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Polk Award Winners: Amel Guettatfi and Julia Steers

April 15, 2024·43 min·4 clips

How two journalists spent 18 months badgering Wagner mercenaries to get inside their secretive African camp.

The episode starts with loose housekeeping, then Aaron brings the week back to conversations with George Polk Award winners and the reporting that got noticed. Pretty quickly, the room tightens around one problem: why would a Russia-aligned source put up with Vice cameras when hard questions were part of the deal? The answer is messy, which is the point. The guest walks through a relationship that changed over time. The source argued off camera, resisted appearing on camera, then became part of the finished piece. That turn says a lot. Access was not handed over. It was worked out through pressure, belief, ego, and a bet that the coverage might help. From the guest's account, the source saw Russian activity in Central African Republic as a real alternative to French power and broader Western influence. The reporters had to understand that argument without buying it. Vice had its own place in the calculation. Because it was not a government-owned network, and because the source knew earlier Vice work, the outlet looked useful to him. If he thought things were going well on the ground, being filmed could help prove it. That is the trap the episode sits with: reporting on power can give powerful people a stage, even while the story tries to show how influence and state capture work. Aaron ends by thanking both guests, hoping their work stays available, and folding the conversation into Longform's Polk Award week.

As heard by us

A careful look at Wagner reporting, source pressure, and the ethics of access.

Long Form uses this Polk Award conversation to show how journalism changes when the people being covered also help shape the frame. Amel Guettatfi and Julia Steers discuss their Wagner reporting in Russia and the Central African Republic, and the strongest material comes when…

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Why you'd press play

You want a reporting interview that stays inside the awkward part of the job.

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