Mélanie Gouby

Mélanie Gouby is an investigative journalist, writer and documentary filmmaker. Her work strives to expose the systemic root causes underpinning violent conflict, inequalities and environmental destruction and to amplify grassroots perspectives.

Her writing and documentary work has been published and broadcast by media outlets including Le Figaro, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Newsweek, National Geographic, Arte, France 24 and Vice, among others, and has been recognized by an Association of Health Care Journalists award, a Peabody, a duPont-Columbia, as well as a One World Media award. In 2019, she was a nominee for the inaugural Mary Chirwa Award for Courageous Leadership.

Gouby has investigated the diamond trade in the Central African Republic and pangolin trafficking in Cameroon, reported on the political crisis in Burundi, travelled with khat smugglers in Djibouti, and was smuggled herself behind army lines by activists in Sri Lanka. She lived in Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where she covered the rise and fall of the M23 rebellion, as well as mining, business, and development for the Associated Press. Her interest in the Great Lakes region began while covering the trials of Congolese rebel leaders at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Mélanie studied politics and international relations at University College London.