Fellowship Takeaways podcast series

Caithlin: Welcome to Fellowship Takeaways, a new podcast series offering bite-sized insights from seminars hosted by the Reuters Institute’s programme for mid-career journalists in 2024. In today’s episode, we’re looking at the critical role that journalists play when democracy itself is under strain.

In January 2024, Sana Jaffrey, a Research Fellow at Australian National University, spoke to us about the state of Indonesian democracy and the challenges journalists face when reporting on elections in a country where democratic regression is a very real threat.

Sana Jaffrey: So democratic regression is a global trend that we're seeing, not just in developing democracies, like Indonesia, but also in much, much more established democracies, like the United States or even in India. And so these are concerns that are global. Indonesia is sort of part of that trend in many ways. But in Indonesia, democratic repression might look very different to observers from other parts of the world. In Indonesia, elections are held routinely they are mostly free, free and fair. The problem is there is very little opposition in Parliament. So the opposition and the government get along a little too well, and to the extent that there's very little accountability.

Caithlin: Indonesia is a powerful reminder that in places where elections still occur, democracy isn’t always healthy. Journalists must take on the responsibility of shining a light on power imbalances and underreported narratives.

Just ahead of South Africa's May 2024 elections Adriaan Basson editor-in-chief of News24, South Africa's largest digital news outlet reflected on the state of journalism in a nation where change in majority rule ushered in a new age of coalition governance.

Adriaan Basson: How do you report on coalition discussions and negotiations in a way that is unfortunately not that transparent. So we then have a framework where parties must openly declare that they are in consultation or in negotiations prior to coalitions forming. We don't have legislation that, that that requires coalition agreements to be published or to be publicly available. So we're going to have to be trailblazers in that regard. In covering that coalition forming using our network of sources, informants, and then obviously getting official updates from the political parties themselves. It is certainly going to be interesting… I think in terms of in terms of what you report or not, I always err on the side of transparency and complete openness. Unless there's a very good reason to hold back information I can't see us doing that easily.

Caithlin: In Argentina, where President Javier Milei’s government has taken an adversarial stance against the press, journalists face new challenges. Hugo Alconada, editor of the investigations unit at La Nacion, spoke to us on the 1st of May 2024 about the threats posed to journalistic independence and how Argentina's media is organising to counteract these pressures. 

Hugo Alconada: It has not only changed but also exacerbated some tendencies that were there. … Public officers are avoiding journalist to spread the news. They are intensively using social media to spread propaganda just to avoid the, you know, the analysis and the checks done by journalists. I would say that also has increased and exacerbated some tendencies in the social media, bots, trolls attacking journalists and media outlets. We have half-truths or complete lies. In the case President Milei he's going much farther than his predecessors when it comes to virtually harass journalists. Also, you know, he's celebrating attacks done by trolls on social media, liking or retweeting the attacks. And he's, of course, avoiding journalists and blocking journalists on his own Twitter. 

Caithlin: Hugo spoke about outlets working together get around information blockades.  

Hugo: They are gonna insult us. Yeah, they're gonna threaten us. Yeah, they're gonna maybe try to get us into court. Let's do our job. is not easy. It's sometimes not nice. Sometimes your families suffer and you keep going by have to do it in a smart ways. If you know that you cannot get access to a public officer but you know that that public officer will be willing to answer questions from my colleague from abroad, maybe you should be trying to contact that colleague to pass them your questions for them to ask those questions. And actually, I do that a lot.

Caithlin: Sana, Adriaan and Hugo show us that journalism in times of democratic regression is about far more than reporting events—it’s about protecting the very framework of freedom. It’s a reminder that the fight for democracy happens not just in government halls but also in the stories that are told.

Three questions you may want to ponder as a journalist today: 

• What steps can your newsroom take to build networks with international colleagues in order to access critical information that may be withheld by local officials? 

• How do you decide when to hold back on publishing information that might fuel political instability, and when to prioritise transparency? 

• What narratives contribute to the erosion of democracy, and how are you challenging them in your reporting?

Thanks for joining us on this episode of Fellowship Takeaways. We’ll be back with more insights from some of the world’s leading journalists. Until next time, keep asking tough questions—especially about yourself.