Exile Content Studio and PRX, a nonprofit public media company specializing in audio journalism and storytelling, are launching a new multi-season podcast series, "Shoot the Messenger," with the first two episodes of its premiere season debuting on Jan. 24, 2023. Hosted by Exile's Rose Reid and Nando Vila, each 10-episode season will be a serialized investigation of a high-profile, often unsolved or unresolved crime with global implications, featuring a thought-provoking and carefully narrated story that leads listeners to a surprising and often unexpected or previously undiscussed conclusion. New episodes of the Exile-produced podcast will be distributed by PRX and released every two weeks everywhere podcasts are heard.
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In announcing the new investigative podcast series, Exile CEO Isaac Lee said, "We're thrilled to partner with PRX on this podcast series, which represents our biggest and most important journalistic effort to date. Through 'Shoot the Messenger,' Exile will build a strong pipeline to reveal and showcase critical stories from across the globe, as told by our experienced journalistic team, in partnership with reporters who often put themselves in harm's way to reveal the realities of the world."
Jason Saldanha, Chief of Business Development and Content at PRX said, "We're pleased to serve as partners to Exile Content Studio to continue bringing great audio journalism to audiences. 'Shoot the Messenger' and future series will be essential for podcast listeners seeking ambitious stories, consequential narratives, and gripping audio."
"Shoot the Messenger" is exclusively financed and produced by Exile, which has committed to two seasons of the new audio format, with partners brought in to collaborate on reporting based on the focus and content of each season. The first season of the podcast series, themed as "Espionage, Murder and Pegasus Software," is the result of a special partnership with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), inspired by the research conducted by CPJ into the biggest threats facing journalists in the world today.
Running through May, "Shoot the Messenger: Espionage, Murder and Pegasus Software," examines the assassination of United States-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, exposing the role of NSO Group's Pegasus software in tracking his inner circle prior to his murder, and reveals the growing threat of surveillance to people, journalists, and activists across the globe. Like all seasons of this new podcast, the first one starts with a thought-provoking crime with global implications, and then aims to answer it throughout each episode through a myriad of interviews with key figures who played a pivotal role in living through, experiencing, and/or reporting on the investigation in the spotlight.
"Shoot the Messenger: Espionage, Murder and Pegasus Software" features interviews with Khashoggi's widow, Hanan Elatr, and Washington Post Reporter Dana Priest, a former colleague of Khashoggi, who helped Elatr discover that Pegasus software had been used on her phone over the course of several years, including the last five months of Khashoggi's life. In addition, the hosts interview Meta's Whatsapp engineers who first discovered the Pegasus breach and Financial Times Reporters Mehul Srivastava and Kaye Wiggins who cover NSO Group for the publication, and Nobel prize winner Maria Ressa, who has been continuously intimidated by her government.
"'Shoot the Messenger' is the latest example of Exile's commitment to taking a bold approach to using investigative journalism to look at lawsuits, assassinations, and other cases that often have left danger, dread, and even death in its wake," said Exile Head of U.S. Audio and "Shoot the Messenger" Host and Executive Producer Rose Reid. "I can say that my experience reporting for this podcast has really changed the way I look at my personal and professional life as both a private citizen and a podcaster, and I'm sure it will have a similar impact on our listeners who won't be able to help but get caught up in the riveting sagas we share each season."
Committee to Protect Journalists Advocacy and Communications Director, Gypsy Guillén Kaiser added, "Anchored in CPJ's extensive research, Exile's first season of 'Shoot the Messenger' will breathe life into the anatomy of a journalist's brutal murder and the insidious surveillance that threatens journalists around the world. As Exile's Reid and Vila so vividly expose in each episode, spyware has been weaponized to intimidate other journalists too, putting them at risk of violence, and with some even wrongly jailed. The prospect of being targeted by this sophisticated surveillance technology suffices to hinder probing reporting of sensitive topics, and its unlawful deployment must be stopped, for it threatens our collective right to be informed."
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