Listening and Being Heard

The title is borrowed from a colleague at iMEdD, who, during an internal discussion about what’s going so wrong—here, there, everywhere—captured in one brief phrase what we’re missing.

Here you’ll find news about the next iMEdD International Journalism Forum, set for September 25-27. If you’ve attended in previous years, you already know it’s an open platform where journalists from all over the world meet, exchange ideas, interact, and share concerns about the shrinking space for press freedom. Often, new collaborations emerge—mostly independent ones.

All of this takes place in a safe space—a platform that is open and democratic, designed for journalists who want to investigate stories that don’t usually make the headlines. Stories that come from communities that have lost trust in journalism simply because they feel unheard.

Of course, today, the word “platform” carries meanings beyond the original promise of social media: unrestricted access, free expression, and connection. At iMEdD, we’re talking about a journalistic platform—one that doesn’t just foster dialogue but asks: how do we turn conversations into action for the other 362 days of the year? Action that allows us to listen better and bring back something truly worth hearing. Not easy, but necessary.

Rather than getting lost in well-worn debates about quality, speed, information control, algorithms, and agendas, we should lay the groundwork for ethical, independent, and impactful journalism—journalism that listens and is heard. Journalists who believe in this mission exist, and they are many. What’s missing is the framework and model that allows them to keep going. And that should be easy to build in countries that, at least for now, remain democracies. Because really—why should journalists need safe spaces within our democracies?