International festival gathers top journalism minds

“MY BIGGEST advice to journalists is: don't go places where you're talking to other journalists... because if you’re creating [stories] just for journalists, you’re creating another echo-chamber. And that is exactly what we want to try and avoid," Joanna Gear y(#JoannaG), head of content and audience at Bloomberg, told a session at this year’s International Journalism Festival (IJF) from 9 to 13 April in Perugia.

She was speaking on a panel entitled "Social Media is dead. Long live the social web" – which was a relief, because the point of going to IJF is that other journalists will be there, an irony that some later pointed out.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, of Rappler in the Philippines, on screen in Perugia

Image © Amy Fallon

The IJF is held annually in the charming town of Perugia, Italy. This year it boasted 612 speakers in 220 sessions – so it is believed to be Europe’s largest media event.

"The 2024 festival had much longer queues for English-language sessions than in previous years," director Christopher Potter told the Freelance. "And just by looking around - without metrics to go on - the number of attendees from outside Italy seemed significantly higher than in previous years."

Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza addresses the event commemorating the 76th anniversary of the Nakba - "the catastrophe", the expulsion of Palestinians from what is now the state of Israel - at Central Hall Westminster on 15 May 2024

Image © Mike Holderness

Highlights this year included a session at which Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists, paid tribute to Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, winner of the TRT World Citizen award and further plaudits. He had by then spent 107 days documenting the horrors of the war in Gaza.

A total of 13 festival sessions looked at so-called "artificial intelligence" (AI): one at how the technology can be applied in small newsrooms; another at what’s coming next; and another on how AI is used in war, from Ukraine to Gaza.

‘Can journalism survive AI?’

One panel asked Can journalism survive AI? Spoiler alert: if you weren’t there and haven’t watched the video: it can.

Meredith Broussard of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University told the audience that "the people who should be really worried about their jobs are computer programmers."

Another panel was dedicated to how freelances are using AI. "Essentially, this was looking at how to use AI as a tool to support us in our work – almost like an office intern, as it were," said Caroline Harrap, a co-founder of the Society of Freelance Journalists (SFJ) and a committee member of NUJ Paris branch.

Chris Stokel-Walker, a technology journalist for the likes of the Economist, BBC and Wired, lecturer and author of a new book, How AI Ate the World, sparked debate when he questioned whether AI had a nose for the news. "Sometimes you can’t even teach that, we find that very difficult to do at my university," he said.

A first-timer at what she described as "the Glasto of the journo world.", Harrap told the Freelance that her favourite sessions were those on mental health with fellow SFJ co-founder John Crowley and his co-director at Headlines Network, Hannah Storm. She also loved the panel on greenwashing, hosted by Sören Amelang and Sybrig Smit.

"And standing shoulder to shoulder with colleagues to remember our fellow journalists in Gaza was a moment I will certainly never forget," said Harrap, referring to the moment of silence and solidarity for reporters there.

A couple of sessions focused on "solutions journalism" and on the upcoming European elections.

Press freedom

With 320 journalists held in prison worldwide as of 1 December 2023 and more than half the world’s population going to the polls this year, several panels were dedicated to press freedom. Maria Ressa, co-founder of Rappler in the Philippines, shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for her journalism; her co-laureate was Dmitry Muratov of Novaya Gazeta in Russia. She appeared in conversation on democracy, disinformation and demagoguery.

"This year and next year will be critical for digital news: we must come together," she told the audience, stressing that tech giants needed to protect journalists who were trying to protect democracy.

Sebastian Lai addresses the Festival

Sebastien Lai, son of jailed Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai, described via video how his father and family have been targeted and why he is leading the international #FreeJimmyLai campaign.

Hannah Ajala, a Nigerian-British international reporter, speaker, and award-winning BBC presenter, told the Freelance that one of her favourite sessions looked at the best practices for reporting on gender and featured speakers from over three continents. It was her second festival but her first with We are Black Journalists (@weblackjournos), a community platform that she founded in 2018 to celebrate and connect Black journalists and those aspiring to work in journalism and media

Solidarity, support and even hope

As a freelance journalist, what I also relished was the networking opportunities and also a chance to take some time out, with day trips to Rome and Assisi before and after the festival. Others had the same idea.

This year the SFJ held their own meet-up to provide a platform for freelances to talk about some of their many challenges. "We were delighted that so many freelances were able to join us for the event, and it turned out to be just a lovely, joyful occasion," Harrap told the Freelance. "There was this great sense of solidarity, support and even hope. Things may be tough out there but it definitely helps when we face these things together."

Immanuel Musaya, a Nairobi-based journalist and producer who travelled to the festival from Kenya, was reunited with former BBC colleague Hewete Haileselassie. The pair travelled around the country afterwards. "Perugia is mind-blowing in terms of how easy it is to meet with journalists who have done really great," he said of the festival.

"It was really easy to talk to people from all over the globe, from Serbia, India, Africa, the US, UK, different places in Europe about the impact of their work."

Anton L. Delgado (@antonldelgado), a Cambodian freelance multimedia journalist based in Phnom Penh who shared his rainforest coverage of southeast Asia and represented the Pulitzer Center, told the Freelance that he was excited to backpack Italy after the festival before flying home.

All the panels were live-streamed and are currently available on YouTube.