Panorama: Tell us about yourself. How did you get into journalism?
Jack Ryan: Both my parents were involved in activism, public service and journalism. Because of that, I was growing up with all these opinions swirling around me. I would hear things and I would look into it. I would challenge them on it. That’s what got me interested in current affairs.
My parents seemed to know everything, so I wanted to know everything. I was a real news junkie. I had this epiphany when I was a teenager: this is what fits my skillset.
I love the idea that every week, or even every day, you can dive really deep down into a topic and learn a lot about it. You can learn everything about the Portuguese economy and then you can learn about Norwegian fisheries the next week.
That’s why I knew I wanted to do journalism. So, I started writing for my colleague newspaper. I began by writing a satirical thing which was quite successful. Then I managed to secure this grant to go to Ethiopia and I’ve done other freelance work, too.
When you’re young, to say you’re a journalist is a hard thing, but now I have the confidence.
Irene Barahona Fernández: I studied audio-visual communication [as degree level]. At the end of the course this scholarship popped up and I went for it. I spent the last two years of this scholarship as a correspondent, which was amazing!
I never took the decision to be a journalist. I think journalism chose me.
Panorama: What attracted you to the topic of your winning article?
Jack Ryan: Cocaine use is really high in Dublin. I worked for a couple of years in a busy nightclub in the city centre. Cocaine was really everywhere, so I knew it was a big problem.
A friend of mine got addicted in his last year at school. He was extremely paranoid and anxious and would not leave his room during summer. He’s fine now. He had a heart attack – he’s only 18 years old – so he went to hospital and then was taken straight to rehab. But he got clean and now he has a job.
The image around the drug is glamour and wealth which doesn’t bear any relation to reality. That’s why I wrote the story.
Irene Barahona Fernández: I wrote about the Iberian wolf because in Spain the wolf is only really present in my region where the population is really high. In the past, this has been a problem for cattle farmers, but the wolves could help to revitalise the area because of tourism and the hunters – they are paid a lot to hunt a wolf.
I wrote my article last year – about the sustainability of Iberian wolves and how they could be an ‘agent of change’. But my article is obsolete because they changed the law: now it is completely forbidden to hunt them in Spain.
Panorama: What did you know about EU-funded projects before joining #Youth4Regions?
Irene Barahona Fernández: I wrote a lot about EU projects, about POCTEP (the Interreg programme V-A – Spain-Portugal). I live on the border with Portugal. We receive a lot of EU funds. When you live in a less-developed region, like mine … you can see these European flags all over the city and university. We feel very connected with Europe.
Jack Ryan: I feel like I knew quite a lot about the functioning of the European Union … from university. I was involved in a competition – concerning the process about monetary policy in the ECB – so I got really interested in the eurozone for that.
What do I know about actual EU projects? Not a whole lot. I feel like the awareness is not there in Ireland.
Panorama: How was your experience at the 2021 European Week of Regions and Cities?
Irene Barahona Fernández: I really appreciated it. How many times in our life will we have the opportunity to ask questions to speakers from the Commission, to be with them for one or two hours and ask whatever we want?
The last workshop about open data was amazing.
Jack Ryan: I really enjoyed the experience. I think the biggest thing I got from it was that I met one person from nearly every country in Europe. I’d be comfortable reaching out to anyone I was on the programme with. I now know someone I can contact in Kiev. I know someone I can contact in Oslo.
If something is happening, I can text and ask them and ask for a quote or a source for an article I have to write. As a journalist, that’s very valuable.
Panorama: What are your plans for the future?
Irene Barahona Fernández: I don’t want to spend my life doing the same thing, like correspondence. Now, I’m working at the local newspaper in Zamora, which is amazing. I get to write about local stories. I write in the rural-oriented section, which is perfect because I am very interested in environmental journalism. It seems like the rural world is far away from sustainability, but there is actually a change happening, and I have the opportunity to write about it.
Jack Ryan: My plan for next year is to do my Masters studies in London. Beyond that, I really want to expand my horizons beyond Ireland. I really want to travel.
I’d love to be writing about geopolitics and I really want to develop the expertise to do that. Something like working in South-East Asia, writing about finance. I would love that.
‘When you’re young, to say you’re a journalist is a hard thing, but now I have the confidence.’
