Pyongyang was once a city so dominated by Christianity that it was known as the " Jerusalem of the East." Today it stands as the capital of North Korea's oppressive dictatorship that has become one of the world's harshest persecutors of the Christian faith.

Editor and journalist Jonathan Cheng is the former Korea bureau chief and current China bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal - he is the author of Korean Messiah (2026), a detailed, decade-long investigation into the Christian roots that helped create North Korea's personality cult. At the center of this story is North Korea's founder, Kim II Sung, son of two fervent Christians and progenitor of an ideology known as Kimilsungism, an exercise in idolatry that has elevated him, and his successor son and grandson, lo, Christ-like status, from the humble manger where he was born lo the subway seat on which the venerated leader once placed his posterior, cordoned off as if it were a religious relic.

Author Q&A moderated by FCC Correspondent Governor Jennifer Jett.

Find out more about Korean Messiah

https://koreanmessiah.com/

Find out more about FCC Hong Kong Q&A events and lunch speakers:

https://www.fcchk.org/events/

Produced by Jarrod Watt

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Morgan Davis, president of the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Hong Kong, discusses the recent public statement on behalf of the FCC board and membership regarding the recent court victory for journalist Selina Cheng, related to her role as elected chair of the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association.

Hear her discuss other big issues and stories confronting journalists working in Hong Kong, from the ongoing coverage of the aftermath of the Himalayas flood disaster to Hong Kong's evolving role as Asia's international centre of finance as well as the upcoming agenda for the FCC lunchtime speakers events, and the call for GenZ journalists to apply for the 2026/2027 Hollingworth Fellowship.

Info and application details for the Clare Hollingworth Fellowship

https://www.fcchk.org/fcc-clare-hollingworth-fellowship-2026-2027-applications-open/

Upcoming speaker events at the FCC Hong Kong:

https://www.fcchk.org/events/speaker-events/

Produced and presented by Jarrod Watt

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 10th annual journalism conference held by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong brought together an eclectic, intergenerational group of journalists and people working in media creation to hear panel discussions and participate in workshops on everything from practical AI usage in newsrooms to personal branding on Instagram, alternate business models via Substack and dealing with moral injury.

FCC Hong Kong president Morgan Davis wraps this year's event and looks back on how it's changed over the past decade, while first-time attendees Samra Safalqr and Trista Kurniawan review what they saw and heard, and how this informs their experiences as GenZ journalists at the beginning of their careers.

Produced and presented by Jarrod Watt

Theme music composed and performed by Allen Youngblood

Catch up on previous episodes featuring FCC conference guest speakers:

* How journalists can survive and thrive in the AI age: Diana Wu David on career resilience

* Understanding moral injury in journalists: Dean Yates in conversation

* Pekingnology, Trump in Beijing, Substack versus newsroom journalism: Zichen Wang

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What now for careers in journalism, with the onset of AI technology and an "age of abundance" of information? Karen Koh, veteran broadcast journalist and first vice president of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong speaks with Diana Wu David, a former FT executive and top 50 global influencer on the future of work, about career resilience in the age of AI. David, who is author of the book Future Proof: Reinventing Work in an Age of Acceleration and now Director of Futures at ServiceNow, discusses the importance of adapting to new technologies and channels in journalism, emphasizing the need for a portfolio career and personal branding. She highlights the value of curiosity, communication, and relationships in journalism, and advises young journalists to experiment and build networks while maintaining financial stability.

Diana Wu David was one of the speakers at the 10th annual FCC Hong Kong Journalism Conference.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FCC member governor Jing Yang in conversation with Dean Yates about moral injury, how it affects journalists, understanding how moral injury develops, and fostering a supportive organizational structure in newsrooms.

Dean Yates knows what it means to live with the consequences of the stories you cover. His career in journalism includes years with Reuters as a journalist, editor and bureau chief, working across Asia including Jakarta, Jerusalem and Baghdad, bearing witness to acts of terrorism, the mass tragedy in the Boxing Day tsunami, as well as the incident infamously revealed by Wikileaks in 2010 - when the members of his Reuters team were machine-gunned to death by a US army helicopter while doing their job.

He walked a long road in dealing with the moral injuries he’d sustained and put it all down in writing in his book published in 2023,

Line in the Sand: A life-changing journey through a body and mind after trauma

Yates has become a leading voice on moral injury, helping not just journalists, but veterans, emergency and other frontline workers.

In this conversation he outlines how moral injury is a concept similar to PTSD but distinct, affecting journalists who witness or experience ethical violations, and identifies three main reasons for journalists' vulnerability: reporting on morally troubling stories, being targeted for their work, and lack of organizational support.

Pre-recorded and played as part of the 2026 FCC Journalism Conference.

Find out more about Dean Yates' work at his website:

https://www.deanyates.com.au/

More information on his book Line in the Sand:

https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781761264429/

Produced by Jarrod Watt

Music composed by Allen Youngblood

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FCC Clare Hollingsworth fellow Samra Zulfaqar previews this year's journalism conference, discussing the challenges and pressures for GenZ journalists, the need to embrace personal branding for journalists, how social media and the rise of influencers are changing how news organisations approach the delivery of news.

This year's conference panels and presentations :

* Ian Yee, investigative journalist, co-founder of The Fourth

https://thefourth.media/

* Tai Po Fire disaster coverage panel discussion

Jennifer Jett, Hans Tse, Anjali Tsui, Leopold Chen

*The Art of Sourcing

Jing Yang, Mithil Aggarwal

*Navigating Hong Kong's legal environment

Connor Mycroft, Jonathan Man

* Live reporting and blogging

Danny Vincent and Laura Westbrook

* Notebook LM: news reporting assistant

Mike Raomanachai, Zela Chin

* Alternative Media Careers: Building a Successful Newsletter

Amanda Cua and Zichen Wang

* Let's talk about moral injury

Dean Yates, Jing Yang

* Career resilience: earning a living, building a personal profile

Zichen Wang, Wei Du, Diana Wu David

*Fireside chat: No love lost between Journalists and PR?

Jay Qin, Jing Yang

*AI empowered journalism: how SCMP connects tech in the newsroom

Zhou Xin, William Zheng

* Keynote speaker

Holmes Chan, AFP

FCC Hong Kong website: https://www.fcchk.org/

Produced by Jarrod Watt

Music composed by Allen Youngblood

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What do the journalists and correspondents of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong have to say about press freedom?

FCC correspondent member governor and bureau chief for The Information, Jing Yang discusses the results of the press freedom survey taken of FCC members, in which local journalists and foreign correspondents alike gave their response to questions over the working environment in Hong Kong, increased sensitivity among sources, concerns about digital and physical surveillance as well as perceptions of the economic health of newsrooms in Hong Kong.

Survey answers are voiced using Elevenlabs AI.

Read the FCC statement on World Press Freedom Day:

https://www.fcchk.org/statement-on-results-of-fcc-press-freedom-survey-2025-2026/

Read the online edition of the The Correspondent magazine:

https://issuu.com/fcchk/docs/the_correspondent_april_2026?fr=xKAE9_zMzMw

Produced by Jarrod Watt

Music composed by Allen Youngblood

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Donald Trump’s upcoming China visit draws global attention, what’s happening behind the scenes in Beijing? Zichen Wang, author of the Substack newsletter Pekingnology and former Xinhua correspondent is a guest speaker at the upcoming FCC Hong Kong journalism conference, and speaks in-depth about the breakdown in US-China relations, trade war risks, AI cooperation, and China’s geopolitical strategy—from rare earth dominance to the Strait of Hormuz and Middle East tensions.

Hear him explain the shift from state media to "independent" journalism via Substack, the challenges of accessing reliable information in China, why newsletters are becoming essential for understanding global politics and how Substack continues to exist in mainland China without being blocked.

(01:54) Speculation and expectations over Trump in Beijing

(09:56) Evolution of US-China relations

(18:24) Transition from newsroom to newsletter journalism

(33:06) Impact of anti-spying raids on consulting firms

(37:29) Substack's availability in China

(43:12) Future trends in China's policy

Find out more about the FCC journalism conference on May 16:

https://www.fcchk.org/event/journalism-conference-2026/

Produced and presented by Jarrod Watt

Theme music composed by and performed by Allen Youngblood

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.