Here’s a look at where Reuters journalists and journalism were in the news this week:
For a piece in Neiman Reports, Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler wrote about building trust in journalism: “With the U.S. election less than a week away, every major news organization is honing its coverage plan. Collectively, we’re fully aware that we must avoid premature “calls” that don’t reflect the complexities of early voting, potential voter suppression, and multiple legal challenges. But there’s so much more to getting election coverage right — and to generating trust at a time of profound distrust in so much of the media. As a global news organization with a nearly 170-year history of speed and accuracy, Reuters has a clear view of how to do this. Our Trust Principles, embedded in our charter and overseen by an independent board, hold us to “integrity, independence and freedom from bias.” From this standard, we’ve adopted practices that we work hard to maintain, even as many in the industry have taken sides during the Trump years, with polarization challenging the news business as it has swept the country.”
Adler and Reuters Global Managing Editor Gina Chua spoke with Press Gazette about how Reuters is covering the 2020 U.S. elections, exploring everything from safety, trust to disinformation and how journalists will be positioned across the country on November 3. “One of the things that’s going to make this interesting from a staffing perspective is ordinarily, you have an election – the people covering it are working night and day, they’re exhausted… And then basically, when the election is over – while you still have some people covering transition – people take a vacation essentially before gearing up for the inauguration,” Adler told Press Gazette. “It’s very likely that can’t happen [this year], so we’re actually planning different times of shifts and a way to extend the intensity if necessary for a couple of months afterwards. So that’s different.”
Reuters released part 2 and part 3 of its investigation into the hidden crisis inside U.S. jails this week. The second installment in the series explored how jails with healthcare overseen by private companies incur higher death rates on average than those with care handled by government agencies. The third showed that, in an effort to contain the coronavirus disease, jails across America held 11% fewer inmates and that the unprecedented mass release could be seen as an opportunity to unwind the United States’ signature practice of mass incarceration. One of the reporters on the series, Jason Szep, also gave readers an inside look at how the investigation started. The latest installments of the investigation were featured in The Washington Post, The Crime Report, Westlaw newsletter, Gannett, Sirius XM radio and more.
Nigeria Bureau Chief Alexis Akwagyiram and Senior Correspondent Libby George spoke on Vox’s Today Explained, Times Radio and more, about the ongoing protests over police brutality unfolding across Nigeria. On Vox, Akwagyiram explained, “The protests were sparked by the killing of a man in the southern state of Nigeria called Delta State. A video went viral of a man who had allegedly been killed by SARS officers…This was the latest example of the human rights abuses. Off the back of that people started using the hashtag #EndSARS to share their own experiences.”
The UN wrote a story exploring the perspectives of journalists on the ground covering the coronavirus pandemic. The piece features Reuters Chief Photographer for the Benelux, Yves Herman, who covered the pandemic daily for several months, reporting from hospitals, retirement homes, funeral services and morgues all while wearing full protective gear. Herman explained: “Despite the risks, I felt it was a really important subject to cover. To my knowledge, it is one of the only stories in the world, except perhaps the Second World War, which affects absolutely everyone.”
With 2,500 journalists in 200 locations, Reuters covers the real world in real time. To access Reuters coverage, visit Reuters Connect.
[Reuters PR blog post]
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