Select a language
Gaining professional status as a journalist very often entails a long and difficult period of precarity. And as Italian freelancer Sara* suggested in the first part of this series, the fact that the job is often seen as a “mission” only makes matters worse.
Alice Facchini, an Italian freelance journalist and author of a survey on mental health within the profession in Italy for IrpiMedia, explains that “precarity in the world of journalism – or at least the precarity we uncovered – is also linked to an identity-based vision of the profession: as in many creative professions, I accept precarity because I identify with the profession; I believe in it as a value, and I would therefore do anything to be able to engage in it because I see it as a mission.”
Esperanza* is a Spanish journalist who agreed to talk about her experience: “I tried to put aside motivation and vocation and channel them elsewhere, not to cling to the mere fact of being a journalist. I did not want to condition my life on my vocation.”
After some experience in another field, Esperanza returned to being a journalist. When asked whether it is possible in Spain to pursue the profession regardless of social class, she replies: “Frankly, it’s very difficult if you don’t have parents who can support you for an extended period. Most of my university friends had to go into communications and marketing, or spent a lot of time living off other jobs so that they could ‘invest’ in becoming journalists. This is what happened to me too: I do a lot of communication and marketing work. Doing journalism is a luxury.”
Access to the profession: how does one become a journalist?
It is often said that anyone starting out in journalism must be prepared to take risks: to spend time researching the stories and angles that interest editorial staff, that are relevant and original, or to bear the costs of a report without even being sure that anyone will run it. “We’re told that it’s better to go freelance at first, to take risks, etc. But taking risks when you have the means is easy; doing it when you struggle to pay the rent is not only complicated, it’s impossible. It is inconceivable to think that you have to end up on the street in order to do your job." This is Sarah Ichou, director of the Bondy Blog, an independent French newspaper founded in the wake of the French banlieue riots in 2005, precisely to represent those working-class neighbourhoods – the banlieues – and the voice of the people who live there.
“The real problem, which we have denounced for the last twenty years, is that of who makes the news" - Sarah Ichou, Bondy Blog
Bondy is one of the communes of Seine-Saint Denis, the poorest and youngest department in metropolitan France. In the midst of an editorial meeting (which is a mirror of today’s France, in terms of voices, dress and backgrounds) Ichou tells me that “the real problem, which we have denounced for the last twenty years, is that of who makes the news. [...] Sociologically speaking, perhaps when the journalists and newsrooms of the ‘traditional’ media start to resemble the Bondy Blog’s newsroom, perhaps then we will have, at least in part, a solution.”
According to Alessandra Costante of the National Federation of the Italian Press (FNSI, Italy’s largest journalists’ union), “today, to endure poverty while waiting for a contract, you have to be rich or be a burden to your family.”
Jana Rick is a doctoral student and research associate involved in a project funded by the German Research foundation (DFG), “Prekarisierung im Journalismus” (”Precarity in Journalism”), at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. The study, carried out from 2019 to 2024, surveyed one thousand journalists in Germany. Asked whether journalism is a class-specific profession, Rick replies: “Based on our research, we argue that journalism is a profession that you have to be able to afford financially. Journalists (especially freelancers) compensate for precarity with their partners’ income or receive support from other family members. This could point to a trend whereby journalism becomes a profession for the elite, which constitutes a threat to diversity in the media sector.”
Harald Fidler of the Viennese newspaper Der Standard argues that the media sector in Austria is diversifying, albeit slowly: “The beginning of a career is often characterised by poorly paid internships and freelance work, which one has to be able to afford financially. It is easier for those from families with higher incomes.” According to the last major survey, for 2018-19 (Journalismusreport/Medienhaus Wien), out of 501 journalists surveyed, 62 had a migration background (about 12 percent, as opposed to 23.7 percent of the total population).
Access to the profession: schools
Across Europe, the situation tends to vary – sometimes significantly – from country to country. In some countries, such as France and Italy, attending a professional school is the main route, while internships are more common in other countries. However, in all cases the question of economic, social and cultural capital is central.
In France there are 14 Grandes écoles: recognised training courses that prepare aspiring journalists for the profession and are recognised by the Commission Paritaire Nationale de l’Emploi des journalistes (CPNEJ). A university programme or a publicly‑funded master’s degree costs a few hundred euros per year, while private schools start at around 7,000 euro per year.
The same is true in Italy, where in addition to the bar exam there are schools: a two-year master’s degree costs from 8,000 to over 20,000 euro a year.
In Spain the situation is less structured. Beatriz Lara, secretary of the Press and Communication section of the Spanish trade union Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, explains to El Confidencial that a clear trend is emerging: “In order to be an information professional, you usually have to pay for private masters degrees, which often don’t even qualify, and cost from 10 to 15 thousand euro. Who can become a journalist when the price of admission to the media is between 10 and 15 thousand euro, with no guarantee of job security?” Moreover, Lara adds, “it’s the same social class who has access to the profession, and who ultimately gets to frame reality. Those who have access to the media, those who sign the articles have a very clear class bias. People from the lower classes have no voice.”
“We are told that what matters are the issues that affect an often well-off, highly educated and politically connected social class,” says Mazin Sidahmed, co-founder of Documented, a media created to serve the immigrant communities of New York City, in an interview with Lighthouse Reports. “What interests this social class becomes the most important news of the day, and if you write for them, you make a name for yourself as a journalist, because that is how most newspapers have structured their operations: in reality, they serve that social class.”
‘Despite my enormous privilege, I couldn’t get a place in the school I wanted.’
Claire* is 24 years old and attended the Institut français de Presse, the oldest journalism school in France. In her course, she tells me, there was certainly a diversity of ethnic backgrounds, but no diversity of social class. Claire explains that competition to enter the school is “extremely tough, extremely selective”, and that there are many who undertake a year of preparatory study before even trying to get a place.
There is also a very specific issue: schooling in France is fundamental for access to a professional career. Knowing how to get into which school and why also means attending the right secondary school. “Since secondary school I already knew what I wanted to do. In my family and at school everything was clear.” The rules of the system are clear for everyone in that context, says Claire.
Claire’s father is a diplomat father and her mother is a translator. She has lived and trained abroad (including at King’s College in London) and speaks four languages. “Despite my enormous privilege, I couldn’t get a place in the school I wanted,” she explains, referring to the complexity of getting a place in the prestigious Science Po, which was her first choice.
During our discussion, Claire insists on the extreme selectivity of this competition: the quota for accepted applicants is “too low”, the number of applicants is too high, and those who already have the right background – culturally speaking – have “disproportionate advantages.” Moreover, she adds, some schools, in addition to the competition, make their selection on the basis of a candidate’s presentation dossier. For example, those who, like Claire, have already completed an apprenticeship or worked in the media have a strong advantage. “Without my parents this would not have been possible,” she says.
A solution for diversity in the media
In 2009, the Bondy Blog created the “Prépa égalité des chances” in collaboration with the Ecole supérieure de journalisme de Lille (ESJ Lille), one of the most prestigious schools in the country. This “equal opportunities” training course is free of charge and open to young people from low-income families. “Although the results have been very positive,” Ichou explains, “it does not mean that the problem has been solved: integration in editorial departments remains very complicated. And once a certain amount of experience has been acquired, access to certain positions of responsibility remains very, very complicated”.
Since 2007, La Chance has been providing training to young people with less access to these schools. Every year, thanks to around 350 volunteer professional journalists, the association prepares around 80 fellows for the competitions of the journalism schools in Bordeaux, Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Grenoble and Rennes. “The competition is a compulsory step for aspiring journalists wishing to enter a school. The problem is that not all young people have the same chances of passing it. The duration and cost of the studies discourage those of more modest means,” explains Baptiste Giraud, who is in charge of student placement in the Paris office.
La Chance’s “prépa” is a free training course “which can be taken in the afternoon, evening or weekend, depending on the case,” continues Giraud. “We try to target students from the city’s priority neighbourhoods, both urban or rural.”
According to the association’s data, in 2024 the students who took part in the training programmes mostly came from families where the parents work in what are considered “low‑skill jobs” (cleaning staff, security guards, home‑care and healthcare assistants, drivers). There are also single‑parent families and a large share of blue‑collar workers—14.3% of the fathers and 2.6% of the mothers fall into that category. 11.7% of the fathers and 15.6% of the mothers are unemployed.
“For quality news, it is essential to have journalists from different backgrounds: the risk is social reproduction, and always having the same point of view represented,” says Giraud. In France, he says, “the situation is changing. But it is very, very far from perfect. [...] I have many testimonies from former students who did editorial internships. There were many cases of discrimination, racism, homophobia and sexual harassment.”
“For quality news, it is essential to have journalists from different backgrounds: the risk is social reproduction, and always having the same point of view represented” - Baptiste Giraud, La Chance
“Indeed,” adds Sarah Ichou, “when we look at the reality, this is what we see. This is a profession that has a very hard time renewing itself, and it is also particularly precarious for people from disadvantaged social categories, for people who are victims of racism. This depends on several factors, but one particular factor is that many editorial offices still do not post job offers publicly. It is difficult to get ahead, and even more so when you come from a working class background.”.
So, paradoxically, becoming a journalist requires a privileged social background, but once you become a journalist the general rule is low pay and precarious contracts.
This is especially true for freelancers, but also for those with a contract, as we explained in the first part of this series. This also has an impact on the social prestige of the profession. This is confirmed by Miteva*, a freelancer in Croatia: “Journalists in Croatia have become part of the working class, judging by their earnings. The current average salary for journalists in Croatia is lower than the average net salary, which, according to data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, was 1,451 euro per month in May 2025. Journalists (both freelance and salaried) are underpaid, which undoubtedly affects the quality of journalism. Journalism is not seen as a prestigious profession – on the contrary, public opinion of journalists is quite low – so those who can afford to work for less money generally do not enter the profession.”
| A less than exemplary example |
| Rachid Laïreche is a journalist and author of Il n’y a que moi que ça choque? (“Am I the only one who is shocked?”), a book that has aroused much discussion in France, especially among media professionals. In the book, Laïreche recounts his experience in the “bubble” of political journalism, in which he spent eight years working for Libération. The book is an exercise in autocritique that takes aim at political journalism that is characterised by conformism, an “unhealthy” relationship with political leaders and disconnected from the concerns of readers. It’s an excellent text, on several levels. Firstly, Laïreche understands how the profession works from the inside, and has no intention to flatter. Secondly, the author’s voice somehow simultaneously comes from outside the chorus and from within the chorus: Laïreche became a journalist by way of the secretariat of Libération, where he worked for several years as a switchboard operator. Laïreche comes from a working-class background marked by immigration. He also represents (or represented) a class of people that suffers from strong structural discrimination in France, with histories rooted in colonial memory and racism. He makes it clear, when I meet him, not far from the Libé newsroom, that he is not an example, but “an anomaly”, with respect to the media system. He insists, several times, that his story is not the rule. His book also invites a further line of questioning: to whom do we speak when we write? How can we enable this profession to speak to everyone, to help everyone understand the world? In his book, Laïreche recounts that his brother once told him that “you don’t write for people like us”. “He is right,” he says. “Our profession touches everything and everyone,” and yet, says Laïreche, “we never ask ourselves if we’re working the right way, if we’re working correctly. I don’t have the answers. But why don’t we really ask ourselves these questions?” |
🤝 This article was produced as part of the PULSE project, a European initiative to support cross-border journalistic collaborations. The data is not always consistent or comparable, given the different contexts of the media organisations that agreed to participate, as well as the different national contexts. This work should therefore be understood as an overview of a general malaise within the profession in Europe, especially among freelance journalists, and opens up the question of a common regulation for the various employment statuses within the profession.
🙏 For their work, patience and contributions to this article, I would like to thank Lola García-Ajofrín, Ana Somavilla (El Confidencial, Spain), Harald Fidler (Der Standard, Austria), Dina Daskalopoulou (Efysn, Greece), Krassen Nikolov (Mediapool, Bulgaria) and Petra Dvořáková (Deník Referendum, Czech Republic).
A conversation with investigative reporters Stefano Valentino and Giorgio Michalopoulos, who have dissected the dark underbelly of green finance for Voxeurop and won several awards for their work.
Go to the event >
Join the discussion
Become a member to translate comments and participate