“Get rid of the ‘lone wolf’ image”: Bastian Obermayer on the EYL40 programme

Bastian Obermayer, alumnus of the EYL40 Class of 2018, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning German investigative journalist with the Munich-based newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and the reporter who received the Panama Papers from an anonymous source in 2016 and the Paradise Papers. Obermayer was part of the ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Luxembourg Leaks, China Cables, and other?projects. After the Knight-Wallace Fellowship in Ann Arbor, MI, Obermayer helped found the investigative non-profit newsroom Forbidden Stories in 2017.

As an award-winning journalist, Bastian Obermayer is usually more used to posing questions than having them put to him, but he responds readily when asked what he thinks of the European Young Leaders Programme (EYL40).

“It’s a wonderful programme, offering the opportunity to see many other examples of leadership,” he says of his fellow young leaders. “All those people are so easily accessible – only a Whatsapp away to ask for help or insights – even if sometimes you agree, sometimes you don’t. So many inspiring women and men who show how to lead and do great things.”

When asked what the most important thing about the programme is, he replies that it’s having a contact base of diverse leaders. “That’s the most important thing: each of us has enough contacts in our respective fields, but I need to hear from engineers, doctors, artists, politicians to get their perspective,” he expands, adding a vivid German phrase: “so that you’re not ‘cooking in your own water’ all the time!”

Obermayer gained many personal friends from the programme, and with them “insights into many aspects of European life I didn’t have before, and some very interesting discussions.” The professional benefits, he says, are an offshoot of this: “It’s more that I can translate these insights into my professional world. Politicians’ contacts helped in some investigations, but it’s more something that helps you as a person to grow.” His sums up EYL40 in one word with a vast domain: “Humanity.”

Obermayer, who works for the Munich-based newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, is probably best known as the reporter who received the Panama Papers from an anonymous source, as part of work that won him and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists of (ICIJ) a Pulitzer Prize in in 2016.

He remains clear that investigative journalism needs to break with the past, using collaborative models of the sort that, with the Panama Papers, saw reporters at media outlets based around the world delving into the documents. This, in turn, requires journalistic teamwork of a kind that does not fit easily with the traditional image of the maverick reporter, working alone.

“I’ve been involved in setting up a new investigative start-up [Paper Trail Media] for the last six months, so now my responsibility with my partners is to let it grow,” he explains. “We want to do as much as possible but not get overstretched. My role is rather complicated to understand in terms of leadership.” “We’re trained a lot to get rid of the ‘lone wolf’ image,” he says. “With the Panama Papers we had four hundred reporters around the world working on them. In certain circumstances it’s a really good idea to be a team.” ?This kind of collaborative journalism, he says, means “more truth, more good investigation.”

Unfortunately, he still sees resistance on the part of some in the business. “I’ve got a little tired advocating for an idea that’s a good one but which many newsrooms ignore for their own profit,” he says. “Many joint investigations have shown that sharing is a really good thing.”

The COVID-19 crisis, he adds, reinforced his conviction of the need for teamwork. “The pandemic assured me that we were on the right path,” he says. “You don’t need to be constantly motivating everyone because they have their intrinsic motivation. People don’t need to sit in the same room to work together: you need to give them good circumstances to work in and then you don’t need to control them.”

However, remote working can make it harder to notice when people are struggling. “We have tried to tell people that if they have too much on their plates, they must tell us,” Obermayer says. “That means more formal conversations.” The pandemic also generated lots of subject matter, notably the mismanagement of public funds, some of which, Obermayer notes bluntly, were “directed to people who were thieves.” Though he himself has not focused on these topics, he leads a team with two colleagues who “did a lot” on them.

Returning to the theme of Europe, Obermayer feels that the war in Ukraine “shows how important solidarity is” and also how crucial it would be for Europe to have one voice. “It’s a pity we’re not hearing that voice,” he says, citing the focus of Hungary in particular on what it can get from Russia, rather than on what is good for Europe as a whole.

For the European leaders of tomorrow, “I don’t have any big advice” but he does offer a few pointers.- “Listen to people you’re working with, as in many cases they already have solutions,” he says. “If you’re a leader, you need to be in constant conversation.”

On the challenges facing journalism, he has no illusions, but issues a call to arms. “In most places where journalists are working, we see a decline of financial stability and people working on a more fragile basis,” he laments. “But at the same time journalism is as important – or even more important. And I think as leaders it’s now our responsibility to keep journalists focused on what’s important and still make impactful journalism with less financial resources.” “That’s the biggest challenge for democracy right now,” he goes on. “It’s not going to get better in the coming years. I don’t see a business model that will bring back the golden years of having no major financial issues.”

While the New York Times has struck gold with a subscription model, it is the exception that proves the rule: most publications have no hope of fully funding investigative work that way. “It’s a challenge, and to solve it probably we need to look at different ways, such as partnering with NGOs, and in non-profit journalism,” he says, citing partnerships such as the ICIJ’s with the US-based Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in handling the Panama Papers, while stressing the need to choose allies with care. “We work a lot with non-profits – but not those who want to shape public discourse.”