Holding Power to Account, Year In and Year Out

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December 29, 2022

As 2022 draws to a close, I wanted to share a message of sincere gratitude with you, our FRONTLINE community.

Your belief in the power and necessity of investigative journalism is meaningful and sustaining — not just to me, but to our journalists and filmmakers all around the U.S. and the world.

Over the past 12 months, you’ve come along with us as we’ve worked to hold power to account. We’ve gone on the ground to investigate Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, the Taliban’s crackdown on women in Afghanistan, and threats to democracy here in the U.S. We’ve probed our country’s decades-long failure to confront the threat of climate change and the role of the fossil fuel industry. We’ve examined the ways America’s history of racist violence impacts the present. We’ve asked tough questions about our country’s affordable housing crisis, ongoing struggles involving police accountability and reform, and fallout from America’s immigration policies.

And thanks to your support, our work continues.

We’ll begin 2023 — the year of our 40th anniversary on the air — with a two-part documentary series investigating the powerful spyware Pegasus, sold to governments around the world by the Israeli company NSO Group. Part of the Pegasus Project, this series from FRONTLINE and Forbidden Films investigates how the hacking tool was used on journalists, activists, the wife and fiancée of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and others. Global Spyware Scandal: Exposing Pegasus premieres Jan. 3 and 10. You can watch the trailer now:

Also in January, we’ll bring you Putin and the Presidents, an investigation of the Russian president’s clashes with five American presidential administrations as he’s tried to rebuild the Russian empire. And a new documentary from FRONTLINE and The Associated Press that goes inside the early days of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, 20 Days in Mariupol, will have its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. It is the first FRONTLINE or AP original documentary to debut at the world-renowned film festival.

We are deeply grateful for the chance to bring you journalism like this, year after year.

Thank you so much for your trust and your belief in us. It is what helps to make all of this work possible.

P.S. Please join me the evening of Jan. 5 for a vital conversation that will be live-streamed from the GBH studio at the Boston Public Library. Focused on the global economic impact of the Ukraine war, this discussion with Alexandra Vacroux and Anthony Saich of Harvard University will provide valuable context on a conflict that will no doubt continue to shape our world in 2023. The event is co-sponsored by the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University, GBH, the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, Boston Global Bridge Institute and Harvard Kennedy School ASH Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. You’ll be able to livestream it here.


Raney Aronson-Rath, Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer, FRONTLINE

Twitter:

@raneyaronson

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