Jessica Bateman
@jessicabateman.bsky.social
Berlin-based journalist focused on gender, faith and extremism | Bylines Wash Post, BBC, Guardian, 1843 etc | European Press Prize winner 2025 | Covering Germany for Hyphen
Pinned
Jessica Bateman
jessicabatemanjournalist.com
Hi BlueSky! Looking forward to re-building a community here.
I'm a journalist based in Berlin after several years in Athens, Greece. I specialise in longform storytelling on gender, faith and extremism.
My website is jessicabatemanjournalist.com - and here are some of my favourite recent pieces 🧵
I'm a journalist based in Berlin after several years in Athens, Greece. I specialise in longform storytelling on gender, faith and extremism.
My website is jessicabatemanjournalist.com - and here are some of my favourite recent pieces 🧵
Many of the Iranian human rights activists I've interviewed have been calling for this for a long time. The EU has also passed targeted sanctions on regime officials (another request by activists). www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
EU designates Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation
‘Any organisation that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,’ says Kaja Kallas
www.theguardian.com
January 29, 2026 at 9:25 PM
Many of the Iranian human rights activists I've interviewed have been calling for this for a long time. The EU has also passed targeted sanctions on regime officials (another request by activists). www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
Question for all #Iran watchers: does it feel like there is way more information warfare being waged over the recent uprisings than there was in 2022? I don't remember seeing anywhere near this level of clashing narratives and suspicious online activity during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests
January 26, 2026 at 1:55 PM
Question for all #Iran watchers: does it feel like there is way more information warfare being waged over the recent uprisings than there was in 2022? I don't remember seeing anywhere near this level of clashing narratives and suspicious online activity during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests
Reposted by Jessica Bateman
Germany is home to the largest Iranian diaspora in Europe. At protests in Berlin, many told me they want to see European leaders take "real action" against Tehran - such as expelling ambassadors, targeted sanctions, and the classification of the Revolutionary Guard as a terror group
Iranian dissidents in Germany are urging European leaders to cut diplomatic ties with Tehran, as reports suggest thousands have been killed in the regime’s brutal crackdown on protests.
✍🏼Jessica Bateman
https://hyphenonline.com/2026/01/22/iran-tehran-germany-berlin-protest-sever-diplomatic-ties/
✍🏼Jessica Bateman
https://hyphenonline.com/2026/01/22/iran-tehran-germany-berlin-protest-sever-diplomatic-ties/
German-Iranians urge Europe to sever ties with Tehran - Hyphen
Dissidents on the streets in Berlin told Hyphen they wanted to see ‘real action’ after brutal crackdown in Iran
hyphenonline.com
January 23, 2026 at 11:27 AM
Germany is home to the largest Iranian diaspora in Europe. At protests in Berlin, many told me they want to see European leaders take "real action" against Tehran - such as expelling ambassadors, targeted sanctions, and the classification of the Revolutionary Guard as a terror group
Reposted by Jessica Bateman
this place needs more jokes about the brooklyn beckham wedding drama
January 20, 2026 at 12:14 AM
this place needs more jokes about the brooklyn beckham wedding drama
"What has unsettled me more is how quickly Venezuelans ceased to be the subject of the story at all. Almost immediately, the media coverage migrated elsewhere toward abstractions of power and sovereignty, international law." Via @unbiasthenews.bsky.social
unbiasthenews.org/venezuela-wi...
unbiasthenews.org/venezuela-wi...
Venezuela without Venezuelans - Unbias The News
As bombs fall and power shifts, Venezuela is reframed as a geopolitical case study, while the voices of those living through the crisis are pushed aside. The gap between global commentary and lived re...
unbiasthenews.org
January 14, 2026 at 11:48 AM
"What has unsettled me more is how quickly Venezuelans ceased to be the subject of the story at all. Almost immediately, the media coverage migrated elsewhere toward abstractions of power and sovereignty, international law." Via @unbiasthenews.bsky.social
unbiasthenews.org/venezuela-wi...
unbiasthenews.org/venezuela-wi...
How hard could it really be for Novara Media to find a left-wing Iranian to write about this topic instead? Certain people need to pass the mic and sit this one out.
January 12, 2026 at 3:56 PM
How hard could it really be for Novara Media to find a left-wing Iranian to write about this topic instead? Certain people need to pass the mic and sit this one out.
Reposted by Jessica Bateman
Fascinating: Miller rails against neoliberalism here and dismisses the world order the U.S. largely established post-WWII.
Neoliberalism has MANY critics (particularly progressives), but Miller is insisting the U.S. act like a superpower while decrying…how it became a superpower in the first place?
Neoliberalism has MANY critics (particularly progressives), but Miller is insisting the U.S. act like a superpower while decrying…how it became a superpower in the first place?
MILLER: The US is using its military to secure our interests unapologetically in our hemisphere. We're a superpower. It's absurd we'd allow a nation in our backyard to become a supplier of resources to our adversaries
TAPPER: Sovereign countries shouldn't be able to do what they want?
M: *yells*
TAPPER: Sovereign countries shouldn't be able to do what they want?
M: *yells*
January 6, 2026 at 1:02 PM
Fascinating: Miller rails against neoliberalism here and dismisses the world order the U.S. largely established post-WWII.
Neoliberalism has MANY critics (particularly progressives), but Miller is insisting the U.S. act like a superpower while decrying…how it became a superpower in the first place?
Neoliberalism has MANY critics (particularly progressives), but Miller is insisting the U.S. act like a superpower while decrying…how it became a superpower in the first place?
Honestly incredible
amazing how the entire machine can pivot within 24 hours. no need to slowly upsell the argument; just issue new marching orders
January 5, 2026 at 2:53 PM
Honestly incredible
I see some white Western "leftists" are doing to Venezuelans what they previously did to Syrians: dismissing their voices and lived experience while positioning themselves as the true experts.
Some leftists' racism always comes out when minority groups don't behave the way they believe they should.
Some leftists' racism always comes out when minority groups don't behave the way they believe they should.
January 5, 2026 at 2:45 PM
I see some white Western "leftists" are doing to Venezuelans what they previously did to Syrians: dismissing their voices and lived experience while positioning themselves as the true experts.
Some leftists' racism always comes out when minority groups don't behave the way they believe they should.
Some leftists' racism always comes out when minority groups don't behave the way they believe they should.
Feel like this point should be more central to some of the current discussions. Trump did not single handedly destroy the international order - there are many institutions and individuals who need to do some self-reflection.
From www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
From www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
January 5, 2026 at 2:40 PM
Feel like this point should be more central to some of the current discussions. Trump did not single handedly destroy the international order - there are many institutions and individuals who need to do some self-reflection.
From www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
From www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
Reposted by Jessica Bateman
Rules-based international order has had a rough couple of decades, but this pretty much ends it entirely. Both the strikes and the capture of Maduro are also blatant violations of US domestic law too, of course.
January 3, 2026 at 10:02 AM
Rules-based international order has had a rough couple of decades, but this pretty much ends it entirely. Both the strikes and the capture of Maduro are also blatant violations of US domestic law too, of course.
This is one of the first German habits I picked up. Still don't drink sparkling water, still don't really like pickles, but damn my brain is now fully programmed to WAIT for that green man no matter how empty the street.
Germany is:
waiting, totally naturally, at a red light when there are no cars in sight.
waiting, totally naturally, at a red light when there are no cars in sight.
December 30, 2025 at 11:31 AM
This is one of the first German habits I picked up. Still don't drink sparkling water, still don't really like pickles, but damn my brain is now fully programmed to WAIT for that green man no matter how empty the street.
Germany may be famous for its memory culture, in which the horrors of the Holocaust and the Nazi regime are commemorated in monuments and days of remembrance, but reflecting on what one’s own family may have done during this period is often more taboo. I met some of the people trying to change this.
‘My grandfather was a Wehrmacht soldier. It left him a broken man.’
More Germans are trying to discover what their ancestors did in the second world war – and if they were involved in its crimes.
https://bit.ly/3YSjydm
More Germans are trying to discover what their ancestors did in the second world war – and if they were involved in its crimes.
https://bit.ly/3YSjydm
‘My grandfather was a Wehrmacht soldier. It left him a br...
More Germans are trying to discover what their ancestors did in the second world war – and if they were involved in its crimes
bit.ly
December 30, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Germany may be famous for its memory culture, in which the horrors of the Holocaust and the Nazi regime are commemorated in monuments and days of remembrance, but reflecting on what one’s own family may have done during this period is often more taboo. I met some of the people trying to change this.
Reposted by Jessica Bateman
Vor kurzem hat @jessicabateman.bsky.social mich für @theobserveruk.bsky.social zu einem Recherche-Workshop zum Nationalsozialismus in der eigenen Familie in München begleitet – und sie ist den Geschichten einiger Teilnehmer*innen weiter gefolgt.
‘My grandfather was a Wehrmacht soldier. It left him a br...
More Germans are trying to discover what their ancestors did in the second world war – and if they were involved in its crimes
observer.co.uk
December 29, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Vor kurzem hat @jessicabateman.bsky.social mich für @theobserveruk.bsky.social zu einem Recherche-Workshop zum Nationalsozialismus in der eigenen Familie in München begleitet – und sie ist den Geschichten einiger Teilnehmer*innen weiter gefolgt.
Ten years on from Merkel's "wir schaffen das", German politicians are now asking Syrians to return home.
I marked this bittersweet anniversary by profiling five Syrians who came to Germany as refugees and have changed the country in profound ways - from LGBT activists to artists and doctors.
I marked this bittersweet anniversary by profiling five Syrians who came to Germany as refugees and have changed the country in profound ways - from LGBT activists to artists and doctors.
A decade on from Angela Merkel’s opening of the German borders to Syrians fleeing civil war, @jessicabateman.bsky.social speaks to five who made their homes in Germany — and finds out about the amazing contributions they have made to the country since.
hyphenonline.com/2025/12/22/s...
hyphenonline.com/2025/12/22/s...
The Syrian refugees who changed Germany - Hyphen
In 2015, Germany opened its doors to a million Syrian refugees. We meet five who have made a profound difference since then
hyphenonline.com
December 22, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Ten years on from Merkel's "wir schaffen das", German politicians are now asking Syrians to return home.
I marked this bittersweet anniversary by profiling five Syrians who came to Germany as refugees and have changed the country in profound ways - from LGBT activists to artists and doctors.
I marked this bittersweet anniversary by profiling five Syrians who came to Germany as refugees and have changed the country in profound ways - from LGBT activists to artists and doctors.
The "year in review" madness needs to stop. I don't want to be reminded of all the intricate personal data I feed to tech companies every day – please just stay quiet about it. And no I DO NOT want to see my LinkedIn "year in review", what kind of sicko do you think I am?
December 18, 2025 at 12:14 PM
The "year in review" madness needs to stop. I don't want to be reminded of all the intricate personal data I feed to tech companies every day – please just stay quiet about it. And no I DO NOT want to see my LinkedIn "year in review", what kind of sicko do you think I am?
Once again, never forget the role the richest man in the world played in this
When the Trump administration took away her family’s food this summer, Rose Natabo had to choose which of her three sons to care for — who ate and who didn’t.
This is her story... and the story of too many others.
New, @propublica.org
This is her story... and the story of too many others.
New, @propublica.org
The Summer of Starvation: Amid Trump’s Foreign Aid Cuts, a Mother Struggles to Keep Her Sons Alive
After the Trump administration cut off food from the third-largest refugee camp in the world, thousands of families faced impossible choices as their children starved.
www.propublica.org
December 18, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Once again, never forget the role the richest man in the world played in this
Reposted by Jessica Bateman
A little bright spark in the winter gloom:
A citizens' initiative designed to allow women in EU countries with draconian abortion laws to get care *elsewhere* in Europe has passed in the European Parliament.
The European Commission will now have to respond
www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pres...
A citizens' initiative designed to allow women in EU countries with draconian abortion laws to get care *elsewhere* in Europe has passed in the European Parliament.
The European Commission will now have to respond
www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pres...
‘My Voice, My Choice’: MEPs support citizens’ initiative on accessible abortion | News | European Parliament
On Wednesday, MEPs endorsed a European citizens’ initiative to improve access to abortion care for women in Europe through a voluntary opt-in financial solidarity mechanism.
www.europarl.europa.eu
December 18, 2025 at 11:00 AM
A little bright spark in the winter gloom:
A citizens' initiative designed to allow women in EU countries with draconian abortion laws to get care *elsewhere* in Europe has passed in the European Parliament.
The European Commission will now have to respond
www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pres...
A citizens' initiative designed to allow women in EU countries with draconian abortion laws to get care *elsewhere* in Europe has passed in the European Parliament.
The European Commission will now have to respond
www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pres...
The German Press Council has ruled that tabloid BILD violated the press code by describing Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif as a "Hamas leader" without evidence
www.presserat.de/presse-nachr...
www.presserat.de/presse-nachr...
Presserat entscheidet über Massenbeschwerde - Presserat
Mehr als 300 Menschen hatten sich beim Presserat gemeldet und über eine Nahost-Berichterstattung beschwert.
www.presserat.de
December 16, 2025 at 4:48 PM
The German Press Council has ruled that tabloid BILD violated the press code by describing Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif as a "Hamas leader" without evidence
www.presserat.de/presse-nachr...
www.presserat.de/presse-nachr...
"[The older British media class] believe their own politics to be neutral, impartial- and other people’s politics to be the aberration, or doctrinaire, a belief egged on by the fact that most of the media agrees with them. Orthodoxies are for other people."
A must-read from @lewisgoodall.com
A must-read from @lewisgoodall.com
The truth about impartiality at the BBC
And the hysteria of the current "crisis"
goodallandgoodluck.substack.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:37 PM
"[The older British media class] believe their own politics to be neutral, impartial- and other people’s politics to be the aberration, or doctrinaire, a belief egged on by the fact that most of the media agrees with them. Orthodoxies are for other people."
A must-read from @lewisgoodall.com
A must-read from @lewisgoodall.com
This is a really illuminating piece from @nstamouli.bsky.social on what the future of Europe could look like as we head into COP30: climate refugees are not a concept from the distant future, they are on the continent right now. www.politico.eu/article/euro...
Europe’s climate refugees: The Greek communities wiped off the map
Villages in the country’s agricultural breadbasket lie half-abandoned two years after catastrophic floods.
www.politico.eu
November 11, 2025 at 11:40 AM
This is a really illuminating piece from @nstamouli.bsky.social on what the future of Europe could look like as we head into COP30: climate refugees are not a concept from the distant future, they are on the continent right now. www.politico.eu/article/euro...
360 by Charli xcx is actually about Zohran Mamdani
November 5, 2025 at 4:50 PM
360 by Charli xcx is actually about Zohran Mamdani
This was a fascinating listen on the role religion has played in the NYC Mayoral election and the myriad of ways faith can shape our politics and voting habits
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...
BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Mamdani New York
Religion’s role in Zohran Mamdani’s meteoric rise in New York’s political scene.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 4, 2025 at 9:19 PM
This was a fascinating listen on the role religion has played in the NYC Mayoral election and the myriad of ways faith can shape our politics and voting habits
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...
New work for @theobserveruk.bsky.social: I took a look at why sobriety is on the rise in Berlin, the world's capital of hedonism, and whether drug-free parties could help save nightlife venues from closure observer.co.uk/news/interna...
Berlin clubs kick the drug habit as sober nights lure crowds
The world’s unofficial nightlife capital is embracing a surprising narcotics-free trend among ravers
observer.co.uk
November 2, 2025 at 3:30 PM
New work for @theobserveruk.bsky.social: I took a look at why sobriety is on the rise in Berlin, the world's capital of hedonism, and whether drug-free parties could help save nightlife venues from closure observer.co.uk/news/interna...