Sarah Whitehead, President of the Society of Editors and Director of Newsgathering and Operations at Sky News, has praised the ‘real impact’ and brave reporting coming out of Iran.
Opening the Society of Editors Future of News Conference in London, Whitehead said that since January, news teams had been forced to find alternative ways of getting information amid a lack of access to the country and an internet blackout.
She said: “In the immediate aftermath of the 8/9 January there was a total lack of access to Iran and the Government there enforced an internet blackout across the country. Gone was the option of delivering that crucial and precious eyewitness journalism, journalism that I believe is the gold standard, particularly in an age of AI.
“With no access to the country and very little communication coming out of Iran, media organisations across the world started working on alternative ways of getting information. A picture emerged from Iran of the huge number of people who had been killed. This is important work. Clever people in our businesses worked on ways around government internet blackouts, piecing together fragments of evidence to prove stories which we can then follow up with questions to people in power.”
More recently, journalists worldwide had worked together to establish the circumstances around the bombing of a school in Iran and the deaths of more than a hundred children, she said.
She added: “Most recently a lot of work has gone into piecing together the events around the tragic bombing of the school in Iran which killed over 165 people including many, many children. This painstaking work delivered an extraordinary picture of a Tomahawk missile in the air near that school. It’s a stunning piece of evidence – Bellingcat and the New York Times teams have been instrumental in that work, plaudits to them. And this work doesn’t stand in isolation – it led to challenges to Donald Trump in the Oval office about what had been discovered. This work can have real impact.”
Addressing the important work that journalists undertake, Whitehead said that it was imperative that amid the increased use of AI and social media disinformation, journalists continue to “champion and celebrate” their storytelling.
She added: “The amount of innovation and creativity in our industry is impressive, and we must continue to hold those in power accountable by seeking facts, providing context, and asking critical questions. They may not like it, they may use everything in their power to stop us but this is what we do.
“Social media, the internet and AI are now part of our lives and we are not going to change that but we are the ones challenging statements, checking the facts, verifying what we are seeing, hearing and reading. As I’ve said before our stories are what connect us with audiences and why people turn to our news organisations. We should continue to champion and celebrate that storytelling whenever we can.”
