Salwa Jaafari, Africa Division

Salwa Jaafari, VOA’s Africa Division Director, joined Voice of America in February 2015 as a TV executive producer for the French-to-Africa service, where she oversaw four TV programs, including “Washington Forum” and “Vous et Nous.” Jaafari’s journalism career started in 2001 as an intern at Reuters news agency’s Rabat bureau for 10 months. Before moving to the United States in 2011, Jaafari earned her journalism chops in her native Morocco as a field reporter, anchor and chief editor at Moroccan TV channels 2m TV and Medi1TV. During her 7 years there as a TV professional, she anchored prime time French news, covered events in 18 countries, including Benin, Gabon, Senegal, Cameroon, Egypt, Iran, UAE and Japan and led a team of 20 journalists as a news editor. She has also worked as an Information Specialist at the U.S. Embassy in Rabat, where she oversaw numerous projects and events such as the Millennium Challenge Corporation and visits to the region by U.S. officials, including President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Prior to joining Voice of America, Jaafari worked in Washington as a freelance reporter for Agence France-Presse and a producer for Skynews Arabia. Jaafari has a master’s degree in English and a bachelor’s degree in English Linguistics.