Investigative journalism\, by necessity\, involves negotiation. Questions arise that relate to methods and approaches \, such as how to access important and sensitive sources\, how to persuade individuals to engage\, and how to structure an interview to gather informa tion and build trust. These questions implicate deeper and complex issues a s well. For example\, how can journalists engage multiple narratives in the ir reporting and represent those in a story? How can they balance meticulou s preparation for an interview with an open and curious approach to the con versation? And\, particularly in the context of reporting on crimes in conf lict zones\, what are the implications of journalistic frameworks for think ing about notions of blame and culpability?
In this session\, Pulitze r Prize-winning journalists Yousur Al-Hlou and Masha Froliak will discuss t heir investigations for the New York Times from Ukraine\, where they have s pent the last three years covering potential war crimes committed by Russia n soldiers by blending traditional shoe-leather field reporting skills with digital forensic techniques to uncover human rights abuses in conflict zon es.
Through their reporting from Bucha\, the journalists exposed how Russian soldiers carried out one of the most notable massacres\, killing hu ndreds of residents in the first few weeks of their assault on Ukraine. A s eries of investigations published over the next eight months capitalized on the exclusive material they collected from sensitive sources in the field — hundreds of hours of security footage\, hundreds of hours of interviews\, and classified military documents — which revealed potential war crimes co mmitted by Russian soldiers and their commanders. And in Kherson\, they spe nt one year tracking Ukrainian children taken from a children’s home and id entified the Russian officials who unlawfully transferred them to Crimea be fore placing them for adoption. Their reporting proved that the transfer wa s part of a systematic campaign by President Vladimir Putin and his politic al allies to strip the most vulnerable victims of the war of their Ukrainia n identity. The plight of these children is at the heart of an open case at the ICC.
Join us to gain a deeper insight into how these compelling investigations are produced\, and how journalism and negotiation share appr oaches to relationship building and problem solving.
CATEGORIES:Speaker/Panel LOCATION:Zoom GEO:40.712728;-74.006015 ORGANIZER;CN="Kenneth D. Russell":MAILTO:kerussell@law.harvard.edu URL;VALUE=URI:https://hls.harvard.edu/events/kelman-seminar-into-homes-and- hearts-navigating-emotions-and-negotiating-access-as-a-journalist/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/IntoHomesAndHearts.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 DTSTART:20251102T060000 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR