The Journalism Masterclass is one of the key-programmes of the Ratiu Forum. It aims to address the challenges and opportunities of investigative journalism in Romania and the CEE region and to support journalists in strengthening practical skills.
THE 2025 RATIU FORUM JOURNALISM MASTERCLASS
RATIU CENTRE, TURDA, ROMANIA
The Ratiu Forum – a partnership between LSE IDEAS (London School of Economics) and the Ratiu Foundations – hosted the 2025 Journalism Masterclass on 11-13 April at the Ratiu Democracy Centre in Turda, Romania. The event aimed to explore the current situation of journalism in Romania and the region and was open to journalists with at least 5 years of experience in reporting.
The panellists and speakers list included a leading group of Romanian and international journalists and experts from the region.
The Masterclass is coordinated by John Lloyd (Financial Times).
John Lloyd co-founded The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford in 2006, where he was Director of Journalism and a Senior Research Fellow. He is a Contributing Editor at The Financial Times, and Chairman of the School of Civic Education (Russia). John Lloyd was a freelance reporter in Belfast in the early 1970s. He was a reporter on LBC Radio, worked at London Weekend TV as a reporter on the London Programme and producer on Weekend World. At the Financial Times he has been Labour Editor, Labour and Industrial Editor, East Europe Editor, Moscow Bureau Chief; and founding editor of the FT Weekend Magazine. He has edited both Time Out and the New Statesman.
MASTERCLASS SESSIONS
The event has established itself over several years as a lively forum for discussion and debate. This year, it has widened its scope – looking more deeply at central issues and problems in journalism, in Romania and worldwide. In each session, several experts presented their assessments of the subject before them – and then the debate was open to all participants.
- Journalism in Romania
- Journalism in Central and Eastern Europe
- Disinformation and Fake News
- War Reporting
- A New Era for Global Politics, A New Era for Journalism?
Journalism in Romania. This session explored key developments in Romanian journalism, including high-profile cases that have made international headlines, such as the candidacy of Calin Georgescu and the legal troubles of the Tate Brothers. Experts analyzed the state of press freedom, investigative journalism, and media ethics in Romania.
Journalism in Central and Eastern Europe. This session assessed the media landscape in Central and Eastern Europe, where investigative journalism has gained momentum despite political pressures. Participants discussed the impact of the rise of New Right parties, media freedom post-Communism, and the dynamic evolution of news reporting across the region.
Disinformation and Fake News. With social media amplifying misinformation, this session examined how fake news affects democratic politics and how governments attempt to counter it while preserving free speech. The discussion will also explore Russia’s alleged role in spreading disinformation during Romania’s presidential race.
War Reporting. Covering war comes with significant risks, ethical dilemmas, and challenges. This session featured experienced war correspondents sharing insights on the evolving dangers of war reporting, safety concerns, and the changing perceptions of journalists in conflict zones.
A New Era for Global Politics, A New Era for Journalism? As global power shifts toward new economic leaders like China and India, this session discussed how journalism might change in response. Will independent reporting and free press values come under increasing pressure? Experts explored how media organizations can prepare for the future of journalism in a rapidly transforming world.
The 2025 Ratiu Forum Journalism Masterclass was supported by the British Embassy Bucharest.
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SPEAKERS
John M. Florescu has had a distinguished career as media entrepreneur, television producer and businessman with broad experience in the United States and Europe. In a career spanning over 30 years, Mr. Florescu has served as Executive Producer on more than 180 television specials, documentaries and interviews the latter of which included six past U.S. Presidents and several foreign heads of state including Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela and Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Florescu’s notable Romanian productions include The King Who Tricked Hitler,” (2016) about King Michael of Romania and “Queen Marie: Heart of Romania” (2018). Recipient of a number of awards, Mr. Florescu’s recent films have run worldwide on the HISTORY channel and Amazon Prime. Mr. Florescu has contributed editorials about Eastern Europe for The Boston Globe, The Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. He has participated in academic symposiums on the topic of Romania; has advised on Romanian studies for the Council on Foreign Relations and served as a US delegate with National Democratic Institute (NDI) during the first Romanian democratic elections in 1991. Mr. Florescu graduated from Boston College with a Bachelor’s (Magna Cum Laude, 1976) degree in History.
Vadim Ghirda is an Associated Press (AP) photographer based in Bucharest, Romania. He joined the AP in 1990 and began his photo journalism career covering the social and political turmoil as communism was collapsing across Central and Eastern Europe. In the early nineties, Mr. Ghirda covered Romanian civil unrest, miner riots, and widespread high-level corruption; Moldovan declaration of independence from the Soviet Union and a secession war in the Trans-Dniester region; and Ukrainian protests before the toppling of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. In the late nineties, Mr. Ghirda covered the breakup of Yugoslavia, the conflict in Bosnia, the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia, the anti-Milosevic protests in Belgrade, the Kosovo Crisis and the war in Macedonia. 2001 took him to conflicts in the Middle East followed by Israel and Iraq in 2005. For the last three years, Mr. Ghirda has been covering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He works across mediums including photography, video, text and multimedia. He has received numerous awards spanning his 30+ year career including from the Associated Press, the US National Press Photographers Association, World Press and in 2023, with a team of AP photographers, the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography. Mr. Ghirda graduated from the Technical University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest, Romania with a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering.
Liam Hoare is an award-winning journalist based in Vienna, covering politics, culture, and Jewish life in Europe. He currently serves as Moment Magazine’s Europe Editor, is a frequent contributor to Ha’aretz, and is the author of The Vienna Briefing, a weekly newsletter on current events in Austria. He has previously written for among others The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New Statesman, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, Politico, The Daily Beast, and Slate, and his work in German has been published in Datum as well as the Standard and Presse. His work for Moment Magazine has won six American Jewish Press Association’s Simon Rockower Awards. Mostly, his feature “An Unpleasant Experience” about the British National Union of Students antisemitism crisis placed first for the Award for Excellence in Education Reporting. He contributed an essay to the collection Amos Oz: The Legacy of a Writer in Israel and Beyond (SUNY Press, 2023), described as a “thought-provoking anthology, rich with information and ideas.” Mr. Hoare graduated from University College London’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies with a Master’s degree in History.
Victor Ilie has been an investigative journalist since 2012 and has published in several independent outlets including Inclusiv, Casa Jurnalistului, RISE Project, and Recorder. He has published investigations on corruption in media and government, the pharmaceutical industry, and human trafficking, and has participated in cross- border projects such as Panama Papers and undercover investigations like “Marele Alb” (The Great White) and “Jagten”. Since 2024, he has been working as a freelancer and coordinates several investigations focused on propaganda and its effects. Mr. Ilie graduated from Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iași with a degree in Journalism.
Ionuț Iordăchescu has been working as a journalist for about 12 years. For the past year he has been living and working as a video journalist in Istanbul, from where he coordinates the video department of the international news agency France-Presse (AFP) in Turkey. He joined AFP in 2018, and started by covering Romania and Moldova. He has reported on elections, violent protests, and other current affairs news in several countries as a special correspondent for AFP. While in Kyiv, on the 23rd of February 2022, he witnessed the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and has been constantly covering the war that ensued for the past three years. He has also reported for several months from Israel and the West Bank in the aftermath of Hamas’ attack on Israel and the invasion of Gaza that followed. Mr. Iordachescu attended the University of Bucharest.
Adam Jasser is news director at TVP World, the biggest English-language news channel in central and eastern Europe. He hosts current affairs shows “On the Record” and “Face to Face”. Before, he was deputy editor at Visegrad Insight and co-hosted a foreign policy podcast “About the World at Onet” for Poland’s leading web portal onet.pl. He served as Secretary of State in the Chancellery of Prime Minister Donald Tusk in 2010-14. He was Secretary of the PM’s EconomicCouncil. Before joining the government, Adam was Programme Director at the Warsaw-based think-tank demos Europa – Centre for European Strategy. Earlier, he spent almost 20 years at Reuters news agency, in roles stretching from translator and head of economic reporting in Warsaw, to bureau chief in Frankfurt and regional editor for central Europe, the Balkans and Turkey.
John Lloyd co-founded The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford in 2006, where he was Director of Journalism and a Senior Research Fellow. Mr. Lloyd is a Contributing editor at The Financial Times, and Chairman of the School of Civic Education (Russia). He was a freelance reporter in Belfast in the early 1970s. Mr. Lloyd was a reporter on LBC Radio, worked at London Weekend TV as a reporter on the London Programme and producer on Weekend World. At the Financial Times he has been Labour Editor, Labour and Industrial Editor, East Europe Editor, Moscow Bureau Chief; and founding editor of the FT Weekend Magazine. He has edited both Time Out and the New Statesman. Mr. Lloyd graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Master’s Degree in English Literature.
Alison Mutler is a British journalist who has been working in Romania for almost 35 years. She is the current Director of the Romanian – English website, universul.net where she has worked for the last five years. During the 1989 anti-communist revolution, Ms. Mutler reported from Romania, Bulgaria, and Moldova for the British television station ITV. She moved to Romania in 1991 and joined the Associated Press as Bureau Chief where she worked for 25 years. Ms. Mutler is the past president of the now defunct Foreign Press Association. Ms. Mutler occasionally freelances for Coda Story and Radio Free Europe among others. Ms. Mutler graduated from the University of London with a Bachelor’s degree with a focus on Romanian language and literature.
Mădălin Necșuțu is a Romanian journalist based in Chisinau, Moldova where he serves as Balkan Insight’s correspondent since 2017. He specialises in political and investigative journalism, with a focus on Eastern Europe and the dynamics of ex-Soviet states. Since 2006, Mr. Necsutu has made significant contributions to leading Romanian media outlets, including the Mediafax, ZIUA, Curentul, and Evenimentul Zilei as well as news websites G4media.ro and Veridica.ro. He writes for worldwide media outlets like Postimees, Euronews, IWPR or Washington Post. He is the moderator of the evening main political talk show at TVR Moldova called “Punctul pe AZi”. His work has garnered multiple prestigious awards, highlighting his expertise in political and investigative reporting. Mr. Necșuțu holds a degree from the Faculty of History in Bucharest, Romania, a Master’s degree in International Relations and postgraduate studies in diplomacy with the Romanian Diplomacy Institute in Bucharest. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in history. He is fluent in Romanian, English, French, and basic Russian.
Dan Perry is a veteran global media executive and communications professional with regular columns in Newsweek, the Forward, MediaIte, and the Jerusalem Post and publishes Ask Questions Later on Substack. Mr. Perry served as the Associated Press’s Middle East Editor, based in Cairo during the Arab Spring and resultant regional upheaval who, together with his colleagues, won numerous prizes for investigative and visual work including the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for an investigative all-format series on Yemen. Previously, he was AP’s regional chief in Europe-Africa and the Caribbean. He led AP’s move to digital distribution, content creation, social media and user experience. He supervised the Global Headline service and the Arabic, German, French and Puerto Rican Spanish language services. From 2001-2004, Mr. Perry served as the chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem, driving the industry’s efforts to ensure freedom of access with both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities during the Second Intifada. Mr. Perry has repeatedly served as a delegate at the World Economic Forum in Davos and other global leadership conferences, hosting panels with political and business leaders. His array of interview subjects range from Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev and Benjamin Netanyahu to U2 front man Bono. Author of two books on Israel, his background includes computer science and artificial intelligence studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Columbia University with a Master’s of Science Degree.
Wojciech Przybylski is the editor-in-chief of Visegrad Insight and chairman of Res Publica Foundation in Warsaw. Previously Mr. Wojciech has been the editor-in-chief of Eurozine, a magazine representing a network of European cultural journals, and a Polish journal, Res Publica Nowa. He launched and leads the ‘New Europe 100’ project that is networking and bringing forward a community of successful innovators from CEE across the fields of business, research media, NGO and public administration run jointly by Res Publica, Financial Times and Google. He is a member of the advisory board of the European Forum of New Ideas. His expertise includes European and transatlantic affairs as well as policies related to innovation and culture. He has been published in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, Journal of Democracy, EUObserver, VoxEurop, Hospodarskenoviny, Internazzionale, Gazeta Wyborcza, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna and several others. Wojciech Przybylski is a graduate of the Interdisciplinary Studies of the Humanities (MISH) program at the University of Warsaw, specializing in political sociology and the history of political ideas and thought. He was also a fellow of the Europe’s Future program at the Vienna Institute of Humanities and the Erste Foundation.
Mariana Rață is an investigative and TV journalist from Moldova. She is the co-founder of the independent TV stations TV8 and 1TV, Senior Editor at TV8 and the host of one of the most important political and investigative talk shows in Moldova – Black Box. Since 2017, Ms. Rață has been the President of the Board of Directors of the Center for Independent Journalism of Moldova. She has been awarded numerous national awards in the field of investigative journalism. In 2017, she was the winner of the European Press Prize, in the investigative category. Ms. Rață is also an anti-corruption and justice expert. She is the author of several studies on Selective Justice and the fight against corruption in the Republic of Moldova, carried out in collaboration with Freedom House, GIZ. Ms. Rață graduated from the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences of the State University of Moldova, specializing in Communication.
Nicolae Ratiu is Chairman of The Ratiu Foundation, a British registered charity (est. 1979) with headquarters in Manchester Square, London. Mr. Ratiu chairs a board of Ratiu family members who award annually up to 50 grants, worth c. GBP 200,000, in various fields (study, research, projects, travel etc.) both in the UK and Romania. A businessman and philanthropist, Mr. Ratiu is a trustee of charities in Romania and the UK including The Romanian Cultural Centre in London, Pro Patrimonio (The National Trust of Romania), ADEPT, The Relief Fund for Romania and the Ratiu Center for Democracy in Turda. In addition, through the Ratiu Foundation, he supports major cultural and educational programs in the UK, Romania and US, including The Ion Ratiu Chair of Romanian Studies at Georgetown University, Washington; The annual Ion Ratiu Democracy Award and Fellowship in Washington; The Ion Ratiu Award for Investigative Journalism; The Elisabeth Pilkington Ratiu Award for Advances in Mental Health. Mr. Ratiu attended the United Kingdom at Marlborough College and graduated from New York University with a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Transportation and economics.
Nick Thorpe is a writer, film-maker and award-winning BBC journalist, specialising in eastern Europe and the Balkans. He reported on the fall of Communism throughout eastern Europe and the break-up of Yugoslavia for the BBC, Independent, Observer, and Guardian newspapers, including the wars in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia. He has been Central Europe Correspondent for the BBC since 1996. IN 2015, with his BBC colleagues, he won a Peabody award for their coverage of the Refugee crisis and in 201, a Lovie award for best internet reporting. He is the author of 3 books: The Road Before Me Weeps – On the Refugee Route through Europe (Yale UP, 2019); The Danube – A Journey Upriver from the Black Sea to the Black Forest (Yale UP, 2014); ’89 – The Unfinished Revolution – Power and Powerlessness in Eastern Europe (Reportage Press 2009, Endeavour Press 2015). He has directed or presented 18 documentary films, most recently The Danube – Against the Flow (2020). He studied Modern Languages at the Universities of Reading (UK), Dakar (Senegal) and Freiburg (Germany).
Rebecca Shah joined the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office in 2010 and was appointed Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy Romania in July 2023. Dr. Shah previously served as Political Counsellor in the Philippines, where she led teams covering foreign and multilateral policy, prosperity, science, environment, communications and public diplomacy. She has also served as First Secretary Political in Cyprus, where she worked closely in the UN peace process with the Turkish Cypriot community and the UK Sovereign Base Areas. Other roles include covering the Western Balkans, especially post-conflict issues. Dr. Shah has a passion for diversity and inclusion which she brings to every role. Before joining the FCDO, Dr. Shah worked in academia – lecturing, researching and publishing in ethics, development and human rights. She started her working life in psychology, providing psychological assessment and support to children with complex needs. Dr. Shah holds a PhD in global health inequality: justice and public health ethics. As Deputy Head of Mission, Dr. Shah is an important advisor to the Ambassador and is responsible for the daily management of the Embassy. As Chargé d’Affaires, Dr. Shah represents the UK’s interests in the absence of the Ambassador.
He participated in democracy development programs supported by UNDP, Council of Europe and Freedom House, in Albania, Nigeria and Cuba. Mircea Toma is co-editor of three psychology volumes, co-author of three high school textbooks, author of 20 academic articles, produced several radio and television programs and published over 4000 articles in the press.
Ovidiu Vanghele started his career in 2002 working for the Mediafax news agency before joining the Pro TV news team in 2012. In 2013 he founded the Centre for Investigative Media (CIM), an NGO he has headed since inception. His best-known investigative pieces focus on abuses in mental health facilities and on the state’s monetary frauds. He spent 2016 working together with Ana Poenariu (RISE Project) on the series “Toți oamenii generalului” (“All the General’s Men”), an investigative saga on Gabriel Oprea. Ovidiu Vanghele has also set-up and headed the editorial team of EurActiv Romania and collaborated with Factual (a Funky Citizens fact-checking initiative) and Ziare.com. Since 2017 he has coordinated the Let There Be Light Project (Să Fie Lumină) together with Vlad Stoicescu, with whom he now runs “The Latest Inquest”, a weekly video podcast on Romanian current affairs. He has been teaching investigative journalism at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences – University of Bucharest.