An homage to the craft of journalism and to some of the world’s many decent and courageous journalists, conveyed through several films that tell the story of this extraordinary and complex work.

For a few weeks now, at United World Project, we have been reflecting on the themes of communication and the media. Undoubtedly, one of the principal tools for discussing these two delicate topics has been, and still is, journalism.

This distinction between past and present (has been, and still is) is due to the new technologies (the internet, smartphones, and social media) that have given rise to new figures, one of which is the influencer. However, it is always paramount to keep in mind that whoever wants to talk about the world to the world, or about a part of it to their community, must follow the rules, principles, and values of true journalism.

A Lesson from Haiti

We will try to identify some of these principles and rules of journalism through a series of films, beginning with the documentary The Agronomist, by Jonathan Demme. The film tells the illuminating and tragic story of a man with strong ideals: Jean Dominique, a journalist with a degree in agriculture, a Haitian who had Haiti at heart, who put his vulnerable people first.

A defender of creole, he created a radio station that became the voice of the people. Dominique courageously fought against the injustices of dictatorship in the name of democracy. He used a microphone and his own intelligence to promote liberty and advocate for social justice: fundamental qualities for any journalist worthy of the title.

Jean Dominique and Others like Him

Jean Dominique was killed for his cause, just as Giuseppe Fava was killed in Catania by the local Mafia in 1984. In the TV movie Before the Night, by Daniele Vicari (available in Italy on RaiPlay), when Fava signs his contract as the director of the newspaper Il Giornale del Mezzogiorno (Il Giornale del Sud in real life), he has the following clause added: ‘The indispensable precedence of the truth.’

Following that, Fava exposes the Mafia’s power, which had taken firm root in the area – something that many people would stubbornly deny. His is a powerful lesson in antimafia journalism, an uncompromising, bold, talented, irreverent journalism, free in pursuit of the truth.

The young Giancarlo Siani, a great Neapolitan journalist, was also killed by the Mafia, in 1985. They shot him one night in September, at just 26 years old, because his articles shed light on the connections between politics and organised crime. An excellent film by Marco Risi tells his story: Fort Apache Napoli (available in Italy on RaiPlay), the story of a normal boy with high professional values.

Journalist Journalists

In a sequence of the film, Siani talks with his managing editor and friend, who underlines the difference between ‘journalist journalists’ – those who take risks, who approach the profession as a service to the community, as a mission – and ‘journalists by trade’ – the armchair critics working for the powerful, authors of accommodating pieces that do not make the world a better place.

Siani was in love with truth and justice. Like Dominique and Fava. Like Ilaria Alpi, whose story is told in the film The Cruelest Day, by Fernando Vicentini Orgnani – she was killed on 20 March 1994 in Mogadishu while investigating illegal weapons and toxic waste trafficking. Like Anna Politkovskaya, an important, courageous, and brilliant Russian journalist of the people who cared deeply about civil rights – she was gunned down on 7 October 2006. The documentary Letter to Anna tells her story.

Journalism as Clean Drinking Water

There are so many journalists we could mention in this article, journalists from different times and places, united by a craft that is invaluable to society as a whole. It is a vocation that flows within those – today, predominantly digital – newspapers that, when they are ‘good’, Arthur Miller once said, are ‘a nation talking to itself’.

Newspapers are a service offered to the community; Enzo Biagi once expressed, ‘I consider newspapers to be a public service, like public transport or aqueducts. I will not send polluted water to your home.’ Joseph Pulitzer’s words are similarly impactful: ‘A newspaper that is true to its purpose concerns itself not only with the way things are, but with the way they ought to be.’

Let us add the words of two of the journalists mentioned in this article. Anna Politkovskaya once said: ‘The duty of doctors is to give health to their patients, the duty of the singer to sing. The duty of [the] journalist [is] to write what this journalist sees in the reality. It’s only one duty.’

Giuseppe Fava stated: ‘I have an ethical concept of journalism. Truthful journalism prevents many forms of corruption, curbs violence and crime, and imposes good governance on politicians. A journalist who is incompetent – whether through cowardice or calculation – bears on their conscience the weight of all the human suffering they could have prevented, all the pain, injustices, corruption, and violence that they were never able to fight.’

Two Important Films on Journalism

Those are noble words. They are the stuff of the best kind of journalism, the kind that Steven Spielberg portrays in The Post, which was based on real events. This is the kind of journalism that, as is expressed in the film, exists ‘to serve the governed, not the governors’. The protagonists, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, are journalists in search of a truth that will help, first and foremost, the most vulnerable.

It does not matter whether the powerful – be they politicians or the newspaper’s own investors – do not care about this truth. The men and women of The Post risk their careers and the future of the newspaper itself for the good of society.

The Post ends with a torch lighting up the headquarters of the American Democratic Party: the start of Watergate. This sequence introduces the events of another important film on American journalism: All the President’s Men, by Alan J. Pakula. Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford play two journalists who compel President Richard Nixon to resign.

The film is a kind of spiritual sequel to The Post, even though they deal with different investigations. Both films further demonstrate how journalism must defend the laws of democracy and how it can be that ‘journalism journalism’ that we will never cease to need. Thank you to all the indispensable journalist journalists.

Article translated into English by Becca Webley