WHO WE ARE
We are two journalists who met in an Estonian newsroom. We worked hard, but something didn’t feel right. We felt like many people and topics didn’t get the attention they deserved. Simply because they didn’t have enough courage or knowledge to tell their own stories.
And so Journo Birds was born. This is where authentic, honest, real stories come to life to shine a light on honest and mission-driven people.
When the war broke out, we needed to do our part to support the people affected by the aggression. The small country of Moldova is certainly one of them. We felt Moldovans were not understood enough. But we knew we had a superpower, and storytelling creates connections. We spent a year looking for and telling stories from Moldova using our superpowers. 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.