Hey,
My name is Dhruva Balram, the new editor at EachOther, a position I am really enthusiastic about. I’m excited to have arrived at this organisation at an interesting juncture for both myself and the charity – an intersection which offers hopeful possibilities as well as obstacles to surmount.
Over the last couple of weeks, the team at EachOther has been reflecting on the direction we want our editorial content to take. After much deliberation, we’ve decided not to place too much emphasis on breaking news coverage. We don’t have the resources of other, larger organisations and we want to make sure our contributions count. We see the majority of our work as connected to long-term projects and goals. We want it to be evergreen – to be relevant six months to two years after publication.
Moving forward, EachOther’s editorial ambition is a shift in focus from the transitory to the foundational. Rather than covering a single outbreak of COVID-19 in a prison, we may write a series around the basic human rights of prisoners in the United Kingdom, and how they’re not being met.
Being a human rights-focused outfit, we are often told by our audiences of the hopelessness they can feel when reading about human rights violations around the country. We aim to move towards a solutions-based model, giving as much attention to answers as problems. We want to offer constructive journalism, publishing features that bring about change.
EachOther also aims to become more inclusive. We believe that journalism is at its best when it includes many different perspectives and worldviews. We will expect freelance writers who contribute to have a point of view and we aim to depict human rights issues that affect a full spectrum of marginalised folk. We recognise that it is not the first job of marginalised people to solve problems posed and perpetuated by society at large. Enduring change will only come when those who benefit most from current structures take action. At the same time, we recognise the importance of highlighting lived experience in designing a better future.
As EachOther’s chief executive, Andy Hull, wrote in our strategy for 2021 and beyond, “we hope that more people will then speak up for our rights when they are threatened, putting pressure on politicians to do the same. By creating the conditions for more people to stand up for their rights, we can defend our human rights architecture whilst cultivating a culture of human rights in the UK. This, in turn, can open up the possibility of the UK acting as a beacon for human rights on the global stage”.
I hope that you’ll join me on this journey. It’s one I’m eager to start. We have a lot of fascinating series and pieces in the works, and together we can keep learning and holding truth to power.
Dhruva Balram