Last week, Reuters exclusively reported that U.S. immigration officials have postponed interviews with asylum seekers in an Australian camp on the Pacific island of Nauru following President Trump’s executive order on immigration, suggesting Washington is already blocking progress on a controversial refugee resettlement deal. The Reuters report prompted public responses from Australia’s Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and was cited widely by domestic and international media. In a Reuters Best: Journalist Spotlight Q&A, Australia and New Zealand Bureau Chief Jane Wardell offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the team scored the exclusive.
Q. How did the team score this exclusive?
A. The Reuters Sydney bureau, including reporters Colin Packham and Aaron Bunch, has been building up contacts for months with some of the asylum seekers held in Australia’s offshore detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island in PNG. We knew that Australia had signed a refugee swap deal with former U.S. President Obama in the final months of his administration – Australia would take in some central American refugees while, in return, the United States would take in up to 1,350 asylum seekers from the Australian offshore centres. Once President Donald Trump was elected in November, we were aware that there was a real risk that the deal would not go ahead given Trump’s previous statements on immigration. That theory intensified with Trump’s executive order on immigration last month. While the official line from the Australian and U.S. governments was that the deal would go ahead – albeit reluctantly on Trump’s behalf – we were talking with asylum seekers and official sources on Nauru and Manus to find out what was happening on the ground. From our reporting, it became clear that U.S. officials on the ground in Nauru had canceled second-round interviews the day after Trump’s executive order and promises of “extreme vetting”, a development that was at odds with the official line from both countries.
Q. What types of reporting/sourcing were involved?
A. We conducted interviews with several asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus to confirm the interviews had been canceled. We also dug up documents to support the asylum seekers’ claims, using screenshots of their mobile phones displaying their appointment pages before and after Trump’s executive order, showing the interview time had been deleted. We got further backup from an official source.
Q. What was the hardest part about reporting the story?
A. The most difficult part was building trust and communications with asylum seekers being detained on Manus and Nauru. We needed to be in contact with enough people to ensure we were painting an accurate picture of developments in the camps. This was not a story we could have turned around so quickly without months of leg work beforehand. Many people were fearful of speaking to us or giving us their full names in case they jeopardized their ongoing attempts to be resettled in the United States and other countries.
Q. What makes you passionate about journalism?
A. Learning. There’s always more to learn and questions to ask. Journalism is a different beast to when I started with no internet and an old-fashioned physical spike rather than the email and electronic editing baskets of today. But the tenets are the same – discovering and reporting good stories that will inform and have an impact on the world around us.
Q. What is the focus of your job and what do you find most fulfilling about it?
A. As Pacific Bureau Chief, I lead a team of reporters across Australia and New Zealand and stringers in the Pacific, covering everything from business and politics to natural disasters. Both Australia and New Zealand play a vital role in geopolitics in the region, even more so with the change of administration in the United States. They’re also big economies and have world-class business sectors. As well as directing spot news, I lay out a strategic vision for our coverage of the region. I enjoy working with my team to pull together insightful and impactful stories.
Q. What have been your most rewarding and most difficult experiences as a journalist?
A. I’ve covered a diverse range of events in my career so far, including the London bombings, the collapse of the Icelandic banking system that triggered the global financial crisis, the loss of Flight MH370 and the fallout of the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill. I’ve travelled with three British Prime Ministers and attended countless G20 summits around the world. The challenge of delivering both fast breaking news and deeper analysis of those breaking events is what I find most rewarding. Travelling to places that would otherwise be hard to access to shed light for others is also a privilege.
Q. Can you imagine being anything other than a journalist? If so, what?
A. After 20+ years in the business, I’m a committed hack.
To read the latest from Jane Wardell, click here.
