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 – 11:00 > Centro Servizi G. Alessi | environmental journalism
Don’t think of a polar bear: media, news and the future of climate change +info►
It is here and now. The climate is changing and is changing for everybody: for the environment, for economics, for the people. The political debate, even when someone denies it, cannot avoid dealing with climate-related issues. Because the climate is changing everywhere, in diverse ways, with diverse consequences for diverse sectors and regions. It is part of our everyday life. The media ecosystem is facing a big challenge that requires journalists to hold together many different issues in the same story: to be compelling for people, to maintain the reliability of the scientific information, to find the right frame to tell how such a complicated issue is relevant in public opinion. This panel will address these topics with experts coming from some of the leading experiences in the field that encompasses the communication of climate change for public opinion at large, the use of scientific information in the media, the role of the future and young generations in the climate debate. Organized in association with CMCC Foundation – Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change.
10:00 – 11:00 > Sala Brugnoli, Palazzo Cesaroni | social media & messaging platforms
Democracy hacked: how technology is destabilising global politics +info►
Presentation of the book Democracy hacked: how technology is destabilising global politics (2018) by Martin Moore. Moderated by Mathew Ingram. In the space of one election cycle, authoritarian governments, moneyed elites and fringe hackers figured out how to game elections, bypass democratic processes, and turn social networks into battlefields. Facebook, Google and Twitter – where our politics now takes place – have lost control and are struggling to claw it back. Prepare for a new strain of democracy. A world of datafied citizens, real-time surveillance, enforced wellness and pre-crime. Where switching your mobile platform will have more impact on your life than switching your government. Where freedom and privacy are seen as incompatible with social wellbeing and compulsory transparency. As our lives migrate online, we have become increasingly vulnerable to digital platforms founded on selling your attention to the highest bidder. Our laws don’t cover what is happening and our politicians don’t understand it. But if we don’t change the system now, we may not get another chance.
10:00 – 11:00 > Sala San Francesco, Arcivescovado | investigative journalism
From zero to hero: can investigative journalism be taught? +info►
Investigative journalists have much in common, not least an obsessive attention to detail and a compulsion to keep digging when most normal people would move on. But are these inherent character traits or can anyone learn the investigative mindset and necessary skills? At a time when investigative journalism is needed more than ever, is there a methodology for taking ordinary people and turning them into investigative reporters? Heather Brooke takes students from all backgrounds and in nine months turns them into professional-level investigative journalists. She’s joined by a panel of expert teachers and former students who have gone on to remarkable careers to discuss the key skills and psychologies that need to be taught and learned to do revelatory in-depth journalism that takes on the most powerful in society and holds them to account. This panel is for ideal for those wanting to teach investigative journalism and also those wanting to learn.
10:00 – 11:00 > Hotel Brufani – Sala Raffaello | media under attack
Hungary: media in an illiberal democracy +info►
Viktor Orbán’s Hungary has become a difficult place for independent journalists and media organizations. In recent years, outlets critical of the government have been forced to close or have been sold to pro-Orbán oligarchs. Last year, experts estimated that around 90% of all media in the country is directly or indirectly controlled by Orbán’s Fidesz party. Journalists critical of the government have been banned from parliament or simply have no outlet for their work. This panel will explore the challenges media professionals face in Hungary and ask what can be done to protect the press in the country. Organised in association with Project Syndicate.
10:30 – 11:30 > Hotel Brufani – Sala Priori | other topics
Solutions journalism in Europe +info►
Solutions journalism – rigorous reporting on how people are responding to social problems – has quickly become a standard practice in hundreds of newsrooms across the United States, with powerful intersections with investigative, collaborative, and cross-border reporting. But in the past year, it has burgeoned internationally as well; the basic solutions journalism curriculum is now available in 11 languages, almost all driven by local demand. This session will highlight the different ways newsrooms across Europe are integrating solutions reporting into their coverage and the results that they’re seeing. Organised in association with the Solutions Journalism Network.
11:00 – 12:00 > Sala Brugnoli, Palazzo Cesaroni | social media & messaging platforms
How Big Tech is re-defining journalism +info►
Google and Facebook dominate online advertising and play a pivotal role in news distribution. But that is not the only way in which big tech companies influence journalism. Google, especially, has been a pioneer in funding ‘innovation’ in media organisations. What is the search giant trying to achieve with its 150 million euro DNI fund for European media? The cross-border investigation of netzpolitik.org in Germany, Falter in Austria and Republik in Switzerland looked at how Google uses its money as a soft-power tool in journalism. The panel will discuss the findings and debate with the audience about how the media should deal with the patronage and power of Big Tech. Organised in association with Netzpolitik.org.
11:00 – 12:00 > Hotel Brufani – Sala Raffaello | media under attack
When a state trolls: strategies for responding to online harassment against journalists +info►
In the Philippines, a coordinated campaign of “paid trolls, fallacious reasoning, leaps in logic, poisoning the well” were among “the propaganda techniques that helped shift public opinion on key issues” levied against Rappler. In Malta, coordinated hate campaigns organized on secret Facebook groups targeted blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia before her murder. In India, Rana Ayyub left the country after on online harassment campaign following her reporting on government corruption. These are only a handful of the cases that the Committee to Protect Journalists and other organizations have documented in which state-affiliated trolling campaigns have targeted journalists in an attempt to intimidate and silence reporting on critical issues of public interest. This session will open with a brief overview of what existing research on state-sponsored trolling has found and remarks from the panelists about their own experience, including regional/national commonalities and differences and the impact this has on their ability to do journalism and cover topics of public interest. We will also explore how newsrooms responded, or not, to support these journalists, and how the freelance/staff dynamic that affect this. The conversation will include discussion of proposals for responses and solutions at the individual level, by newsrooms, and by platforms. It will identify potential areas for strategic collaboration and identify specific actions that could help move the community from the identification of the problem to solutions and coordinated action. The discussion will be solutions-oriented and grounded in a pragmatic approach to understanding how individuals and newsrooms can address and combat state-sponsored trolling Organised in association with the Committee to Protect Journalists.
11:00 – 12:00 > Sala San Francesco, Arcivescovado | community & trust
Why you should listen to your readers +info►
More news organisations are producing engaged journalism, where readers can be involved in the editorial process at different levels, than ever before. Media leaders have started to acknowledge that building a healthy community is of great importance to the future sustainability of news organisations and that engagement initiatives can impact a media outlet’s business strategy as well as its editorial output. As traditional business models no longer deliver the security journalism needs to thrive, organisations are diversifying revenue streams. But could being majority-funded through reader revenue be the key to an editorially independent and more sustainable future for media organisations? This session takes a look at three organisations that consider reader revenue the key to their success and explores how the strategies were put into place and why listening to readers can be central to editorial and commercial sustainability.
11:00 – 12:00 > Sala del Dottorato | in the newsroom
How to resist the siren call of too many chickensh*t projects +info►
Real digital transformation involves more than shiny new things and being agile. These are important for innovation, of course, but can also give a seductive and false sense of forward motion, of beating inertia. Real transition often involves deep and frankly painful long-term-change projects that address not only how fundamental processes work, but also the underlying unconscious operating principles of the organisation and involve difficult changes to power relationships. They take a very long time, demand huge energy from those driving them, but are essential to creating real transition and building a sustainable future. In this session we hear at first hand why these projects are so critical, and how to ensure they deliver what they should.
12:00 – 13:00 > Hotel Brufani – Sala Raffaello | social media & messaging platforms
How to win at local news +info►
People want to see news that matters to them. Local newspapers keep people up to date on everything that’s going on in a community and they also play a vital role in holding local councils and institutions to account. In this workshop you’ll hear from regional publishers on how they are engaging with their readers and building communities. You’ll also hear from Facebook about the tools and services they have that can help journalists reach their audience. Organised by Facebook.
12:00 – 13:00 > Palazzo Sorbello | diversity & inclusion
#metoo in the global South +info►
In the United States and parts of Europe, the #MeToo movement has transformed many industries, including media, by calling out and often toppling powerful men who have harassed and assaulted women (and sometimes other men). In some countries of the Global South, such as India, similar movements are growing to challenge powerful men who abuse women who work for them. But in many nations, predators in our industry and others continue to get away with abusive behavior, and women who complain put themselves at great risk. In this panel, journalists from across the Global South will discuss what it would take to bring the power of #MeToo to their countries. Organised in association with the International Center for Journalists.
12:00 – 13:00 > Sala San Francesco, Arcivescovado | investigative journalism
How organized crime groups plan long-term investments and infrastructure +info►
Organized crime groups and corrupt politicians see the world as their playground. They use national and international financial infrastructure to bypass regulation in order to launder vast amounts of money. How do they set up their cross border networks and where does the money ultimately go? Why are banking networks such as the Troika Laundromat a boon for criminals? A panel of experienced reporters will ignite the discussion on why organized crime figures are successful global entrepreneurs. Organised in association with OCCRP.
12:00 – 13:00 > Sala del Dottorato | disinformation
Deepfakes, shallow fakes and real deal journalism +info►
In May 2018, a Belgian political party circulated a video of Donald Trump that went viral. The problem? It wasn’t a real video. An example of synthetic media, popularly known as deepfakes, the video seemed to strike a chord with people who believed it was genuine, even though, toward the end, the video was clearly indicated as a fake. Similarly, in July 2018, a false interview of then-US House of Representatives candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went viral. Rather than a deepfake, it was a cleverly-edited video, designed as parody but often interpreted as a genuine video. As internet users migrate to more visual platforms like Instagram, YouTube and Twitch, both misinformation and useful information are become more visual, and video is taking the front seat in the challenge for verification. Of particular concern is synthetic media, but of day to day concern are videos cropped, edited and taken out of context. Along this spectrum lie a range of tools and techniques for journalists to detect, debunk and contextualize these videos, using both automated and manual means. This discussion will include an overview of resources to look at include how to lean on trusted sources, archiving, metadata, and what role artificial intelligence can play currently and moving forward. Organised in association with Meedan.
14:00 – 15:00 > Sala delle Colonne, Palazzo Graziani | community & trust
Century of truth: building positive attitudes towards journalists +info►
Recent years have been marked by growing antipathy toward journalists, particularly when they challenge respected figures or in times of national crisis. Journalists are associated with increasingly visible corruption or crime, rather than simply shedding a light on existing problems. This makes it more difficult for their stories to produce the desired impact. In order to reverse this trend, a group of speakers has been testing various approaches (including open days, campaigns, local festivals, and others) to build relationships and trust with their audiences, and send a positive message in support for journalists. The session is intended to present the learnings from these activities and explore the outstanding challenges to be addressed.
14:00 – 15:00 > Sala della Vaccara, Palazzo dei Priori | investigative journalism
Who owns Hamburg? Local investigative journalism on [your town]’s residential property market +info►
Who owns your city? The crowd-powered data investigation entitled Who owns Hamburg? aims to bring more transparency in the housing market in Germany. With the help of thousands of citizens, we investigated the main driving forces for rising rental prices. We used our our online tool CrowdNewsroom to provide a space for tenants and owners to contribute with valuable information about housing owners and related stories. These contributions were centralised into a database that journalists can use to analyse the data and investigate the big story behind the single stories. We have already expanded the project to more cities in Germany and offer our tool to other newsrooms for cooperation. In this talk we will present the lessons learned, how we built our tool, how we partnered with local media to lead a large campaign and how this investigation raised a debate in the city about possible solutions based on facts. Organised in association with Correctiv.
14:00 – 15:00 > Hotel Brufani – Sala Raffaello | social media & messaging platforms
In conversation with WhatsApp +info►
With more than 1.5 billion people around the world using WhatsApp on a monthly basis it has fast become a resource of information and news for many. As the platform grows there have been challenges but also unique collaborations between WhatsApp and newsrooms covering elections that have created new ways of engaging with audiences and spawning new content formats.
14:00 – 15:00 > Sala Brugnoli, Palazzo Cesaroni | AI/audio/video/voice/VR
Constitutional democracy and technology in the age of artificial intelligence +info►
In conversation with Paul Nemitz. Moderated by Fabio Chiusi. The session will consider some of the issues arising from the October 2018 article Constitutional democracy and technology in the age of artificial intelligence by Paul Nemitz, published in the November 2018 Theme Issue of The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society entitled Governing artificial intelligence: ethical, legal, and technical opportunities and challenges. Here is the abstract of the October article: Given the foreseeable pervasiveness of artificial intelligence (AI) in modern societies, it is legitimate and necessary to ask the question how this new technology must be shaped to support the maintenance and strengthening of constitutional democracy. This paper first describes the four core elements of today’s digital power concentration, which need to be seen in cumulation and which, seen together, are both a threat to democracy and to functioning markets. It then recalls the experience with the lawless Internet and the relationship between technology and the law as it has developed in the Internet economy and the experience with GDPR before it moves on to the key question for AI in democracy, namely which of the challenges of AI can be safely and with good conscience left to ethics, and which challenges of AI need to be addressed by rules which are enforceable and encompass the legitimacy of democratic process, thus laws. The paper closes with a call for a new culture of incorporating the principles of democracy, rule of law and human rights by design in AI and a three-level technological impact assessment for new technologies like AI as a practical way forward for this purpose.
14:00 – 15:00 > Hotel Brufani – Sala Priori | disinformation
Google News Initiative: digital newsgathering and verification +info►
What digital tools are journalists using to help them fact-check and verify information? From analysing a photograph to identifying a location, this session will equip you with practical research tips and techniques to help you get more from tools like Google Search. We’ll point to techniques using a variety of tools from Google and beyond, with examples from around the world. Organised by Google.
14:00 – 15:00 > Palazzo Sorbello | media under attack
Freedom after expression: censorship of the press and violence against journalists in India and Pakistan +info►
Growing levels of scrutiny, pressure, and intimidation tactics on the press in both India and Pakistan have introduced a disturbing era of undeclared censorship from state and non-state actors in both countries. Curbs on freedom of press in Pakistan continue to rein in the country’s democratic feats as it struggles to maintain civilian supremacy in the face of direct and indirect military domination. In India, the declining levels of freedom for the media and press call into question the country’s democratic and secular roots. The climate of fear and intolerance, in both countries, has been exacerbated by murders, enforced disappearances, attempted abductions, and legal action (or threat of) against journalists. Media owners on both sides of the border continue to work under pressure to self-censor, silence internal voices of dissent, omit coverage of anti-state protests and movements or face blocked distribution of paper or broadcast of the channel, denial of access to official meetings and briefings, and withdrawal of government advertising. In sensitive locations like Kashmir, internet shutdowns are common, the threat of violence against local reporters looms large and a ban on foreign correspondents has been in place. Heightened nationalism and extremism in both countries has left limited space for national debate on mainstream media. In the absence of any clearly stated ground rules, newsrooms constantly self-censor to avoid intimidation by state and/or partisan, extremist members of the public. Pakistan remains low on the World Press Freedom Index and this year India was just two points ahead with a drop in the ranking compared to 2017. As moderate voices within journalism face diminishing space, the question for the future of South Asia is how this unchecked media censorship and threat of violence will impact democracy, secularism and potential peaceful relations between the two hostile neighbours. How are the new rules of freedom and censorship going to be written, and where will the new lines be drawn to ensure a democratic, safe, and free South Asia?
14:00 – 15:00 > Sala del Dottorato | in the newsroom
Can we escape the innovation binge/purge cycle? +info►
Video, 360, AR, VR, Podcasts, Blockchain, Instant Articles, Newsletters, Snow Fall, Native Ads. Can we escape the innovation binge/purge cycle? It seems like there’s always something new promising to “save” the industry. Yesterday’s bright shiny seems to become tomorrow’s old news at a faster pace than ever. But is this actually the right way to be thinking about innovation? What can we learn from adjacent industries, for example, about testing and learning in ways that help the news business move forward?
15:00 – 16:00 > Centro Servizi G. Alessi | environmental journalism
The end of the world? Why environmental journalism has never been so vital +info►
This panel of leading journalists and experts, who cover the Middle East and beyond, will cast a rare light on a part of journalism that despite focusing on one of most critical subjects, the environment, has for so many decades been sidelined or ignored. Our environmental impact on our planet is not just going to destroy the lives of our descendants if drastic action is not taken but is already causing conflict right now, and will do for our children. The United Nations’ first ever comprehensive report on climate change released in October 2018 argued we are the last generation to be able to combat catastrophic global warming, and we need to make “unprecedented changes” to save ourselves. Despite this, environmental reporting has always occupied the back pages of papers, or been relegated to soft TV features. Until now. This panel will take a hard look at how damage to our environments is driving real conflict and social change today – from Isis’s scorched earth tactics leading to more recruitment, to fights over water sources potentially threatening long-standing peace agreements. The panel will argue environmental journalism has never been more important. And that if nothing changes, if nothing is learnt, if reporting is not taken seriously, our next wars will be over resources like water.
15:00 – 16:00 > Hotel Brufani – Sala Raffaello | books
Breaking News: the remaking of journalism and why it matters now +info►
Presentation of the book Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now (2018) by Alan Rusbridger. Moderated by Mathew Ingram. How do we know any more what is true and what isn’t? We are living through the greatest communication revolution since Gutenberg in which falsehood regularly seems to overwhelm truth. In Breaking News Alan Rusbridger offers an urgent and agenda-setting examination of the past, present and future of the press, and the forces menacing its freedom. The news media have been disrupted by huge and fast-moving changes. The growth of social media and with it the ability of billions of people to publish has created a vast amount of unreliable and false news which now competes with, and sometimes drowns, more established forms of journalism. The President of the United States regularly lies to the public and brands his critics ‘fake’. Politicians openly rubbish the views of ‘so-called experts’. Where can we look for reliable, verifiable sources of news and information? What does all this mean for democracy? And what will the future hold? Reflecting on his twenty years as editor of the Guardian; and his experience of breaking some of the most significant news stories of our time, including the Edward Snowden revelations, phone-hacking, WikiLeaks and the Keep it in the Ground campaign, Rusbridger answers these questions and offers a stirring defence of why quality journalism matters now more than ever.
15:00 – 16:00 > Sala del Dottorato | in the newsroom
Information overload: how journalists can cope +info►
Journalists are being overwhelmed by the information they are asked to process in their working day and want to explore solutions with third-party news providers and management to make it more manageable. We’ll look at ways to make your work day easier and talk to third-parities and newsroom managers about what can be done.
16:00 – 17:00 > Hotel Brufani – Sala Raffaello | AI/audio/video/voice/VR
News on Assistant and experiments in voice journalism +info►
As the use of voice enabled devices grows, so too does the opportunity for users to access meaningful content throughout their day. While voice technology is still very nascent, it creates new ways for publishers to engage with their readers. This session explains what content for News on the Google Assistant looks like now, and gives some innovative examples of how news publishers have been experimenting on the platform. Organised by Google.
16:00 – 17:00 > Sala della Vaccara, Palazzo dei Priori | community & trust
Improving demand – and supply – via transparency and engagement +info►
We definitely need to upgrade the supply of journalism. But we equally need to upgrade *us* — the “consumers” of media and other information, by also focusing on the demand side of the equation. Journalists must become leaders in improving communities’ understanding of how journalism works. The attitude of “Here’s the news, buy it or don’t buy it, but it speaks for itself” is a key reason why so many people don’t trust journalism. Journalists can help remedy this loss of faith in a number of ways, and we focus here on two that belong in all newsrooms’ toolkits: transparency and engagement. Transparency means explaining how — and why — we do what we do. It means telling our audiences who we are, and where we come from including our personal and organizational world view. It means correcting mistakes fast and explaining why the mistake happened. Engagement means deep conversations and collaboration with the communities we serve. Experts in these areas will explain what’s working and why.
16:00 – 17:00 > Palazzo Sorbello | diversity & inclusion
Women’s leadership in media +info►
Much has been said about women as journalists and media managers, about their being victims, about a lack of opportunity, about their being kept under glass ceilings, being paid less, given less opportunity for advancement, about harassment and assault. And while all of this remains true, and in spite of it, women are increasingly asserting themselves as more than capable contenders for leadership and top positions. Who are these women? How do they do it? And what can they tell the many others yet to be acknowledged who sometimes struggle to find their own voice in the face of all of the obstacles the industry throws in their way?
16:00 – 17:00 > Centro Servizi G. Alessi | business models, funding & start-ups
Public funding for the media in the 21st century +info►
Around the world, journalists and their communities are rethinking what public support for journalism means. In the US, the state of New Jersey launched a publicly managed fund for local news and information projects. In the UK, the BBC is supporting local news organizations through their Local News Partnerships program. And the Canadian government recently passed a $595 million package in support of local news and information. This panel will introduce attendees to a new way to think about meeting a community’s needs by decentralizing ownership, accountability, and financing of community information production. Attendees will hear from the people playing a role in these publicly-financed efforts to keep local democracies alive. They’ll leave with a vision for how these solutions can be implemented in their communities.
16:00 – 17:00 > Sala Brugnoli, Palazzo Cesaroni | media under attack
Diagnosing the hate movements against journalists +info►
Why are journalists from so many countries the objects of attack by political actors who are “running against the system?” What is the logic and pattern of these attacks, and how do they differ from country to country? Jay Rosen of NYU will sketch the scene in America, where the president of the United State is leading a hate movement against the mainstream media while it tries to investigate him. Marius Dragomir of Central European University in Budapest will describe the situation in Hungary, where independent media is under constant attack, and give an overview of the problem in Europe. After 30 minutes we will open it up to the audience for reports from other countries.
16:00 – 17:00 > Sala del Dottorato | investigative journalism
openMedia: exposing commercial interference in press freedom +info►
The problem of vested interests influencing reporting – deciding what gets reported and how – is age old. It has been journalism’s dirty little secret for a long time. But with the collapse of traditional media revenue models, the pressure to bow to advertisers and corporate owners has increased dramatically in recent years. openDemocracy has broken a number of major stories showing how commercial pressures are influencing editorial decisions. In May 2018 we revealed that London’s Evening Standard had agreed a secret £3 million deal with six leading commercial companies, including Google and Uber, promising them “money-can’t-buy” positive news and “favourable” comment coverage. We also published Peter Oborne’s explosive resignation from the UK’s Daily Telegraph, alleging the paper had suppressed investigations into the banking giant HSBC, a major advertiser with the Telegraph, and had ‘gone soft’ on other major advertising clients. Our stories have prompted many other similar allegations of editorial interference – or ‘enhancement’. But most working journalists have been unwilling to go public, for obvious reasons. That’s why we teamed up with Index on Censorship, the European Federation of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and King’s College London to launch openMedia: a project to expose abuses of commercial power that go under-reported, and bring to light instances where the lines between sponsored or paid-for content have been blurred with newsgathering and journalism. We have confidentially surveyed hundreds of journalists working across 47 European countries to analyse how financial pressures are shaping media. The panel will discuss the findings of this survey and of our wider investigations, and explore how media can develop sustainable business models without compromising editorial integrity. Organised in association with openDemocracy.
17:00 – 18:00 > Hotel Brufani – Sala Priori | environmental journalism
Track changes: how to use open-source information to identify and monitor environmental issues +info►
This workshop – led by Wim Zwijnenburg, an expert on the subject, and his colleague at Bellingcat Nick Waters – will teach journalists and attendees alike how to use readily available open data sources to investigate or locate environmental disasters. The skills taught in the workshop will allow reporters to launch full investigations, and perhaps even predict areas of future crises or conflict using just the internet, satellite imagery and available reports. These tools are an essential part of journalism’s contribution to combating climate change.
17:00 – 18:00 > Sala dei Notari, Palazzo dei Priori | #ijf19talks
The mission of journalism: #ijf19talk by Maria Ressa +info►
#ijf19talk by Maria Ressa. Moderated by Indira Lakshmanan.
17:00 – 18:00 > Sala della Vaccara, Palazzo dei Priori | investigative journalism
Investigative journalism: a global toolbox +info►
The need for a sophisticated, multinational corps of investigative reporters has never been greater. We live in a globalized era in which our commerce—and our crimes–are multinational. Investigative journalists are now on the job in more than a hundred countries, following trails and connecting with their colleagues in a more organized, more profound way than ever before. They have become, in effect, the “special forces” of global journalism. To succeed, journalists worldwide need the best training and technology to do their jobs. The Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) is the premier international association of investigative reporting organizations, with 173 member groups in 75 countries. Our members support the training and sharing of information among investigative and data journalists—including repressive regimes and marginalized communities. In this session, GIJN staff, including our multilingual regional editors, will help journalists navigate the resources available for journalists worldwide. How can you start an investigation? How can you find journalists to collaborate with in a secure way? What are the latest tools, techniques and opportunities for those in the field? How can you track people, money and data around the world? We’ll demonstrate our revamped free online Resource Center, which will be launched in early 2019. Our Help Desk is already used by journalists in 100 countries per day in seven languages (English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, and Portuguese). With hundreds of tip sheets, videos and reporting guides, the Center is fast-becoming first-stop shopping for journalists embarking on stories worldwide. These include requests for help on reporting, data searches, developing sources, finding contacts, advice on startups and nonprofits, and more. Our profession’s challenges are considerable – journalists jailed and shot at, stories censored and publications closed, harassment lawsuits, a lack of funding, training, and institutional support. Today more than ever it’s vital to keep spreading state-of-the-art investigative journalism to the farthest reaches of the planet. Organised in association with the Global Investigative Journalism Network.
17:00 – 18:00 > Palazzo Sorbello | business models, funding & start-ups
News start-ups: entrepreneurship re-shaping journalism +info►
Significant attention and airtime is given to troubles facing traditional news organizations — the almost daily layoffs, downsizing, and course corrections. Conversely, relatively little attention is given to the upsizing that is happening around the globe in the form of news-producing startups that are growing at a substantial pace. We believe that more coverage and analysis of digital news startups might help us to better understand how the information needs of citizens will be met in the future, and to recognize that established newsrooms are only one part of the solution to the democratic challenges ahead. We invite people engaged in the work of supporting digitally-native, independent news startups — those teaching entrepreneurial journalism, academics, reporters on this beat, as well as funders and founders — to join a conversation about: > Similarities that news startups share across global regions > The useful information track about these startups, and how might you use that information in your work > How we work together to grow this movement, as teachers, researchers, consultants, service providers, reporters, funders and founders Each panelist will open by sharing a few examples of different news startups in their region, and what makes them interesting or unique. Then we’ll invite you into the conversation to explore the questions outlined above and exploring the opportunity to create a global map of this work together.
18:00 – 19:00 > Sala delle Colonne, Palazzo Graziani | media under attack
Can we tell the truth when covering the Arab world? +info►
What are we getting when we read news stories and analysis from the Middle East? Are we getting the truth, half the truth or nothing near the truth? In Egypt there is censorship that makes telling the truth a life-threatening business. We journalists have to be cautious because every word we write (if and when we are allowed to publish) could result in a tarnished reputation, house arrest, jail, torture and many other authoritarian practices. In Syria, there is one narrative, no one dares tell any other story. And for most news organizations it has just become a tally of dead, displaced and drowned. In Libya, in a highly polarized environment, reporting the full truth is an impossible business, and also very dangerous. Are you writing from Tripoli or Benghazi, are you using sources close to Haftar or Sanalla, are you covering politics or the economy? Can you really be safe? Can you tell the whole story?
18:00 – 19:00 > Sala del Dottorato | other topics
Who controls the media in Europe? +info►
In only 8 of 31 European countries can the public find out who the media owners are (Media Pluralism Monitor 2017). And even when the information is available, it often comes at a cost, both in terms of time, research skills, and money. Relevant legislation has often been designed for other purposes and even governments may not be able to establish who controls the media operating in their countries. Data exchange across countries is lacking, which means that tracking media companies registered abroad or offshore is almost impossible. Moreover, in the digital media ecosystem, the extent to which the law should, and can, cover online media, search engines, and social media remains a largely unanswered question. This is a very serious issue for European (and other) democracies, particularly given our growing awareness of the scale of the disinformation threats. If people know who owns the media, they “know who is speaking to them” (Williams, Delli Carpini, 289), and are also able to make better decisions about what media to use and whom to trust. The aims of the panel are: i. to discuss the state of play and challenges regarding access to information about media ownership in Europe ii. to suggest how to improve transparency in this field, in particular by advocating for common and open standards of data repositories iii. to discuss new tools for accessing and sharing data, e.g. blockchain technology, which bears the promise of improved transparency and security, and easier sharing of data across countries, as well as a less costly way to create registries of beneficial ownership data, and to monitor them (International Tax Review 2017) iv. to involve civil society and journalists so we can brainstorm about possible solutions. The debate should help organisations that work in the field of media ownership to discuss challenges in terms of lack of accessible data on ownership. It should also be an opportunity to harness shared learning and to establish synergies between organisations in order to strategize about possible solutions and tools.
18:00 – 19:00 > Hotel Brufani – Sala Raffaello | social media & messaging platforms
Criticize Facebook? Sure. Leave? Why? +info►
Facebook and Twitter are being blamed for almost every ill of society. Have the tech companies screwed up? Sure. But are journalists justified leaving social platforms and turning their backs on the communities that have finally found a voice there? Are those journalists making a moral stand or fueling a moral panic? The session will take as its starting point the 23 December 2018 post on Medium by Jeff Jarvis entitled Criticize Facebook? Sure. Leave? Why?
18:00 – 19:00 > Sala dei Notari, Palazzo dei Priori | in conversation
War photojournalism: in conversation with Paul Conroy and Nicole Tung +info►
What war really is: the testimony of two highly appreciated and respected war photographers. Moderated by Marta Serafini.
18:00 – 19:00 > Sala Brugnoli, Palazzo Cesaroni | investigative journalism
The Perugia Principles: new guidelines for journalists working with whistleblowers +info►
This session will represent the global industry launch of The Perugia Principles – a new set of guidelines for journalists working with whistleblowers in the digital context published in English, Spanish, Greek, German and Russian. These guidelines were developed collaboratively with an international panel of investigative journalists and academics, and they take their name from the International Journalism Festival held annually in Perugia. During the 2018 festival, lead author Julie Posetti convened and facilitated a ‘round table’ discussion involving international experts working in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the UK, the Middle East, Africa, the US and Asia to test and focus the original 20 draft principles. The final 12 principles contained in the handbook, published in early 2019, were developed in consultation with Blueprint for Free Speech, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) at the University of Oxford, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), the World Editors Forum within The World Association of Newspaper and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and The Signals Network. This panel will bring together the lead authors with three internationally acclaimed investigative reporters who will debate the Perugia Principles and their value to contemporary journalism.
18:00 – 19:00 > Hotel Brufani – Sala Priori | disinformation
Technology and automation in the fight against misinformation +info►
Using technology in the fight against misinformation is nothing new. Numerous developments and initiatives that aim to counter the spread of false information with the aid of technology have emerged in the past. The session will portray some of these developments and activities. It will furthermore discuss to what extent algorithms can support in the verification of digital content. Another aim is to point to major challenges that still exist, and possible ways of countering them. The subject is approached from various angles and brings together practitioners from diverse areas.