The gap between everything old and everything new is too wide to close. For example, journalism… There are two different worlds between what is written in the book and the reality, almost two different professions. Strangely, the only thing that remains the same is the definitions of news – journalism – communication – ethics. Did we stand by and watch generations of people who don’t call news news unless it is about them, did we keep silent when they were besieged by fame-hungry types from outside the profession, did we take one for ourselves when they were handing out personalized handbooks on ethics called “according to you, according to me”… The irony is that while this was happening, artificial intelligence took over the profession. The news was drowned in algorithms. We also know that they don’t put ethics in the vocabulary of the intelligence. That’s how it is!
I will tell a story about “we are people from different worlds” with the “story telling” method, which marketing teams tweezed out of journalism only as a label-name because they found it “sexy”. The location of my article is Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. It is as big as a neighborhood of Istanbul. Thanks to its tax advantages, it is home to 11 Unicorns born in other countries. It is a country with no industry and no income other than tourism and services. Thanks to Web Summit, the global technology summit it hosts, I smell the air almost every year and have the opportunity to make serious observations. The visitors are basically divided into two groups; VCs who come to find startups ready to explode and entrepreneurs looking for capital for their ideas that will explode. Everyone is after the opportunity. And there is a sector that sticks to them like UHU; communication. Artificial intelligence is now emerging in communication.
LESS HUMAN, MORE ROBOT
As I said, speakers at Web Summit panels usually talk about artificial intelligence or robots. They keep talking about how our lives have changed and will change. The formula is: “less people, more robots”. “Why do all the stories come out of those “FEW” people?” no one asks. One of the speakers was Jason Rezaian, an Iranian-American journalist. He told what he went through. I couldn’t figure out what the summit was trying to capture in this panel sandwiched between artificial intelligence sessions. I decided it was the “Nice to Have” quota. Looking at the stage and the audience, I saw a crowd that thought they were watching Netflix and a few professional representatives… Rezaian, who served as the Washington Post’s Tehran bureau chief between 2012-16, was arrested in Iran in 2014 on espionage charges and spent 544 days in Evin Prison. He later collected his experiences in a book titled “My 544 Days in Iranian Prison”. Rezaian is now an active journalist for The Washington Post, covering press freedom issues. His story is more than funny… When he was assigned to the Moscow bureau, he knew it would be difficult, but he lived a trouble-free life for three or five years. The day he disappeared, he was arrested as a spy at a baseball game he had gone to cover to report on Russian social life, and was found guilty and arrested. “They took me for bargaining,” he said. I thought for a moment, we have replaced the journalist with a robot, there will be no more journalists to take hostage, what will they do!
Even the joke is bad, but taking journalists hostage or imprisoning them is the plague of our age. Unfortunately, you don’t even have to be a journalist for this, just say something outrageous. The Wall Street Journal’s much-publicized hostage reporter story was one of the hits of this year. Evan Gershkovich was detained and imprisoned in Russia in 2023 on espionage charges. He was the first American journalist accused of espionage in Russia since the Cold War. Luckily, the US government supported its citizen, the Wall Street Journal, public pressure was brought to a global scale, and good crisis communication was managed. In the end, Gershkovich and 15 others were freed on Turkish soil in the largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War.
A LESSON IN JOURNALISM
It’s great to visit the Web Summit to understand the technology-human spiral, but the other reason I came to Lisbon this year was my friend Dennis Redmont, who is a journalism great. He was awarded the Medal of Valor by the Mayor of Lisbon. A large group of people from various countries attended the medal ceremony. Most of them were journalists, photojournalists, politicians, academics who witnessed history like Redmont. The last representatives of the “one hundred percent human” era. I was shaken, as you know the term, between universes.
The majestic City Hall has an important place in Portugal’s history of freedom. Although it was recently damaged by a major fire, the traces of it have been carefully erased… The warm colors of Portugal and the splendor of the palace are diametrically opposed to the mechanical atmosphere of Web Summit… “A Journalist’s Struggle in Lisbon: A Challenging Quest for Truth Against Prohibition”, Dennis Redmont is the journalist who exposed censorship and repression in Portugal under the dictatorial regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. He has covered more than 80 countries, including guerrilla wars in Latin America and crises in the Middle East. Believe me, it doesn’t matter whether you are in the journalism profession or not, we are all passengers on the same ship, scattered in different worlds…
HERE IS REAL STORY TELLING
I am sure the following excerpt from the speech will strike a chord with you: “…In 1965, as a young journalist sent from New York to Lisbon, I shouldered the responsibility not only of covering the language and history of Portugal, but also of seeking the truth in the shadow of a regime ruled by censorship. My mission was to bring the stories of the Portuguese people to the world. I brought to the outside world the real losses of the colonial wars in Angola, Mozambique… and many other untold truths.
I collaborated with courageous Portuguese people, writers and cultural figures. It was very difficult for me to work in a censored society where people could only learn the truth by word of mouth or through the foreign press. It was both a professional and human responsibility to understand the difficulties of the people, to listen to them and to tell the truth. My work in Lisbon was under the harsh censorship of the “Estado Novo” regime. I was constantly monitored, interrogated and threatened with deportation by PIDE agents. The effort to tell the truth despite the prohibitions was the most important lesson I learned in Lisbon…”
FATHER TO SON
Dennis Redmont is the son of Pulitzer winner Bernard S. Redmont (1918-2017). Both graduated from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. They started and continued their career with love at a very young age. They covered wars, authoritarian regimes and centuries-old achievements by touching, talking and observing on the spot, and by observing impartial journalism. When Baba Redmont retired, he returned to the US and served as Dean of the School of Communication at Boston University. In 1992, he published his book “Risks Worth Taking: The Odyssey of a Foreign Correspondent”. This book details his experiences in Mexico, Argentina, Paris and elsewhere, his personal crises, his principled struggles and his encounters with dangerous situations. It is full of adventure, fast-paced and exciting, but the most important thing is the principled stance he defines journalism as a responsibility to society. Today, what would he say to the mentality that thinks AI-powered journalism, news that skips the human element and intimate contact, direct communication with news sources, on-the-spot observation, and focusing on human stories are a waste of time?
NO LISBON WITHOUT DENNIS REDMONT
The Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, one of Portugal’s most important political figures, left his job as Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation at the European Commission to enter politics. He is a popular young and dynamic local mayor. He is the one whose Web Summit connects young entrepreneurs and technology to Lisbon. He clearly believes that there is no future without the past. He introduced an American journalist as one of the important milestones of Portuguese history, and he talked about him so beautifully and at such length that he said that he deserved to be remembered as part of the history of his country by touching, listening, living and having the courage to convey the Portuguese people.
From where you look, there are two options, there is always a third: to continue with synthesis. To be ourselves.
