Iacopo Luzi is a foreign correspondent from Italy based in Washington D.C. He has worked on stories throughout the globe, including Israel, Mexico, Italy, and the U.S. Luzi is a multimedia journalist who has written and produced stories in Italian, Spanish, and English for publication. Currently, he works as a television journalist for Voice of America for the newscast called "El Mundo al Día." Luzi spoke to the Foreign Press about his career and why the work of a foreign correspondent is so important.

Can you give us a description of your background and work?

I started approaching the journalism world during high school in 2007 in Italy, but I only became a professional after college, in 2012, covering local news for a radio in my hometown. The daily working routine was good training because this is how I learned to report about several topics, juggling from crime news to the gossip column without struggling. Then, I started freelancing for some national Italian print media, traveling to places like Iraq or Ukraine and, in 2015, the Northwestern University of Chicago offered me a scholarship to enroll in their Master of Science in Journalism. This was the way to get my foot in the United States, where I turned into a video/TV journalist, learned how to shoot and edit videos as a one-man-band journalist, and finally landed at Voice of America where, thanks to my Spanish language skills, I was hired at the end of 2017.

What are some of your latest stories? What are you working on now?

As a breaking news reporter covering what happens every day in Washington and, generally, in the United States, probably my latest and most relevant story was what happened on January 6th, when I was at the US Congress during the siege that interrupted the certification of the electoral results. Being able to cover this historic moment, while rioters were invading the Capitol, was thrilling and, at the same time, a little reckless. Yet, it was a coverage I’m proud of.

Meanwhile, a story I’m working on right now? it’s hard to tell because I usually follow the news flow without planning that much, so who knows what could be my next story? Maybe something related to Biden's presidency or something controversial about the Congress.

What is a story you have reported on that has stayed with you? Or what has been a defining story for your career?

In 2016, I was in Mexico for an investigation about the Ayotzinapa’s case, where 43 students were kidnapped and disappeared in the region of Guerrero two years before. My goal was to understand at what point the official investigation arrived and the several controversies about the case, with an independent group of international investigators revealing that these students were kidnapped by mistake and that there was a deep connection between drug cartels of the area and local and federal Mexican authorities. I was in Mexico for several weeks, interviewing numerous people, while local authorities were trying to stop me or sabotage me. It was tough, I have to say, but the final result was published in the United States and it definitely helped me shape my career in this country.

How did you get into the field of journalism? How did you become a foreign correspondent?

I became a journalist because I wanted to follow a career that would allow me not to be bored in my daily life and, indeed, journalism, with its stories and people, never bores you. I didn’t want an office job in front of a laptop all day long, that’s the truth.

On the other hand, becoming a foreign correspondent was not expected: I joined Voice of America Spanish as a video reporter, without thinking of being in front of the camera or going live with international affiliates, due to the fact that my Spanish wasn’t perfect. However, as time passed, I improved my language skills and my chief finally allowed me to go live while I was on news coverage in Nicaragua, in August 2018. In the beginning, it was pretty complicated, but now it became my routine.

You have worked as a journalist in Italy, Israel, and the United States. What have been some of the biggest differences working as a journalist in these areas?

In Italy journalism has become more a hobby than a real job: salaries are horrible, and many people work for free. It’s not a good environment and it impoverishes the quality of the reporting. Many articles are written only to generate clicks and often, due to the lack of resources, journalism only remains on the surface of a fact. This is a big difference that I noticed compared to the United States, where the job of a journalist is still credible and where media outlets still invest in quality stories that go beyond the surface.

Meanwhile, talking about Israel, while I was there, I noticed that many media tend to report just one side of a story, mainly following their editorial line, without reporting a fact in its entirety. On the other hand, considering the complexity of a place like Israel, I guess it’s not an easy task to have unbiased journalism there.

What are some challenges you have faced as a journalist? How did you overcome them?

This is a good question: as a journalist, it was hard to overcome the stereotype of being a foreign reporter, in particular from a folkloristic country like Italy. Indeed, it was hard not to meet a person, once in a while during a coverage, who didn’t tell me about his trip to Venice or didn’t move his hands in front of me saying, "Mamma mia." Like if in Italy this was a real thing… Yet, in spite of this, I made my stories talk for myself during the years, and working as hard as I could, I managed to overcome the “Italian” stereotype.

What inspires you as a journalist?

The idea that every story has several points of view and it is your job to offer a wide prospect of it, reporting all the angles, to offer something that is squared and clear for your audience. To summarize what I want to say, I’ll use this quote, “If someone says it's raining and another person says it's dry. It's not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the window and find out which is true."

Why do you think the work of foreign journalists is important?

It’s crucial because it offers a glance of a different world, sometimes far away, to the audience of another country. The foreign journalist is able to explain things and facts in a way the audience of his/her country can understand without, at the same time, being influenced by what other media write inside in his/her own nation. It’s a complicated job, but it is important to report facts and events with balance and with an objective eye.

What advice would you give to future journalists?

To learn as much as you can to survive in this business. The future belongs to those journalists who will be able to do several things: writing, video/audio editing, shooting, taking pictures, flying a drone, speaking several languages, creating graphics, etc, etc. There are so many things journalists can learn today on their own, just checking online, while the competition will be every day tougher so it’s not the time anymore to think, “I can survive in this business just with my writing ability."