Multiple sessions on journalistic, reportage writing at JLF 2018

From the award-winning investigative stories blowing the cover on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church by The Boston Globes Spotlight team to the only writer to have ever gone under cover in North Korea, the programme at the 11th edition of ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival 2018 is rich with options for those who wish to get a firsthand knowledge of journalistic and reportage writing.

"Spotlight: The Hunt for Truth" brings forth the renowned Portuguese-American journalist Michael Rezendes, who is a Pulitzer Prize award-winner for his investigative work as a member of The Boston Globe's legendary Spotlight Team, in conversation with Sreenivasan Jain where he will speak of the power of traditional and local reporting, the values, veracity and commitment required for investigative journalism as well as the changing definitions of news in the current media landscape.

In "Undercover in North Korea: Facts and Fictions," Suki Kim, the South Korean author of the award-winning novel "The Interpreter" and the bestselling "Without You There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite," will speak of her six-month undercover investigation embedded within North Korea in conversation with Michael Breen author of "The New Koreans: The Story of a Nation," and will be talking of her rare encounter with the world's most dangerous and unknowable country and of the privileged young men she calls "soldiers and slaves".

"The Frontline Club" will be another compelling session where Adrian Levy, Carlo Pizzati, Jeffrey Gettleman, Peter Bergen and Suki Kim will be in conversation with Suhasini Haidar about how Hollywood has long glamourised the war journalist as "a hard drinking chancer," taking extreme risks to get the big Pulitzer-winning front page spread. The session will witness some of the world's most celebrated foreign correspondents lift the lid on one of the dangerous jobs in journalism, parsing myth from reality.

In "Among the Insurgents," Cathy Scott-Clark, Michael Vatikiotis and Peter Bergen will be conversation with Charlie English as they discuss how in this age of terrorism and insurgency, it has never been more important to report accurately on the actions of those who take up arms against established governments. At the same time, never have journalists been in greater danger doing so, and how exactly does one report on resistance fighters who do this without acting as amplifiers for terrorists? The panel, which has studied and spent time with insurgent groups, will give its perspective on the practical and moral conundrums of covering insurgencies.

Moving closer to home, "Rajasthan: Badalte Mahaul Mein Media" with Falguni Bansal, L.P. Pant, Rajendra Bora, Vinod Bhardwaj and Yash Goyal will discuss how the media in Rajasthan has always balanced a local and regional approach with a larger understanding of national and international issues.

--IANS

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