In Old News In Old News

Leon Yin is an investigative data journalist recognised for his work on how technology impacts society. We got to interview Leon in April 2023. At that point, he was working at The Markup, a non-profit newsroom focused on being the watchdog of the tech industry. During his time there, he worked on stories that made even the chair of Congress’s antitrust subcommittee ask questions about the ethics of how Google shows search results. Since then he has joined Bloomberg Technology, where he's continuing his investigative work.

For the interview transcript, head to inoldnews.com

Pei Ying Loh is the co-founder of The Kontinentalist, an organisation that tells stories about Asia using data. Since its start, The Kontinentalist has worked hard to find creative ways to tell data stories on topics ranging from how the rubber industry in Singapore and Malaysia was shaped by colonialism, to Asia’s favourite alcoholic beverages. The team also offers workshops on the essentials of data storytelling, based on the tools they’ve used for their own stories.

We wanted to learn more about how The Kontinentalist approaches stories, and what things they’ve learned that can be helpful for others.

You can find the transcript of this interview and other interviews in our newsletter at inoldnews.substack.com

Does a good opinion piece have to be backed up by facts? Or does the word ‘opinion’ give journalists the freedom to make statements that don’t require verification? We asked Bobby Ghosh, a columnist and editor at Bloomberg Opinion, because we wanted to better understand the difference between a good opinion piece and a bad opinion piece.

Bobby has been at Bloomberg for five years, where he writes, commissions and edits opinion columns with a special focus on geopolitics. He’s also a member of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board. Bobby has also worked as a Global Affairs Analyst for CNN and as Managing Editor of Quartz.

We met Bobby when he was our Editor in Chief at Hindustan Times. And so when we caught up with him at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, we got to ask him a few questions.

You can find the transcript of this interview and other interviews in our newsletter at inoldnews.substack.com

Journalists are often described as the watchdogs of democracy. It can be a difficult career choice with poor pay and very real threats from those in power. And Al Jazeera’s show, The Listening Post, is working to keep tabs on what the world’s media is up to. We asked Meenakshi Ravi, executive producer at The Listening Post, how her team approaches this global mandate when we met her at the International Journalism Festival in April.

You can find the transcript of this interview and other interviews in our newsletter at inoldnews.substack.com

Kiri Rupiah is the Communities Editor at The Continent, a publication that covers stories from around Africa in their weekly newspaper. The paper is distributed over WhatsApp, Signal and email.

We spoke to Kiri over a call about The Continent’s journey since its inception two years ago.

You can find the transcript of this interview and other interviews in our newsletter at inoldnews.substack.com

Harlo Holmes is the Chief Information Security Officer and Director of Digital Security at the Freedom of the Press Foundation. She works with journalists and media organisations to help make the digital space safer for them and their work. She’s also contributed to The Guardian Project, a collaborative open-source project that develops secure apps for users all over the world. You can find more details at guardianproject.info and freedom.press has additional digital security resources.

We got to ask Harlo about some really complex but common issues journalists face. And what they can do to prevent and navigate them.

Read the transcript of this and other interviews at inoldnews.substack.com