Alejandra Ibarra Chaoul

Alejandra Ibarra Chaoul is a Mexican journalist whose work has focused on violence against journalists. With a Magic Grant from The Brown Institute for Media Innovation in 2018, she created the first living archive that preserves the work authored by murdered journalists in Mexico. In 2021, the archive became the nonprofit, Defensores de la Democracia (DDLD), which works to prevent violence against reporters via memory-building and narratives for social change. As DDLD's Executive Director, Ibarra Chaoul leads its nonfiction investigative podcast, Voces Silenciadas, which was shortlisted by the New Journalism Foundation (FNPI) for a 2021 Gabo Award. She also led the multimedia investigation “La vida después del silencio” about the lives of family members of killed and disappeared journalists, which was a finalist for Mexico's National Journalism Award in 2022. Ibarra Chaoul has written for The Washington Post, Gatopardo, Letras Libres, Este País and Ríodoce, among other outlets. Her first book, "El Chapo Guzmán" chronicles the trial against Guzmán Loera in New York, and her second book, coming out in July 2023, is a reported-essay collection that explores the reasons why so many reporters are killed in Mexico. She teaches journalism at Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology (ITAM).