating the Salvadoran chapter of the IWMF’s ¡Exprésate! initiative.
She is currently studying a master’s degree in Journalism, Media and Globalization (Erasmus Mundus Journalism) with a specialization in Totalitarianism and Transition.
Her work has been recognized with the Latin American Award for Investigative Journalism (2017) and the Ortega y Gasset Award (2020).
She is a columnist for El País and Volcánicas magazine.
Photo credit: Jéssica Orellana.
Honduras
Dunia Orellana is a journalist, documentary filmmaker and director of Reportar sin Miedo, the first media outlet focused on issues on women, LGBTQI+ and human rights in Honduras. Her articles have been published in Reporteros de Investigación, En Altavoz, Presentes, Criterio, Anfibia, El Tiempo and Univisión, among others. She has directed and filmed documentaries about the LGBTI community in Honduras, as well as land defenders and indigenous populations. She is a scholarship recipient of the Summit Foundation, Fundación Gabo, ICFJ and IWMF. “Las 280 muertas de Vicky” served as documentation for the IDH Court to conduct a trial that convicted the State of Honduras for the systematic murder of LGBTQI+ people during and after the 2009 coup. In 2023, her feature “Cómo vi morir de sida a mi padre y hermano” was selected for the anthology of the book “Criaturas fenomenales” of la Caja Book.
México
Guillermo Osorno is a journalist and writer. He studied journalism at Columbia University. He has been a media entrepreneur and founded the magazines Travesías, dF por Travesías and the website horizontal.mx. He was the editor of the magazine Gatopardo. He is the author of the book Tengo que morir todas las noches, una crónica de los ochenta, el underground y la cultura gay (I have to die every night, a chronicle of the eighties, the underground and gay culture). He is currently the host of the program Por si las moscas, which is broadcast on Channel 22. He collaborates with The New York Times and Gatopardo.
Community Managers
Periodismo Más Incluyente: Blog
Read our blog to learn about the experiences of IWMF ¡Exprésate! fellows.
