Young journalists report back on US conference

2016 Quill Award winning Young and Student Journalists Bridget Judd and Tess Ikonomou, reporting back on the International Reporters and Editors conference they attended in Phoenix earlier this year as part of their prizes.

While Young Journalist of the Year Bridget Judd had expected the International Reporters and Editors conference to be dominated by discussion of "fake news" and the volatile political climate, she said there was a focus at the event on getting on with the job of using public data and documents to hold people to account.

Both Bridget and Student Journalist winner Tess Ikonomou were struck by the emphasis in the US on the public's right to know and the amount of information available to journalists there - from databases which show doctors' prescribing habits to others which reveal the criminal history of a subject and their associates.

The young journalists' highlights from the event included sessions on watchdogging the military, mastering the investigative interview, turning investigations into podcasts and the vast IRE Awards lunch, where New York Times Magazine journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, an African American, talked about the lack of diversity in American newsrooms.

 

Tess Ikonomou's reflections on the IRE conference (download)

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