This week on The Inside Story...
UNESCO marks World Press Freedom Day...
VOA journalists and independent media in the line of duty... and working under fire.
From the United States Capitol to Beijing...France to South Africa... see how dedicated journalists fight to bring you the world's most important stories.
Now... on The Inside Story...World Press Freedom Day.
Hi I’m Jessica Jerreat, VOA’s Press Freedom Editor here outside the White House in Washington.
As UNESCO marks World Press Freedom Day, the world’s attention turns to the role journalism plays in society. From holding the powerful to account, to investigating the issues that affect their communities most, reporters act as the public watchdog And ensure that news flows, even to the most censored countries.
We take a look at some of those remarkable efforts later in the show.
But we start off here with a look at local media covering US politics, with my colleague here in Washington.
Hi, I’m Cristina Caicedo Smit, here at the Capitol in Washington. Regional reporters from across the U.S. are here covering national politics for local audiences. In a key election year, they are a vital resource.
The Iron City. Four hundred and forty-six bridges span the three rivers that converge here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And one bridge connects its 300,000-plus residents with national politics from a local angle: the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Are you concerned that progressives are not going to come along to vote for Biden during the elections based on what is going on in Israel?
Heading the Washington beat is Jonathan Salant. Reporting from the capital for about four decades, he has covered his fair share of presidents, elections, congressional policy and scandal.
When he started out, Ronald Reagan was president and Salant was one of hundreds of local reporters covering national politics.
Now, in an era of political partisanship, rising distrust in news, and mass closures of local media outlets, fewer journalists work this beat.
Currently, only about two dozen states have reporters accredited to cover Congress, according to data from the U.S. Senate Press Gallery.
I mean, in New York alone, there was Buffalo, there was Rochester, there was Albany, there was Syracuse and now they're all gone.
In swing states like Pennsylvania and Georgia, that leaves local reporters with an outsize task.
Nikki Haley at this hour is holding a news conference announcing she’s suspending her campaign for president…
I do have to just keep in mind I'm a one-woman show. I can't do everything. Also, keep in mind that I'm not the national media. I'm not competing with national reporters.
From her home outside Washington, Mitchell has a busy schedule. She covers the Capitol, produces a daily newsletter and co-hosts a podcast for audiences back in Atlanta, Georgia.
Like Salant, she remembers when more local reporters had a seat at White House briefings.
We share and we rotate, whereas before so many of the newspapers and the Regional Reporters Association, back in the day, might have had their own seat.
Jonathan Salant's job is far from glamorous. He spends weekends going over bills and policy.
You go through hundreds of pages and looking up all the local lawmakers and the bills they sponsored.
His focus is always the local perspective.
I always say my job is to tell the public what their public officials are doing.
Salant has earned a reputation on the Hill for being attentive and asking tough questions.
And he is a familiar face to staffers and press secretaries.
He has a good mustache, for anyone who doesn't know. Go ahead.
His reporting supports the work of colleagues back in Pittsburgh, like Hallie Lauer, who covers City Hall.
alance the campaign trail stuff versus what the voters are thinking.
She and Salant work closely to make news from the Capitol relevant to their readers.
So we're collaborating on projects like that all the time where, ‘Hey, this lawmaker earmarked $5 million for this project.’ And then I get to go out and talk to the people planning the project here and be like, ‘What does this money mean to you?’”
At the Hazelwood Cafe in Pittsburgh, Dasawn Gray is upfront about what matters most to his community.
Having a grocery store, having a dentist's office, having a bank like with main like, what other neighborhood(s) have, like Hazel deserves those things.
Running a business in the neighborhood where he grew up, Gray has seen the effects of store closures, high housing costs and gentrification.