Samantha Asumadu is an investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker.
She has written for the Guardian, the Telegraph, Open Democracy, New Statesman and been interviewed on Radio 4 Womans hour, LBC, BBC World and other BBC programmes.
She founded Media Diversified, (2013-2022) with a mission to challenge the homogeneity of voices in UK news media, through addressing the under-representation of marginalised communities. In 2015 she co-founded the Bare Lit Festival of writing.
Her decades long commitment to grassroots activism led to her campaigning about women’s representation in Theatre, child abuse by UN peacekeepers in war zones, media equity, the Nationality and Borders Bill, Sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP), missing and murdered Black women and children in the UK and Sickle cell anemia.
She was based in East Africa from 2007, where she reported on Acid Attacks, Blood Minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Kampala terrorist bombings of 2010 for news outlets including CNN, Deutsche Welle, France 24 and Agence France Presse.
She directed and co-produced her first film for Aljazeera English in 2009. The Super Ladies is about three Ugandan women rally drivers and a race with a dramatic outcome.
In 2016 Samantha was a judge at the Editorial Intelligence UK Comment Awards and was on the advisory panel for the British Film Institute's Black Star Season.
In 2022 she was a finalist for Private Eye's Paul Foot Investigative and Campaigning Journalism Award and the Society of Editors, National Investigation of the Year, Media Freedom Award.
In 2024 she co-founded TRAWL a TV and Audio Production partnership, focusing on the Criminal Justice System with award-winning director and producer Duncan Bulling.
She's currently reporting for the documentary podcast series, Trapped: The IPP Prisoner Scandal. The series was a finalist in the 2024 Sandford St Martin Awards
I finished writing a book (October 2024). It may or may not be called Between a Rock, a Hard Place and a Dystopia
Vignettes of a chaotic life that straddles two worlds; the anti-imperialist black and browns and the socialist white left. A true story from the point of view of a reluctant journalist and former foreign correspondent about class, sex, danger and mental health.
At the centre of this unconventional memoir is a celebration of the white, brown and black working classes. The unsung heroes and the dirtbags.
Stay up-to-date
You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox
