Reporting on Iran and Venezuela: Journalists on Information Vacuums, Exiled Media and What's Really Happening Inside

Venezuela and Iran have both been targets of U.S. military action in recent months, but journalists covering both countries say little has changed for press freedom or access to information on the ground. So what is different for people living there? And how can we understand what is actually happening inside these countries?

Laura Weffer, the co-founder of Venezuelan outlet Efecto Cocuyo, polled people living there on her social media to understand how things have changed since the January 3 capture of former President Nicolás Maduro. Seventy percent of about 100 who answered said they're starting to feel a little bit more free, "but I wouldn't say free is the right word," Weffer said, explaining that people are slowly starting to protest and show their discontent again.

Weffer took part in a conversation with David Merritt, the head of media editorial at Bloomberg, at an ICFJ event in New York on Wednesday, hosted by Bloomberg. The evening also featured a conversation between ICFJ President Sharon Moshavi and Jason Rezaian, the director of press freedom initiatives at the Washington Post.

Rezaian is the former Washington Post Tehran bureau chief and spent 544 days in the notorious Evin Prison. He emphasized how hard it is to get in touch with people in Iran. "The reports that we get are pretty basic, because information and communications are surveilled," he said.

He added that he still gets some sense of optimism from people inside the country. "I think this notion that the Islamic Republic is an invincible entity that would live forever has been vanquished," he said. "And yet, it can exist as a failed state for a very long time."

An information vacuum in Iran and Venezuela

Rezaian and Weffer discussed how hard it is for people inside Iran and Venezuela to receive information. In Venezuela, Weffer said, you have to go through a VPN to access independent media outlets like Efecto Cocuyo. "And if you take into account that it's a country that has electricity outages five hours in a day, you can imagine it's not in the top of mind of people to check Efecto Cocuyo."

In Iran, "there is a very large vacuum in information," Rezaian said. He explained that this lack of information, due in large part to government-led internet shutoffs, is creating difficult conditions for people to organize against the regime. "People can't communicate with one another without internet access. So how would you presume these people could organize? [...] It's an unreasonable expectation."

The challenges of reporting from inside

"There is not something called independent media in Iran," said Rezaian. "There have been some instances of international news outlets who have been allowed in, but it's a very engineered and orchestrated situation."

The absence of journalism inside Iran is also limiting what the rest of the world knows about it. "It's really disheartening to think about all the tools that we have available to us, all the progress we've made that a regime can just kind of turn off the internet and leave everybody else in the dark," Rezaian said.

Weffer said that Venezuelan journalists not only face jail threats for reporting but also experience incredibly difficult living conditions. "If you know any journalist that works from Venezuela, consider them your heroes," she said. "The inflation this year is going to be 600%, the minimum wage in Venezuela is 27 cents monthly, there is no water, there is no electricity, and on top of that, you go to the streets to try to report whatever is happening. They will do whatever it takes to bring what is happening in Venezuela outside."

Exiled media step in

Efecto Cocuyo works with journalists inside and outside Venezuela. The outlet is part of a growing number of independent media operating outside their home countries, informing audiences at home and abroad.

These outlets also often provide diaspora communities with information about their country of origin, along with the country they live in. In exile in the United States, Weffer co-founded Esta es la Cosa, a bilingual news platform informing the Hispanic community in Georgia, where she is based. "What we have found, as migrants ourselves, is that there is such a desert of news regarding politics and the Hispanic community," she said. "And so we saw that there is a huge gap of information that needs to be filled."

Rezaian is providing training and support to exiled media as part of a Washington Post program. He argued that exiled media, including creator journalists, should be an integral part of the mainstream media ecosystem. "We have to stop looking at these people as a charity case. This is an asset, this is a resource," he said. "It's very, very important to support the work that they do, create more spaces for them."

ICFJ thanks Bloomberg for generously hosting the event.