By Ana Flor
Reporter, Correio Braziliense
Brasilia, Brazil
Hosted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Going back to journalism in my country is a challenge. Newsrooms are downsizing. Reporters seem to have less time each day to investigate and report. Bureaucrats hide public information protected by laws. The number of legal proceedings against journalists has never been bigger.

In the last five months I didn’t learn a formula to solve each and every one of these problems. But working in one of the biggest U.S. newsrooms, seeing my by-lines in the newspaper and proving to myself I could be a reporter in another language and environment helped me build up personal strength and professional maturity.

I had to look for stories in an unfamiliar city, I had to show people I interviewed they could trust a different accent and I had to prove to my editors I could write coherent and accurate stories.

And I did.

Practical tools

Most papers in Brazil run corrections and care for accuracy. It wasn’t new to me when I heard it here. But I learned how accuracy can be taken to a deeper level. Don’t expect your reader to complain about a misspelled name. Correct it first. Answer your reader’s e-mails and phone calls right away — but also take your time to explain to them what journalism and objectiveness are about. Make them part of the news process and show them they have a role in it. That’s a new standard to me. And will be for groups I might coordinate.

The importance of ethical decisions, the need for diversity — inside the newsroom and on the printed pages — and the focus on the information that is important to your reader are also part of the practices that contribute to better stories. But, more than that, they help newspapers to be more respected.

Having these guidelines in mind, I expect to share them with other journalists by first practicing them myself. I can use these tools to coach colleagues formally, as an editor, or informally, as a colleague ready to discuss stories.

I plan to invest in the concept of coaches for writers. First, I will discuss this notion with editors. If the newspaper can’t hire someone for this job, why not ask an experienced reporter in the newsroom to do it? At first, he/she could spend a few hours of the week coaching reporters working on Sunday stories. In a year or two, the coach could spend one or two hours a day talking to reporters about their stories.

In Brazil, most newspapers have a journalist who is responsible for distributing the assignments and coordinating the flow of the desk during the morning or most of the day. Many times, this person is someone with little reporting experience. Some take the position before they complete a year reporting!

The coach would not eliminate this person. The coach will help in the reporting process, helping to discuss all the possibilities the reporter has before he/she starts collecting facts and during the process of putting the facts together.

The bad and the ugly

As a result of being exposed to the U.S. media, I came across practices with which I didn’t agree. I also saw bad journalism habits that exist in Brazil. I’m taking these experiences to my country as well.

One of the examples is the lack of international news in the U.S. media. Do the readers have no interest in other countries or are they used to news coverage that 90% of the time does not include the rest of the world?

Another lesson I take home is how important it is to leave the telephone behind and try a face to face interview. Phone conversations are useful, many times essential. But I felt that American journalists hardly leave their workstations while reporting. It seems like e-mail and phone lines became their most important reporting tools. The result, many times, is a cold and fake picture of the reality.

The most striking realization I had was how little some journalists criticize the official information they receive. I did meet many good and critical journalists and read critical stories and editorials. But I also felt that the general media doesn’t try to question the government.

Struggling for information

At the same time, being in the midst of reporters and editors in a U.S. newspaper made me realize that Brazil is a place with a fairly good press, and the battles we fight are similar to the ones journalists in the U.S. — and elsewhere in the world — struggle with.

In the last two years, journalists in the U.S. have increasingly complained about the levels of secrecy regarding governmental documents. A new Homeland Security bill adds a broad exemption to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) — the names of 1,200 immigrants locked up after Sept. 11 have never been released and President Bush used his executive privilege to block the release of documents from past presidencies.

Even in a country where the right for information is widely spread and used as never before, journalists can’t forget their role as watchdogs.

The Brazilian constitution guarantees the right to public information, but there isn’t a governmental bureau committed to ensuring access to public information. The government also can block the release of information it considers “secret.”

I learned to appreciate the importance of the free flow of information to a democracy and I realized that transparency is an antidote to corruption. As a journalist in the U.S., I saw in the newspaper numbers and data I never realized the government should release.

I go back to my country to cooperate with organizations that already fight for access to public information and determined to make information public when bureaucracy and judicial decisions unfairly block the right for information. I’m willing to help bring awareness to other journalists and to the society — but also bring consciousness of the responsibility journalists have when disclosing information.