Jessikka Aro's courageous reporting was going to be honored by the State Department. Then something went wrong.

Reliable Sources

CNN

News

3.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2019

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Did the State Department really rescind a planned award for Finnish investigative journalist Jessikka Aro because she posted critical tweets about President Trump? She wants to find out. Aro speaks with Brian Stelter about the award controversy, the investigation and her ongoing reporting on the "Russian propaganda machine."To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sometimes a prize is more than just a nice plaque to put on the wall.
0:10.0	Sometimes it reveals something bigger. That is what happened in this case that I want to tell you about.
0:17.0	I'm Brian Stelter and this is our weekly Reliable Sources Podcast, our chance in between the Sunday
0:26.2	Television version of Reliable Sources to go more in-depth with media leaders and
0:31.0	newsmakers.
0:33.4	And Jessica Aro has been in the news recently in a way that she wishes she was not.
0:39.7	Maybe you've heard a little bit about this case.
0:42.0	Aro is a Finnish journalist.
0:43.7	She's based in Helsinki.
0:45.9	She was nominated for an award by the State Department.
0:50.0	And not just any award.
0:51.2	It was the International Women of Courage Award.
0:55.2	She was told she was one of the finalists.
0:58.7	She was invited to Washington.
1:01.4	She was told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the First Lady Maloney of Trump
1:05.7	would be there. She was told she was being recognized for her courage covering the
1:11.9	news.
1:15.0	And then the award was taken back.
1:20.8	It was rescinded.
1:30.0	The State Department said she had been incorrectly notified, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Documents reviewed by CNN indicate that her social media footprint was an issue and
1:40.5	that the award was rescinded after she shared her social media handles with the State Department.
1:47.0	It seems somebody was worried about her criticism of President Trump. It's a strange story and there's a
	...

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