Rethink Fragility

David is the Africa editor for the Financial Times. In January 2019 his team broke a story on massive fraud in presidential and parliamentary elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The reporting was impressive for its depth, based on the systematic review of leaked electoral data. It was also striking because it was so unusual, following years of superficial and crisis-driven engagement with the DRC by the international press. With that in mind, this episode is about when and how the international press engages with highly marginalised places. We get into how international editors determine what’s newsworthy; the extent to which foreign media can or should act as a “fourth estate” in dysfunctional polities; and the process of getting an explosive story like this one verified and published. Show notes: [00:00] How to set editorial priorities when you’re looking at most of a continent, with limited column space and a small team. [06:35] Looking for stories with wider resonance, alongside those