The press and power: the particular challenges of reporting on powerful people

As whole, journalism can be a particularly dangerous industry – journalists around the world are threatened, harassed, censored, attacked, jailed, and even killed with alarming regularity. But when we think about what constitutes a dangerous assignment, seldom do we think about the journalists covering business or media in major metropolitan cities.

In this session panelists will start by sharing their own experiences of investigating and then publishing reporting on powerful subjects, and the particular threats and challenges they faced in doing so. Panelists will unpack what steps they and their newsrooms took to protect them throughout the process, and how their experience might change their approach to future reporting.

Finally, we will engage in a pragmatic, solutions-focused dialogue about what resources or support from newsrooms, digital platforms or civil society would be helpful in ensuring that journalists can feel adequately prepared and protected to report without fear on those in power.

Organised in association with Committee to Protect Journalists.