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The IPI global network is at the centre of the challenges of this journalistic moment. We know journalism is under real pressure and we are grateful for the time, thoughts and ideas that many of you have already shared with us about how IPI can continue to best respond to this challenge.

Photo by Cooper Baumgartner on Unsplash

Reporting safely and with clarity – journalism and the #BLM protests

Mark July 7 down in your diary for a special digital event, particularly for IPI members and guests. Together with the U.S. National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), IPI is hosting this special panel with some of the strongest voices in American journalism.

For journalists, the protests have forced the media to focus on three big issues:

• Journalists’ rights to work safely in an environment that respects press freedom. Instead, we’re reminded that, even in developed democracies, those rights cannot be taken for granted – even in the U.S. where four years of “enemies of the people” rhetoric has seen journalists themselves become targets of police brutality.
• News organisations have to ask themselves the hard question: How do we ensure our newsrooms have the diversity to reflect the community they serve?
• And there’s the question of what is the role of journalism in this sort of big cultural reset. How do we bring a moral clarity to the task of truth-telling in a way that sustains honesty and fairness?

Can’t wait for this discussion with some of the key people who are thinking through the answers to these big questions.

Join our event with the following panellists:

Karen Attiah, Global Opinions Editor, The Washington Post, Washington DC

Madison Carter, Reporter, WKBW-TV 7 Eyewitness News; President, Buffalo Association of Black Journalists, Buffalo NY

Omar Jimenez, CNN correspondent, Chicago

John Yearwood, Editor, China Watcher and Deputy Editor, Trade & Agriculture, Politico; IPI Board member and former NABJ Board member, Miami (moderator)

Date: July 7, 2020

Time: 16:00 CEST (09:00 Chicago / 10:00 NYC, Miami /17:00  Istanbul / 19:00 New Delhi / 23:00 Tokyo)

Registration: This event will be held on Zoom. Register here to join the conversation

IJ4EU applications flood in

The Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) fund is knee-deep in applications for its Investigation Support Scheme, which offers investigative teams up to €50,000 in funding for new cross-border projects of public interest in EU and EU candidate countries. We received 116 applications from teams based in 34 countries under the scheme’s first call.

An independent jury will decide which projects get funding in early July. Watch this space. We’ll be opening a second call for the Investigation Support Scheme in August. The fund plans to disburse €800,000 for new cross-border projects over the course of the two calls.

Meanwhile, a separate IJ4EU scheme to support cross-border investigations that are already underway is still accepting applications for grants of up to €6,250. The Publication Support Scheme offers shorter-term grants for investigative teams that need additional resources to finish, publish or translate the findings of their reporting. It will give out around €200,000 this year.

Ressa and Santos appeal cyberlibel conviction

Rappler Executive Editor (and IPI Board member) Maria Ressa, together with reporter Reynaldo Santos have now formally lodged their appeal against the decision of the Manila Trial Court to convict them of cyber-libel for a 2012 article.

The appeal motion rejects the court’s finding, saying “the court has resorted to language that borders on the sarcastic and, at times, crosses over to the partial.”

You can follow the story on Rappler.com and join the #HOLD THE LINE movement protesting the attacks on Maria, Rey and Rappler.

>>Download all the graphic and audiovisual material

A focus on freelancers in the pandemic 

I know many of you are thinking about how you can support freelance journalists in this difficult time. The Overseas Press Club of America has given unrestricted grants of US$750 to help with financial hardship caused by the disruption to their work.

A reminder that IPI recently launched, together with press freedom and journalism partners, a new safety resource to help news organizations navigate the challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, with a focus on the safe commissioning of freelance journalists. The Covid-19 News Organizations Safety Protocols provide newsrooms and commissioning editors with practical guidance on how to cover the pandemic professionally and in a way that minimizes risk, including crisis management, communications, hygiene and mental health. It also includes best practice around key freelance issues such as accreditation, PPE, insurance and expenses.

Talking about independent journalism in Turkey

Here’s an exciting IPI initiative – a podcast series you’ll want to follow: IPI Freedom Dialogues: Turkey. You’ll get the inside story from some of Turkey’s most trusted editors, journalists and relevant experts as they analyse and shed light on key journalism-related issues in Turkey for both local and international audiences. Episodes will be available in both English and Turkish.

Why does press freedom matter to everyone, not just journalists? That’s the question in the first of the series with host Cansu Camlibel, editor-in-chief of the popular English language news site Duvar English, in conversation with Kadri Gursel, IPI Board member and chair of IPI’s Turkey National Committee.

As Kadri says: “For a professional journalist, the only field of activism is the defense of the freedom of the press. But an activist cannot be denied from doing journalism. Journalists have the solemn right to have selected agenda or priorities. Journalists can focus on environmental issues, on the economy, human rights, on foreign policy as well as on Kurdish question.”

Welcome PJ Thum and Singapore’s New Naratif

While your ears are turned on, head over to our members page, where you can listen to PJ Thum, the founder and managing director of New Naratif, and latest member of the IPI global network. An Oxford-educated historian, PJ is now guiding New Naratif in its journalistic first draft of the dynamic current history of Southeast Asia.

Standing with Hong Kong

China has moved ahead with the adoption of the national security law for Hong Kong and is now planning on entrenching it in the Basic Law which is supposed to underpin the freedoms guaranteed by the One Country-Two Systems model. This is a big deal and you can read the IPI analysis of what the law means in last week’s statement.

Find out more about the danger it poses for independent Hong Kong journalists in an earlier discussion between IPI’s Deputy Director, Scott Griffen, Hong Kong journalist Mok Kwan Ling (Ming Pao Weekly) and Jodi Schneider (Bloomberg News), president of the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club. And here’s an interview with Apple Daily publisher and leading Hong Kong press freedom advocate Jimmy Lai:

“I’m not worried and I’m not going away. I will stay in Hong Kong and fight until the last day. It doesn’t matter whether I’m one of the prime targets or not.

Everybody in Hong Kong is worried, especially people in the media industry. Because whatever you say or print could be labeled as evidence of subversion of state power or sedition. It is something that we have to be prepared to confront.”

>>Read the full interview here