WHO WE ARE
We are two journalists who met in an Estonian newsroom. We worked hard for many years, but something felt wrong.
Many who deserve attention simply don’t get it because they lack the connections and skills to make themselves heard. It doesn’t seem right.
This also helps misinformation and malign messages to gain more ground – if you can amplify the message, you win, whatever the message is.
But what if this formula served those telling honest and authentic stories and facts? About things that really matter for the people and this planet?
And so Journo Birds was born on one fine evening in Estonia. Part of the team is now based in Moldova, part in Estonia.
Last year, after Russia had attacked Ukraine, we decided to do our part and support the people affected by the aggression. The small country of Moldova is one of them. We felt Moldovans were not understood enough. So we spent a year looking for and telling stories from Moldova. This was kindly supported by the Ukraine-Moldova American Enterprise Fund.
We are now integrating and testing what and how data could be added to storytelling to amplify the stories even more.
Marian Männi
With over 15 years of experience in journalism and media, Marian's superpower is to make difficult topics easy and boring topics interesting, either as a researcher, a media analyst, or a journalist. She has studied, lived, and worked in nine countries worldwide. As a US State Department fellow, she spent a month meeting and listening to some of the best journalists in the US, a big part of it at the Pulitzer-winning Miami Herald. She became the country’s first data journalist. Before moving to Moldova, Marian won the country's most prestigious investigative award, the Bonnier Award.
Tiina Kaukvere
An Estonian journalist, passionate about making fundamental changes and breaking constructions of the minds with her work. Otherwise, journalism would be a nice entertainment. Tiina has worked in the Estonian broadsheet "Postimees" as a journalist on the investigative team. She also has experience managing the online news department. Has been nominated twice as a journalist of the year by the Estonian Newspaper Association.