You’ve got quite a backstory. Can you walk us through how you ended up in journalism?
It wasn’t planned really. I left France 30 years ago to teach sociology at Moscow University. That’s where I discovered journalism. A quick detour through London and I was back in Russia, this time at the Agence French-Presse [AFP] bureau, the news agency. So I started with news, and soon enough, war reporting. Putin had invaded Chechnya, and much like Gaza now journalists were denied access. So I smuggled myself in and reported undercover. I came back in one piece, which retrospectively was lucky, but it earned me serious trouble with the FSB [Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation – the successor to the KGB]. Long story short, that’s how I ended up in Berlin, as a black-listed exile (laugh). And that’s also how I ended up co-founding Berlin’s English language magazine. I was Exberliner‘s editor-in-chief for 21 long years…
Can you tell us a bit about Exberliner?
It was a totally independent monthly, with serious journalism ambition and bite. We had no investors to please, so we could focus on political stuff and be as inquisitive and critical as we wanted, something our new owners would later dismiss as “being negative”. After I left, the new owners renamed it The Berliner. Which is good because it is a totally different magazine now. Another good thing is that after 20 years I could finally do what I always wanted to have enough time to do, which is long-formats and investigative articles. I was longing to get back to reporting.
What kind of investigation are you currently working on? You took a strong stance on Gaza, which The Left Berlin published when taz decided not to. How do you reconcile journalism work and your convictions?
In this case, they perfectly align. As a foreign journalist living in Berlin when October 7 happened, I was shocked by the German media, and I’m not just talking about just the Springer guys, but how the full spectrum of the German media aligned to produce one narrative, you know, all in the name of Staatsräson and unconditional support to Israel, etc. I knew mainstream journalism wasn’t doing great, but here it was spectacular: it felt like my colleagues had suddenly all lost their professional bearings. I guess that’s when I started involving myself with the topic. Since last year, I’ve been coordinating a transnational team of data journalists and researchers working on the media coverage of Gaza in France, Germany and Italy. We’ve just finished our first big investigation on the death of Hind Rajab, how it was reported, or not, in mainstream European news and in the US. It’s going to be published in April in France first. Next to that, I used my platforms, film evenings at Lichtblick Kino, panel discussions, to address and challenge the collective silencing of the Palestinian tragedy. So it’s been a lot of Gaza in the last two years. But mostly from a critical media perspective, a journalist’s perspective.
What about the Berlin Journalism Academy?
In parallel, I started giving journalism workshops, and mentoring. It developed step by step. We’ve set up a small team supported by a collective of international journalists. The ambition, in the long run, is to build a proper academy, where journalists from all fields, media and parts of the world will teach what I like to call “no-nonsense” journalism. For now we mostly focus on short, super practical courses. But it’s all linked: whether you’re investigating state corruption or reporting on a new dog-grooming parlour, it’s the same job. First-hand investigative reporting is the heart of the work!
Teaching is something that I really enjoy, sharing my experience, showing the ropes, helping people develop their journalism voice. I did a lot of that as an editor-in-chief, training new recruits, mentoring junior journalists, editing writers. That’s also when I noticed that Berlin was missing practical journalism training in English. You have a lot of creative writing groups. But journalism is a different craft.
What is your philosophy of journalism? Tina Lee made a recent presentation at the Left Berlin’s Journalism Day School where she argued there is no such thing as objective journalism.
Um, big question. The sociologist in me would say, sure, we all are the fruit of our own socialisation and it comes with biases. As journalists, we should be extra aware of this and try to challenge them. The reporting practice, to be in the field, is a good way to do just that. But saying that “objectivity doesn’t exist” should not be an excuse for lazy journalism. Some facts are objective and we should report them as accurately and fairly as we can, even if we don’t like them. Otherwise, it’s just flawed journalism. Or propaganda.
Another problematic notion these days for me is this imperative of “neutrality” and balanced coverage. That’s the kind of bullshit that has been plaguing Western mainstream media coverage, something we caught a lot in our investigation on Gaza: editors asking reporters to “balance” their copy about Palestinians as if reality on the ground was balanced, and truth right in the middle. Fact is: most of the time, reality isn’t balanced. Truth is rarely in the middle. In a conflictual situation with opposing parties, truth isn’t necessarily equally shared. To say both sides suffered isn’t the same as to say everyone’s suffering equally.
This doesn’t just apply to war reporting. As an editor for a local magazine, I remember fighting with reporters who merely reported both sides of a dispute without trying to figure out where the truth stood, or at least checking if allegations were true or not. That’s just lazy. It’s giving up on the investigative, truth-seeking nature of journalism. I have a somewhat old-school idea of journalism, which is also idealistic.
What is old-school journalism for you?
For me journalism is a job, a craft you can and should learn if you want to do it well, professionally. Then comes the mission: to inform⸺on things people wouldn’t know if you didn’t report them. The means: first-hand facts. But then the way you select them and frame them, that’s when the problem starts. You must try to be as impartial as possible. In the polarised world we live in, it’s hard. Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try your best, no matter how elusive truth can be.
Ultimately, to these imperatives of “objectivity” or “neutrality”, I’d oppose a duty of fairness and honesty⸺to try to be as honest and as fair as possible in our drive to inform. Which comes with a little courage. Guts. A spine. As a journalist, you should be able to hold your ground against all kinds of pressures, be they from your editors or the State, mainstream ideology or even colleagues’ pressure. For me, a journalist is by default a dissident. Which isn’t the same thing as being an activist. Your compass isn’t your commitment to a cause, but to finding and reporting the facts, even when it’s uncomfortable.
What would your advice be to a journalist who says, “I want to write this, but the person who is paying me is telling me to write something else”? Are journalists really free to write what they want?
Sure they are, at least here in Germany. In what’s left of our liberal democracies, we are lucky enough that no matter how bad things are heading, we can still try to report truth to power, and won’t end up in jail or with a bullet in the head. So no excuse not to. At least fight for it!
Let me contextualise. There is a journalist in Germany, who wants to write about Gaza. They are writing for a publication which says, if you write about Gaza, you must start with “but Hamas!” You must put it in a context which the journalist doesn’t necessarily agree with.
That’s such a good example, because in Germany especially, this has been used all the time as an excuse for not reporting adequately about what was really happening in Gaza. It was considered “too risky”. So journalists caved in and used euphemistic language or what not, out of internalised pressure. Self-censorship, essentially. And it’s a vicious circle because the more people conform, the more difficult it becomes not to; you know, collective pressure!
Maybe I’m not entirely answering your question, but I get a little exasperated with cowardly Western journalists who always say “it’s too dangerous”. Maybe it’s because I was lucky enough to meet people like Anna Politkovskaya, or to befriend amazingly courageous reporters, or just because I dealt with the consequences of my reporting early in my career. Somehow it put things in perspective.
I remember when, last year, the entire French media organised a big die-in in front of the Bastille opera to show solidarity with our colleagues in Gaza. I was there and posted about it on my IG account. It was so interesting how German colleagues said “So amazing. If only we could do this here.” Why not? What’s gonna happen to you if you demonstrate in support of Gaza journalists? What’s the danger really?
Take Daniel Bax. While taz did a very poor job on Gaza, Daniel always wrote what he wanted, challenging the main German narrative. What happened to him? Nothing.
I agree that Daniel Bax is an exception. We do translate some of his articles. But he will still get work because he’s Daniel Bax. Other journalists have a different power relationship to their bosses.
Okay, another example: While I was still the editor-in-chief of Exberliner and after we got bought out by the people behind tip, I cannot tell you how many times I was asked to fire a particular columnist because our top investor hated his lefty columns. Or to “unpublish” some stories. And you know what I did? I didn’t.
Many people are worried about their jobs. There’s a difference between what an editor can say and a random journalist.
Well not really. They ended up firing me out of the magazine I founded and led for 21 years!
So I’m a bad example.
But what I’m trying to say is that, ultimately, it comes down to your own personal ethic as a journalist. It’s a very individual decision. I understand it may be more complicated if you’re a foreign freelancer in a precarious visa situation, for example. But if you’re a staff writer in a big German media organisation, you’re not really at risk of being fired. It’s much too complicated legally.
Maybe this is the time to talk about The Berliner, the follow-up magazine to Exberliner. Most of the journalists went on strike. Some of them have now set up their own publication because of The Berliner‘s coverage of Palestine and some dubious sponsors. Presumably as the founder and former editor, you’ve been watching what’s happening.
When I heard about it, my first reaction was: wow, did it really take you two years? Two years to realise The Berliner did nothing to challenge the German media status quo on Gaza? To cover the protests, condemn the police violence? To give a platform to critics, including all those international Jewish voices who were looking to be heard?
When I left the magazine in March 2023, it was very clear to me whom we were writing for and what was happening. So, yeah, I found it a little, um, perplexing that my ex-colleagues needed two years to speak out.
People often ask if I miss Exberliner. I say no, and I mean it. It was high time I moved on. But there is one thing I do regret. If I had still been editor-in-chief after October 7, there would have been one German media outlet that spoke up. That’s my only regret.
On the bright side, a new independent publication is always great news!
The BJA is offering workshops at the end of March. What can people expect from these workshops?
We have been test-driving quite a few workshops. The next one is focused on interview skills and pitching. It’s built around a very practical, real-life experience of a face-to-face live Q&A with a Berlin personality. I try to invite famous artists with a political edge. We had the Palestinian artist Steve Sabella, the feminist graphic novelist Ulli Lust. Our next guest is the photographer Miron Zownir. So it’s going to be another special treat, especially because his iconic Berlin Noir is being re-released soon with a big exhibition at Urban Spree in late April. So it’s actual publish-worthy stuff!
The Q&A lasts for one or two hours. Afterwards, participants get to work on their articles. We practise building an angle and pitching, which is an important skill for those who want to freelance. As a former editor who’d get many article proposals each week, I remember too well the importance of a strong pitch. That’s one module. For people who do the full module, then we go through the whole writing process and they get a one-on-one editing session. The final workshop is a publishing workshop. We have a little cherry on the cake: a talented designer that lays out your final article. So it’s a nice complete thing in four workshops. I think it’s a very efficient way to understand what journalism is.
Who are the workshops for? Is it more for people who are already journalists or those who want to start up as journalists?
Until now I’ve had a mix of international and German students and young freelancers ⸺they’re usually interested in professional pitching and practising how to build an angle. Then there’s the people who work in PR and want to pick up some journalism skills. Some get their companies to pay for the training. Photographers, film people, graphic designers. I regularly have writers who want to try out the journalism voice. But really, it’s all over the place. It ranges from a Chinese IT expert looking for a career change to a US novelist who wants to switch to feature writing. What they all have in common is that they’re looking for training that’s practical and efficient. Short but intense.
Before we wrap up, how can people enrol in the Berlin Journalism Academy, and what are the costs?
We have a sliding scale system to make it affordable for people who don’t have the means – or the parents or a boss, to pay the full fee! And we also have our “dissident discount”, aimed at people who want to improve their journalism skills for a good cause. I love the idea that nowadays anyone can bear witness and challenge media blockades or police cover-ups with their smartphones and report on social media, but I’ll always advocate for professional journalism. Our weakened democracies need trained journalists who have both the skills and the ethics. I always tell my students that unlike AI, journalists have legs and should use them. But they also need a heart⸺and a spine.
When do the spring courses start?
Friday March 27th, 17h at the Akiz studio on Alexanderplatz in Berlin. There’s more information at berlinjournalismacademy.de and @berlin_journalism_academy.
