Sophie Foggin

Freelance Journalist

Colombia

I'm a Colombia-based freelance journalist and fact-checker. My work has been published in BBC News, VICE World News, The Telegraph, NPR, Al Jazeera English, Rest of World, World Politics Review, and more. I have fact-checked for non-fiction authors, Rest of World, the British Medical Journal, and assisted checking for WIRED Magazine. Most recently I worked as a fixer and reporting assistant for another non-fiction book about Colombia, publishing from One World (Penguin Random House).

Portfolio

Fact-checking

WIRED
12/16/2022
Welcome to Digital Nomadland

A Portuguese island created a village for remote workers, promising community to the newcomers and prosperity to the locals-then delivered on neither.

Tech

Rest of World
04/14/2022
Meet the off-screen workers who keep the adult webcam industry running

Nelson Farias works nine hours a day in a house-turned-webcam studio in the La Aguacatala neighborhood of Medellín, Colombia's second-largest city. His desk setup consists of three screens, which he uses to monitor the live, erotic webcam performances of nine models performing for clients all around the world.

Global Health

The Bogotá Post
05/15/2020
Medellín's homeless population at increased risk due to coronavirus

"My friends, hello!" shouted a voice from the street. "Does anyone have any food to spare?" "The local government hasn't helped me. I really need your help," a man walking the streets of Medellín shouted up to residents in their apartment blocks, begging for money.

Gender

NACLA
Colombia on Cusp of Decriminalizing Abortion

A few months after arriving in Colombia with her three children, Evaluna, a then 22-year-old migrant from Venezuela, discovered she was pregnant. "I felt scared; I was very depressed," she said, after finding out the news. "I had no way of maintaining [the baby] because I didn't have a job."

NACLA
Feminist Political Movement Organizes for Change in Colombia

The last thing that Pamela Lorduy remembers from June 8, 2019 was having an argument with her boyfriend at the time. The following day, she woke up in hospital. She had broken her pelvis in six places, three ribs, four vertebrae, her tibia, fibula, heel bone, ankle, sacrum, and humerus bone.

Human Rights

Transitional Justice

Worldpoliticsreview
06/18/2019
In Brazil, Dictatorship-Era Wounds Never Really Healed. Then Came Bolsonaro

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has made no secret of his admiration for the country’s dictatorship, which ended in 1985. For many who suffered under it, the prevailing political discourse these days reinforces the notion that the dictatorship is a chapter of Brazilian history that hasn’t been fully closed.

Migration

Vice
Hundreds of Migrants Headed for the U.S. Are Stranded on a Beach in South America

The border between Colombia and Panama remains closed, and people wanting to head north across the Darien Gap must wait in improvised camps. NECOCLÍ, Colombia - "We're human beings! Where are our human rights?" shouted Nikelson St. Fleur in protest yesterday outside the town hall in Necoclí, Colombia alongside a group of 80 Haitian migrants.

Culture

Video

Podcast