Andrei Popoviciu: hold governments accountable for their actions
In June 2019, the MediaLab Campus project awarded grants to ten female students and five male students studying journalism in schools across Europe and the Mediterranean and looking to undertake an internship in a foreign media outlet over the summer. Andrei Popoviciu, a student at the Paris Institute of Political Studies in France, served as an intern at The Daily Star in Beirut (Lebanon) from June to August 2019.
“This grant provided me with the financial support I needed to be able to work in Beirut over the summer. It was an extraordinary experience. For me, journalism is about discovering people's stories and seeing how they fit into a broader context.
In my opinion, some of the fundamental traits of journalism include being able to bridge cultures, hold governments accountable for their actions and mapping global developments for the general public."
“The newsroom at The Daily Star is a very engaging environment with incredible journalists who have taught me a lot about how to improve my interviewing and reporting techniques and also my writing. I worked on several articles for three different offices. I reported on a building lying at the forefront of sustainable development in Lebanon, on the need to set up women's football academies in Lebanon in the wake of the FIFA Women's World Cup, and on the composition of the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra, over a quarter of whose musicians are Romanian.
These reports allowed me to gain a better understanding of Lebanese politics and society, to develop my command of Arabic and to immerse myself in the Middle Eastern culture."