Cherokee Nation citizen and current NAJA staff Bryan Pollard has been selected to join the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship to study at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020. Pollard, a former NAJA president and the former executive editor of the Cherokee Phoenix, will study ways to address press freedom in tribal communities while developing strategies to increase the autonomy of Indigenous media.
The JSK Journalism Fellowships supports diverse journalists from around the world who are deeply engaged in exploring solutions to journalism’s biggest problems. Journalism fellowships at Stanford started in 1966 with a powerful idea: giving journalists broad access to a great university, which would pay off in superb journalism.
Pollard’s research will support and advance the findings of the Red Press Initiative, a project dedicated to studying and reporting on press freedom in Indian Country. NAJA is currently gathering responses from voices across Indian Country, and anyone interested in supporting tribal media is urged to participate.