We invite you to check out the full festival programme on the website, but to provide a taster we have prepared the following brief overview. By clicking on +info► you can link to full details of each session, and then add it if you wish to your personal festival day-by-day agenda on your computer or smartphone.
10:00 – 10:50 > Sala della Vaccara, Palazzo dei Priori | decolonising journalism
Media as an extractive practice: tackling the Western media’s effect on Global South journalism +info►
The exploitative practices by Western media in the Global South, always present for the proper coverage of marginalized and vulnerable groups, capture groundbreaking events from communities when a disaster occurs. How can the media influence positive development outcomes rather than merely reenforce the current exploitative framework? In this panel, we examine these issues from within the context of exploitation; we have also seen the structural barriers embedded in activities carried out primarily by Western media, which forms the focus of the work of Unbias The News that covers parachute journalism and challenges power imbalances and the status-quo.
Organised in association with Unbias The News.
10:00 – 10:50 > Sala dei Notari, Palazzo dei Priori | investigative journalism
Follow the oil: tracking the Western oil companies fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine +info►
Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine has thrust a spotlight on the Western fossil fuels companies that continue to do business in Russia, providing the Russian military with finance and fuel despite the sanctions and embargoes imposed by Western governments. Beginning in mid-2022, investigative journalists, academics and data scientists connected through the Anti-Corruption Data Collective have examined flows of oil and gas products within Russia, from production sites co-owned by European companies, via refineries to fighter-bombers used in attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine. Their high-impact investigations in Le Monde, Der Speigel and German public broadcaster ZDF have led to French oil major TotalEnergies and German energy giant Wintershall Dea announcing exits from Russian joint ventures, as well as legal complaints and condemnation of the companies from Ukrainian government officials and civil society. This panel will introduce a new data mapping tool that allows journalists to build on this work and “follow the oil” from Siberian gas fields to the front lines of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.
Organised in association with Anti-Corruption Data Collective.
10:00 – 10:50 > Sala Brugnoli, Palazzo Cesaroni | other topics
Latin America: how to cover a region that is always in crisis +info►
Latin America is always in crisis — political instability, corruption scandals, social unrest, drug trafficking, and migration are some of the issues that monopolize coverage, but they are difficult to understand without in-depth analysis. How do you cover a region this vast, complex and diverse? How do you interest transnational audiences in regional coverage? In this panel, we’ll hear from journalists from across Latin America who work in different media, including audio and print, who cover these and other pressing issues from a regional perspective.
Organised in association with Radio Ambulante.
10:00 – 10:50 > Sala delle Colonne, Palazzo Graziani | other topics
Google News Initiative: new tools to find and verify news stories +info►
A practical session to explore Google Lens, Pinpoint and Structured Data Explorer, the latest tools built by Google to help journalists find and verify stories. This workshop will take participants through the latest capabilities of Pinpoint, which allows the instant parsing of thousands of documents. Sponsored by Google News Initiative.
11:00 – 11:25 > Hotel Brufani – Sala Priori | other topics
So you’re a journalist who wants to build a startup? +info►
Jeff Kofman spent 30 years as reporter, foreign correspondent and Emmy-winning war correspondent with ABC, CBC and CBC News. He covered Latin America for ten years and has reported from more than 40 countries. Eight years ago he left TV news to build Trint, an AI-powered startup focused on transcription and easing the workflow of storytelling. Jeff now leads a team of 100. He has had to learn a whole new set of skills around technology, innovation, software development, management and finance. In this talk Jeff shares lessons learned by a first-time tech founder. As much as it sounds like an oxymoron, Jeff says the key quality a tech founder needs is “humble overconfidence.”
11:00 – 11:50 > Sala dei Notari, Palazzo dei Priori | diversity, equity & inclusion
Making newsrooms inclusive and safe for all genders: a leadership conversation +info►
Women now run some of the world’s most high-profile newsrooms, including the Financial Times, the Washington Post, the Economist and Reuters. But research suggests that women are still underrepresented in the leadership of most media organisations, representing under 40% of leadership positions in major news markets. How can current leaders make newsrooms safe and inclusive and safe for all genders, to ensure a solid pipeline of leaders of the future? Three newsroom managers join a fireside chat to share their experiences of inclusive leadership.
Organised in association with As Equals CNN.
11:00 – 11:50 > Sala delle Colonne, Palazzo Graziani | investigative journalism
Digital investigations: pushing the boundaries of newsrooms +info►
Many newsrooms now have a digital, forensic or visual analysis team harnessing the power of data and technology to design investigations on diverse themes with original and innovative focuses. This panel will analyze examples of cutting-edge digital investigations and explore the role of such teams in today’s newsrooms asking questions like: what skills they need and how they ensure continuous training for their staff, how they collaborate with editors and reporters from across the newsroom, how they balance innovation with other interests in the newsroom, how they handle risk of vicarious trauma and what are their ethical boundaries. Organised in association with Citizen Evidence Lab Amnesty International.
11:00 – 11:50 > Sala della Vaccara, Palazzo dei Priori | journalist safety & well-being
Online abuse: when newsrooms fight back +info►
What happens when newsrooms respond to online violence? This practical, solutions-focused session highlights how newsrooms have successfully pushed back against online abuse and shares successful strategies for supporting freelance and staff journalists, including a framework for newsroom best practice from the Coalition Against Online Violence. Audience members will be encouraged to share their feedback and experiences, with an emphasis on real-life successes.
Organised in association with ACOS Alliance.
11:00 – 11:50 > Auditorium San Francesco al Prato | AI
The elephant in the room: could AI give technology giants more control over the news? +info►
AI is already all over the news and its use is only likely to increase, not least thanks to ever-more advanced large language models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Yet there is a catch—one that has gone largely unacknowledged by the media and its consumers. All this work with AI in the news comes at a cost. Most of the AI tools, services, or the infrastructure required to develop and run them are not owned by news organisations. Instead, they are often concentrated in the hands of a few powerful technology and platform companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, or Meta. This is the proverbial elephant in the room when it comes to AI in the news. To date, platform companies’ power over news organisations has mainly stemmed from their control over the online advertising market and the channels of distribution. They also exert soft power by funding journalism projects and research, and they are often involved in lobbying efforts. AI, however, potentially adds a new lever of control. By providing infrastructure, services, and tools that matter for all sides of news organisations’ operations, they can embed themselves even deeper within the production and distribution of news. But what effect will this have on the news?
12:00 – 12:50 > Sala della Vaccara, Palazzo dei Priori | business models & funding
Can governments save independent journalism? Will they? Should they? +info►
Governments can play an important role in enabling independent professional journalism — by protecting journalists’ rights and freedom to do their job safely, by directly or indirectly supporting investment in journalism, and by investing in research, training, or technological development. At the same time, governments present one of the most important threats to independent journalism across the world. This panel will focus on how governments have (or haven’t) delivered on the commitments and pledges they have made to support journalism — and how they can do so without threatening journalism’s independence.
12:00 – 12:25 > Auditorium San Francesco al Prato | journalists in exile
Russian journalism in a time of war: reporting from exile +info►
Russia-based journalists have had to flee their homes and families or risk imprisonment and worse. Their revenue sources are mostly gone and – as Russian nationals – they face hostility and mistrust despite the fact that they stand as a critical check to Putin’s lies. How do Russian news organizations manage to still report from inside Russia and reach Russian audiences from exile? Tikhon Dzyadko will be interviewed by Vivian Schiller.
12:00 – 12:50 > Sala Brugnoli, Palazzo Cesaroni | data journalism
Data journalism and the war in Ukraine +info►
The war in Ukraine may be one of the most covered – from text to video to photos, and yes, data too. Meet with the newsrooms behind some of the best data journalism about the war – from tracking possible war crimes to documenting the impact on the country’s cultural heritage to understanding the different images that young Russians and Ukrainians are being presented.
Organised in association with Sigma Awards.
12:00 – 12:50 > Sala dei Notari, Palazzo dei Priori | podcasting, audio & video
TikTok: killing video as we know it or curing news avoidance? +info►
TikTok is the world’s most downloaded app. At first primarily associated with teenagers dancing, the addictive short-video platform from China sparks controversy while, at the same time, offering a completely new format to cover the most urgent topics, from the war in Ukraine to climate change. It’s habit forming, it’s hard to stop watching. Have we finally found the cure for news avoidance? News outlets that are native to TikTok swear that they can meet a younger audience where they are, while legacy publications are trying hard to reach Gen Z on TikTok and bring them back to their websites. Confused video editors considered switching to extremely short videos, only to find out that TikTok videos can now be 10 min long. An infinite scroll of truly joyous, user-generated content mixes with newsgathering, while disturbing images continue to plague TikTok as well, and exponentially increase every second. Is it only a matter of packaging the same content in a different way, or is our brain and the way we consume narratives dramatically changing? This panel will focus on the impact of social media narratives on video formats and journalism. Organised in association with BBC Reel.
12:35 – 13:00 > Auditorium San Francesco al Prato | media under attack
In conversation with Carlos Dada, Press Freedom Hero +info►
Digital pioneer and fighter on the press freedom front line, El Salvador’s Carlos Dada is the 2022 IPI-IMS World Press Freedom Hero awardee. As editor-in-chief and co-founder of the pioneering online news site El Faro in El Salvador, Dada has faced extraordinary pressure from the government and criminal organizations. He was one of the most significant targets of the notorious Pegasus spyware surveillance. Carlos Dada will offer important insights on press freedom and media innovation in El Salvador and across central America in conversation with IPI’s deputy director Scott Griffen.
Organised in association with International Press Institute.
13:00 – 13:30 > Hotel Brufani – Sala Raffaello | media under attack
#IStandWithEvan: Free Evan Gerskovich +info►
Evan Gershkovich, 31 years old, is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, where he covers Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. In March 2023, he was arrested in Russia while on a reporting trip and accused of spying, making him the first American journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the Cold War. The Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny the allegations. President Biden and news organizations around the world have joined the Journal in calling for Mr. Gershkovich’s immediate release. This panel discussion will examine the broader context and implications of Mr. Gershkovich’s detainment, and the growing trend of nations such as Russia and Iran using high-profile American detainees for diplomatic leverage.
14:00 – 14:50 > Sala dei Notari, Palazzo dei Priori | legal protection for journalists
SLAPPs against the media in Europe: is the EU response sufficient and what remains to be done? +info►
The objective of the panel co-organized by ARTICLE 19 Europe and OBCT, as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response Mechanism, is to highlight the phenomenon of SLAPPs at the national level and unpack the anti-SLAPP developments at the European level. By bringing together advocacy experts, along with SLAPP survivors from Serbia and Italy, the panel will offer an overview of the progress and the state of play both at the domestic and European level, while addressing the remaining challenges that media professionals and advocates still face in Europe.
Organised in association with ARTICLE 19 Europe and OBCT.
14:00 – 14:50 > Hotel Brufani – Sala Raffaello | journalists in exile
Exiled media is not just a trend +info►
Recent international developments have highlighted the difficulties of media in exile, but the exodus of local media outlets in the face of repression is perhaps historical in scale now. On the other hand, the current technological situation makes them more efficient than ever before in terms of reaching their audiences. Despite the novel global relevance of exiled media, its landscape remains fragmented because of lack of knowledge of one another, language barriers, and the hustle of having to relocate and start operating in new countries and legal frameworks. What are some of the challenges faced by exiled media outlets? How do digital platforms impact their ability to survive and face the attacks of authoritarianism? Can the experience of an exiled media outlet from Nicaragua be relevant to one from Russia and vice versa? How can coming together as a community further the cause of free press and access to independent media globally? NEMO (Network of Exiled Media Outlets) founders talk about their experiences, problems, and solutions, the significance of exiled media in the news landscape of authoritarian regimes, and what inspired them to found a network.
14:00 – 14:50 > Sala della Vaccara, Palazzo dei Priori | climate reporting
Climate impacts every story: why are we still covering it as a niche topic? +info►
If your newsroom is still covering climate as a beat, you have some fixes to make. The climate crisis is now the biggest story in the world and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. It impacts every other story imaginable – from the cost of living crisis to migration to politics and war to tech, food, travel, sports and even arts and culture. Are news organisations, and their editors and journalists, prepared to cover climate as a horizontal rather than a vertical? What’s working and what needs to be worked on?
Organised in association with Thomson Reuters Foundation.
14:00 – 14:50 > Sala Brugnoli, Palazzo Cesaroni | local news
Putting communities first: planning local news +info►
Local journalism is in an existential crisis. As journalists, we often ask, ‘Who’s going to save local journalism?’ – meaning, ‘who’s going to pay for it?’. Given the scale of the problem, we often say that philanthropy, big tech or government must be the answer. But what if a large part of the answer – and the resources – lay within local communities themselves? In 2022, the Public Interest News Foundation and NewsNow ran a pilot project in the four nations of the UK, asking people not only what they want from local news, but also what they are prepared to do to support it. They talked to local businesses, politicians, funders, civil society organisations, financial institutions and others about what local news means to them and their communities, and how they can help it become more relevant and sustainable. In this panel discussion, the project leaders present their findings and discuss how to revitalise local news by putting local communities in the driving seat.
Organised in association with Public Interest News Foundation.
15:00 – 15:50 > Sala Brugnoli, Palazzo Cesaroni | business models & funding
What donors need to hear from the Global South +info►
In many emerging economies, democracy often depends on independent, public-interest journalism to hold the government accountable. This type of journalism – mired in impenetrable policy and deep-dive reporting around complex yet vital societal issues – is often underfunded in the Global South. But when international funders do come with support, it can arrive with unrealistic expectations. These assumptions push against regional and local cultural issues, technical constraints and sustainability models far better suited to Western environments. Financial requirements can be mismatched while onerous impact tracking results in projects mired in paperwork that takes away from producing the journalism itself. Meanwhile, barriers as basic as language not only warp the global news narrative but the media development space as well. So what do donors and media development groups need to better understand about the unique complexities of the Global South?
15:00 – 15:50 > Auditorium San Francesco al Prato | media under attack
Declining trust in media: a journalist safety issue +info►
While concerns around misinformation, disinformation, and the need for greater media trust and literacy are becoming increasingly common, these concerns are often understood in the context of creating a more informed and engaged citizenry. Less often, and arguably less understood, are the ways that declining trust in media manifest as a serious safety issue for journalists. In this panel journalists and media freedom experts from around the world will explore the changing media landscape, both in person and online, and the ways that declining trust in media can directly contribute to both online and physical threats for the press, and exacerbate already dangerous situations for journalists – whether covering polling stations in Arizona or conflict in Kyiv. This panel is especially pertinent following the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk in November 2022.
Organised in association with Committee to Protect Journalists.
15:00 – 15:50 > Sala dei Notari, Palazzo dei Priori | podcasting, audio & video
New voices in journalism: YouTube creator panel +info►
Independent video journalists Cleo Abram, Johnny Harris, SinEmbargo and TLDR will share their experiences of creating news content on YouTube. We’ll show journalists how they can launch and grow their own channel. The session will cover the YouTube platform and ways to engage with audiences through high-quality reporting.
Sponsored by Google News Initiative.
15:00 – 15:50 > Sala della Vaccara, Palazzo dei Priori | diversity, equity & inclusion
Know your audience: diversity as an actual path toward representation +info►
Journalists who are representative of the communities they cover can access the highest-quality sources, discern compelling issues for local audiences, and rebuild trust with disaffected readers. But improving representation isn’t flipping a switch. News organizations must reflect on who international journalism is for. Is it serving the people that the news is about or just informing a niche community of decision makers? In this panel we’ll discuss the changing face of international journalism, new employment models, and unique, localized approaches to audience development that enable inclusion and true representation.
16:00 – 16:50 > Sala delle Colonne, Palazzo Graziani | investigative journalism
Holding power accountable: first you need to find the right data +info►
To understand the proprietary technologies that govern our lives you need data – sometimes lots of it. In this presentation, The Markup’s Leon Yin and WIRED’s Dhruv Mehrotra will discuss strategies to find and build datasets needed to analyze algorithms. From predictive policing to discriminatory pricing, they’ll discuss the different sources they’ve turned to, the tools and techniques they’ve used, and the ethical considerations involved in accessing and using sensitive information. Whether you’re a seasoned investigative reporter or just starting out, this panel will provide valuable insights and practical tips for finding the data you need to tell important stories that hold power accountable.
16:00 – 16:50 > Auditorium San Francesco al Prato | Ukraine
Journalism at war in Ukraine +info►
You’re under attack. Your country is at war. Your community needs your reporting now more than ever. How do you pivot to ensure you can continue to serve the information they need? Three editors and publishers from Ukraine share how they have changed their journalism and business to meet the challenges. Featuring the IPI-IMS media pioneer awardees. Organised in association with International Press Institute.
16:00 – 16:50 > Sala dei Notari, Palazzo dei Priori | whistleblowing
Reporting on remote killing: unique challenges and source protection +info►
Reporting on the secretive remote killing programs presents unique challenges for journalists seeking to publish information in the public interest while respecting and protecting their sources. National security reporting in an era of mass surveillance is already problematic as journalists navigate digital encryption. Reporting on drone warfare adds a layer of difficulty given the remote locations of drone strikes and secrecy of governments participating in drone strikes.
Organised in association with the Whistleblower and Source Protection Program (WHISPeR) at ExposeFacts.
16:00 – 16:50 > Sala Brugnoli, Palazzo Cesaroni | decolonising journalism
New storytelling formats for decolonised journalism: when innovation and inclusion come together +info►
Revamping the way we work to create journalism with and for the people we cover, not just about them, means reinventing the tools and formats of old-school extractive reporting. New story formats can help bring the public into the process and deliver content more seamlessly to the communities where the coverage originated. Inventing a more inclusive and impactful journalism is something all newsrooms can take on — large or small, mainstream(ish) or niche. The New Humanitarian created Whatsapp, Lebanon?, an illustrated timeline of Lebanon’s collapse told through the Whatsapp conversations of five Lebanese people, and is now handing the microphone to Yemeni people to tell the story of that war. Vice built the Unfiltered History Tour, an alternative tour of the most disputed objects at the British Museum, told by people from the countries they were taken from. The Bureau Local and the People’s Newsroom are shifting the power balance in local journalism. Editors and reporters from these newsrooms share how they made these projects happen, the challenges and rewards along the way, and lessons they can offer to other newsrooms.
Organised in association with The New Humanitarian.
17:00 – 17:50 > Sala Brugnoli, Palazzo Cesaroni | climate reporting
The importance of community networks for climate journalism +info►
Reporting about the climate crisis can feel incredibly lonely, but it does not have to be. Communities of climate change journalists have multiplied in the past couple of years, ranging from country-wide initiatives to large international programmes, including the Oxford Climate Journalism Network. This panel will explore the different ways these initiatives take, why their founders saw a need to create them and what added value they bring to audiences, media organizations and individual reporters. We will explore how a national climate journalism network operates in Austria, the inner workings of a global investigative reporting network on rainforests and how the largest U.S. newspaper publisher is connecting innovation to climate reporting.
Organised in association with Oxford Climate Journalism Network.
17:00 – 17:50 > Hotel Brufani – Sala Raffaello | disinformation
Truth decay: science misinformation and journalistic responses +info►
This panel will feature a conversation about the many urgent challenges of scientific misinformation and the role journalists might play in exposing and countering pseudoscience and science denialism. Attendees will hear perspectives on misinformation in mass media and societal and journalistic techniques for covering misinformation. Attendees will also learn about a new Pulitzer Center grant opportunity for innovative journalism projects that tackle science denial and misinformation.
Sponsored by Pulitzer Center and HHMI’s Science and Educational Media Group.
17:00 – 18:00 > Auditorium San Francesco al Prato | legal protection for journalists
Endangered: journalism in jeopardy +info►
Freedom of the press is considered a fundamental pillar of successful democracies, yet trust in independent media is being eroded by the nefarious application of political power to manipulate public opinion, plunging journalists into levels of obstruction and danger more commonly encountered when working in conflict zones or under autocratic regimes. Personal data and social media are exploited – often by world leaders – to publish mis– and disinformation, deploy smear campaigns, and censor reporting, fuelling very personal and very violent attacks on journalists; a price they pay simply for doing their jobs. Endangered is a new documentary on threats to press freedom produced by Pulitzer Prize winner Ronan Farrow and directed by Oscar nominees and Peabody winners Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing. Starring investigative journalist Patricia Campos Mello, it chronicles a year in the life of four journalists who are living and working in countries where freedom of the press was once considered a “given”, but now is pursued at great risk to their own personal safety. With clips from the film shown throughout, this discussion with those involved in the making of the documentary and hosted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, explores the experiences that courageous journalists face in pursuit of their mission to report the truth and keep the public informed.
Organised in association with Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Photo credit: Bartolomeo Rossi