Julia Gavarrete

Julia Gavarrete is a journalist from El Salvador. Since 2021, she has worked for the online news magazine El Faro and other national and international media, including Univision Noticias, The Intercept, Vice News, USA Today and Nacla Report on the Americas. She specializes in human rights violations, violence and its impact on disadvantaged populations.

In 2018, she reported on the migration of migrants through Central America, as well as numerous cases of corruption, and was one of the two journalists who exposed the use of the spyware Pegasus in El Salvador in 2021. Her research, supported by the organizations Citizen Lab and Access Now, confirmed that at least 30 journalists and 5 activists were spied on using this software. In 2020, her reportage "In El Salvador, Violence Drives Girls to Suicide," produced with Univision Noticias, won an Emmy. Gavarrete was a fellow of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF). In 2019, the IWMF included her name in its list of 19 Women Changing Journalism.

In the Berlin Scholarship Program, Gavarrete hopes to learn more about digital security and then continue her work without risking becoming a target of espionage and other digital threats.