Mei-Ling McNamara

Mei-Ling McNamara is a journalist and assistant professor who works in both print and broadcast media, with a focus on human rights reporting, social justice issues and in-depth investigations. She has worked for a number of media outlets, including The Guardian, CNN International and Al-Jazeera English as a writer, producer and filmmaker. Her investigative work for The Guardian and Al-Jazeera English received awards in 2011 and 2015 by the Human Trafficking Foundation for its in-depth coverage of underreported issues on slavery. Her documentary “Children of the Cannabis Trade” investigated the criminalization of child trafficking victims in the British justice system, while her written feature “A Slave in Scotland” for Guardian Weekend Magazine revealed the realities survivors of labor trafficking face in the UK. Mei-Ling also works with the Clandestine Reporters Working Group, advising on journalist security, human rights reporting and press freedom and privacy (PFP) activities, working to offer security solutions to journalists and human rights workers. She holds a PhD in Trans-Disciplinary Documentary Film at the University of Edinburgh where her work examined the nexus between liminality, trauma and the experience of survivors of human trafficking. She also holds an MA in Journalism from Goldsmiths, University of London, an MA in American Literature from the University of Essex, and a BA in English from the University of California, Davis. She has produced documentaries and multimedia investigations in the UK, US, Africa and Asia, and holds memberships to the Society of Professional Journalists, the Freedom of Information Coalition, the Foreign Press Association and the ACLU.