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Nigerian journalist Ameto Akpe, one of the local journalists working with the Pulitzer Center on our collaborative West Africa water and sanitation project, profiled Stephen Sapienza for Nigeria's BusinessDay:
"He was co-producer of a 2009 Emmy award-winning web-based documentary project that explored the experience of people living with HIV/AIDS in Jamaica, and only recently completed a news production that aired on the PBS NewsHour, investigating environmental concerns surrounding gold mining operations in the Peruvian Amazon. For several years until 2007, he was senior producer for a weekly global affairs programme hosted by Fareed Zakaria, editor, Newsweek International.
News and documentary filmmakers sometimes classify themselves as ‘creative artists.’ Discovering and engaging the world from behind a lens, the professional has a unique opportunity to explore many alternatives in order to tell a story visually. However, he or she must also have excellent writing skills and the ability to think fast and identify interesting angles in a situation or event.
Sitting at a bar of a little hotel in Makurdi, Benue State, Sapienza broadly describes his field of focus as “human security.” Climate change, water and sanitation, landmines, population, HIV/AIDS, “these are things that would typically affect civilians more than they affect the military, and in that sense it is human security and not just a security issue as you will typically think about it,” he explains."