Online Investigative Reporting in Colombia

Juanita León is a Colombian journalist and editor. As an Open Society Fellow, León launched an investigative news blog in Colombia called La Silla Vacía (“the Empty Chair”). The site features original investigative pieces, multimedia content, opinion and commentary, and hosts debates. It combines professional reporting and reader-generated content.

La Silla Vacía has broken numerous stories of topical importance in Colombia, including reports on the rejection of the new elections law by the Supreme Court, the demobilization of right-wing paramilitaries, the environmental impact of mining, real-estate speculation, and presidential and local elections. A 2007 Harvard Neiman Fellow, León also led the launch of the online American magazine Flypmedia. Previously she directed the online edition of one of Colombia’s largest weeklies, Semana, where she oversaw investigative reporting that helped uncover ties between paramilitaries and more than 50 members of President Álvaro Uribe’s coalition.

She is the author of two books, including Country of Bullets: Chronicles of War (New Mexico University Press, 2009), about the internal conflict in Colombia. She has also taught classes on multimedia and investigative journalism at New York University and at the University of Los Andes in Bogotá.

Stephen Hubbell is senior public affairs officer for the Open Society Fellowship Program. He consults closely with fellows to develop media strategies to broaden public awareness of their work and to integrate fellows into the global Open Society community. 

Hubbell joined the Open Society Foundations after 20 years as a journalist and editor. He has worked as a senior editor at Metropolitan Books and at Harper's, where he edited the work of many notable writers, including Anne Fadiman, Harold Brodkey, Elliott Currie, Marilynne Robinson, Alan Weisman, Arlie Hochschild, and Edward Fox. He has also served as Middle East correspondent for The Nation, for whom he covered the first Gulf War and the rise of political Islam.

He received his bachelor's degree in government from Wesleyan University.