Opinion: It was a set of interviews I did on the Māori delegation to Israel for Te Ao with Moana recently – and the release of the Nicky Hager book Dirty Work – that took me back to a big hui I attended in Kuala Lumpur last year.
One of the most moving sessions at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference (GIJC25) featured award-winning Palestinian journalist Aseel Mousa who described the emotional anguish of trying to figure out how – or even if – she could muster the strength to report on the killing of a young, journalist friend.
How do you fulfil your role as a journalist reporting on and from a genocide you are existing within; that you see and experience with your own eyes; that has a real life impact on you and everyone around you?
Producer Laila Al-Arian of Fault Lines (Al Jazeera) described the challenges around determining the nature and extent to which graphic and violent images ought to be released to the public, then showed us some very disturbing footage. She added that Fault Lines decided to replace the phrase IDF (Israel Defense Forces) with the words Israeli Military. (1)
I sat next to reporter Māni Dunlop and thought the air-con had got to her. But no, her tears were a response to raw and honest testimonials that collapsed a cold, giant hall into a truly intimate space.
Members of two Māori delegations to Israel I spoke to did not hear from the likes of Aseel and Laila. Both men said they went on the Israel-state-funded trip to “see things first hand” yet chose not to go into Gaza.
“I didn’t trust that there was a place that I’d be safe,” said Neil Waka. “And it wasn’t because of Israel.”
At least 240 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to the International Federation of Journalists. Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, uses the concept “journocide” to describe what she calls Israel’s intentional and systematic targeting and killing of journalists in Gaza.
With Israel banning international reporters, the responsibility was left to people like Aseel who, understandably not wanting to be targeted, refused to wear a press flak jacket.
More than 1,500 journalists from more than 135 countries attended the Conference in Kuala Lumpur.
A huge banner displayed in the hallway contained the names of hundreds of journalists imprisoned as of October 30. China. Azerbaijan. Myanmar. Russia. Israel & the Occupied Palestinian Territory were among the worst under the heading “Journalism is Not a Crime”.
It was a grim reminder that while many of us encounter online abuse and threats we fear may escalate, other reporters are in mortal danger – often from their own governments – for simply doing their job: holding power to account.
Big tech and autocracy
“Seventy percent of the world is under authoritarian rule,” according to Maria Ressa (Rappler) in the opening address. If anyone knows, it’s her. The charismatic 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate attracted 10 arrest warrants in less than two years from the Rodrigo Duterte-led Philippines government.
Now the 81-year-old himself is in custody in The Hague charged with crimes against humanity over the killings of alleged drug users and dealers.
One of the key themes at the GIJC25 was the rise of disinformation campaigns that have undermined elections and voter trust in democratic institutions across the world. But innovative collaboration continues to emerge as the most effective response. In fact, Maria spoke of the need for “radical collaboration”.
“Without facts you can’t have truth; without truth you can’t have trust,” she said. And without these, you can’t tackle the big issues.
Maria described how she and her news organisation were the victims of state-sponsored propaganda targeted through major tech platforms. She showed graphic examples of how she was harassed, ridiculed and threatened online. She urged media platforms to prepare well ahead of any election, describing how “narrative warfare and identity conflicts” displace policy debates so that DEI, immigration and education are framed in “moral and existential terms”.
Māori have long cottoned on to that. Nicky Hager’s latest book helps to join the dots for others who may have wondered how it was iwi became public enemy number one during the Stop Three Waters campaign.
Maria Ressa spoke of democracy being dead in the water. “As has been said, colonisation didn’t die, it just moved online.” The pattern: “Narrative building, opportunist amplification and then… normalisation.” Quite the tool in the rise of authoritarian populism.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 identified misinformation and disinformation as the top short-term risk over the next two years.
AI news anchors
In Venezuela, fourteen news outlets collaborated to produce and present fact-verified information and stories through AI-generated avatars. It was about protecting real reporters.
In one session entitled Innovative Strategies to Fight Disinformation Campaigns, two avatar news anchors La Chama and El Pana popped up onscreen. (2)
They introduced themselves in Spanish then English, admitted they “weren’t real” but that the news was. It was kind of creepy. Like being in a dystopian movie. Created by CONNECTAS, a Latin American investigative journalism network, it was their response to combat President Nicolás Maduro’s media crackdown during the 2024 presidential election.
Less than two months after the conference, Maduro himself would be abducted by American forces.
In the same session, we also heard from the Shakti Fact-Checking Collective in India who pumped themselves up well before their 2024 election to process 6,600 fact-checks distributed and delivered in more than 10 languages.
Follow the money
Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz had a message for reporters who love a Malaysian corruption story: follow the money. (3)
“When you steal money,” he said, “you have to put it somewhere.” And not just in the likes of the Cayman Islands – but in New York and London.
He warned against the undermining of journalism by Big Tech and also urged journalists to reconsider their framing.
“The US innovates. China imitates. Europe regulates.” Stiglitz suggested the reality is more like “the US exploits” while Europe is trying to ensure an economic model that benefits all of society.
There were plenty of familiar themes and patterns. Speakers were conscious not to leave their audiences wallowing in depression.
They discussed solutions and tools on how to collect, collate and utilise data; how to set up fact-verification hubs; track and map; deal with algorithms and AI; establish Impact officers, secure funding and so much more. All awesome ideas but still a head spin.
Each requires a bigger team than my own. We multi-task. That’s our reality. We research and report. Take care of budgets and administration, seek funding, rework stories for various platforms, manage relationships with funders, try to work with other news outlets, hit te reo targets, report on the aforementioned with every milestone in our yearly contracts while ensuring we don’t hit the wall ourselves.
Indigenous news alliance
One of the Conference highlights was the small crew of Indigenous journalists and editors who hung together for the five days of the Conference. Our Indigi-whānau – confident, passionate and kaupapa-driven – shared loads of laughs during “debriefings” over a piña colada or two.
I ended up moderating the launch of the Indigenous News Alliance (INA), a cross-border network of Indigenous newsrooms from Canada, the United States and Aotearoa which also attracted journalists from the Philippines and Congo.
The idea for the Alliance emerged from the Indigenous Journalism Association, whose conference I attended in Oklahoma City the year before.
I’m not a big fan of conferences. Often it’s talk-talk, big hug, “we are the world” and off we go home. I’m always keen on practical stuff to come out of it and certainly, in all my engagements with the IJA, I ended up with stories and fact-checkers as with my story about Pretendians.
In Kuala Lumpur, I was on a panel that discussed individuals and groups fraudulently claiming Indigenous heritage for professional, political and financial gain; a growing problem worldwide. Unpacking how different Indigenous communities define “membership” is a lot more complicated outside of Aotearoa. And it’s the Canadians who take out the big prize when it comes to complexities.
It’s rife.
In fact while we were there, Thomas King, the 82-year-old writer of The Inconvenient Indian (2012), revealed in an essay for The Globe and Mail that he was NOT Indian as confirmed by some genealogical research. The actual Indigenous Canadians in my circles were livid.
Another panel on Indigenous data and colonial archives was hosted by Tristan Ahtone (Kiowa) editor-at-large at Grist and Maria Parazo Rose, a data and science specialist.
They examined the tools and methods behind Grist’s award-winning Indigenous Affairs series Misplaced Trust and The Human Costs of Conservation, which revealed how many public institutions in the United States are still profiting from stolen lands.
The INA is taking things to the next level. It is currently small but full of passionate journalists and editors from a variety of platforms including Grist, APTN, Associated Press, IndigiNews, High Country News – who champion Indigenous-led journalism.
The joke was while we would muck up where to meet for dinner in Kuala Lumpur, we were supremely confident about nailing cross-border collaborative projects around mining or AI or climate. Stuff that isn’t simply an Indigenous perspective on an issue but challenges the settler-colonial structures and institutions which continue to deny rangatiratanga to ngā iwi taketake. It also means we can spot patterns offshore and see the impact here – particularly as we head into our own election.
I came away grateful that NZ journalists are not in mortal danger as so many others are; that Indigenous-led journalism is a thing here and beyond; that our country is so small, we know everyone and can reach out when required; that we have developed powerful relationships and connections with other Indigenous people which means we can share a wordless look in a big crowd and automatically be on the same wavelength.
Maria Ressa said, “Inspiration spreads as fast as anger.” Journalists aren’t influencers, she reminded the gathering. They have an important role to play – so get radical.
In fact, if we collaborate and do our job properly, we might better combat those Influencers funded by corporations, political parties, lobby groups or governments to do some very dirty work.
Hui e taiki e!
