Reuters' financial markets editor: Journalists are only as good as their sources

• Friday, October 5, 17:34

Journalists are only as good as their sources, financial markets editor from Reuters Nigel Stevenson told Armenian journalists on Friday.

He said that during the five-day lessons organized by Reuters in Armenia for local financial journalists he and his colleagues looked at how to report on economy in general, how to report in companies and on how they act within economy.

When asked to assess financial journalism in Armenia, he said that in Armenia it is very difficult to find sources, exactly as it is difficult to find sources in the US or the UK. "Financial journalists in every market, in every country face similar challenges," he said.

He noted that today financial journalism is a very complex and fast- moving profession, one of the most competitive professions. So, the challenge to every financial journalist is to become increasingly specialized and to become an expert in the field.

"One of the points is that it's like any other journalism: for the best stories you have to dig, to fight for information. It's certainly like that in the UK and worldwide," Stephenson said.

When asked about the key principles of financial journalism, Stephenson said that financial journalists should be fair, accurate and free from bias.

He said that as many as 7,000 journalists from 139 countries have attended Reuters' financial journalism lessons so far.