HBO announced Wednesday that the first project in its multi-film deal with Ronan Farrow is a documentary on threats, intimidation and violence against journalists.
Farrow will work with Academy Award-nominated directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady of Loki Films on the project, which will use domestic and international examples to focus on journalists working to expose corruption and abuse by governments, corporations and other powerful interests.
“Around the world, journalists are under fire. They’re being spied on using new surveillance technology, imprisoned, even murdered. And we’re seeing evolving tactics deployed against reporters in the United States, too, against the backdrop of a new era of misinformation campaigns and rhetoric that seeks to undermine the very idea of objective reporting. I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to work with Rachel, Heidi, and HBO to tell these stories,” Farrow said.
Farrow has experience being targeted himself.
“Harvey Weinstein hired former Mossad agents with a firm called Black Cube who in turn hired contractors who surveilled me, tracked me, built dossiers on both me and survivors of alleged assault by Harvey Weinstein to try to squash this story,” Farrow said on “Good Morning America” last October, reiterating details from his best-seller, “Catch & Kill.”
Farrow said that he’d been advised by sources to buy a gun and had been forced to move out of his home, then added, “Around the world, the stakes are even higher: journalists get killed for reporting stories. It’s gotta stop and we have to protect this precious institution.”
“Now more than ever, as evidenced by Ronan’s recent reporting, unbiased investigative journalism is both essential and under siege,” said president of HBO programming Casey Bloys Wednesday. “We’re excited to provide a platform for Ronan, Heidi and Rachel to shed light on the harrowing circumstances thrust upon journalists in their tireless pursuit of the truth.”