At Bloomberg News, we’ve been working hard to seek out and train journalists from a range of backgrounds, be it in terms of ethnicity, gender and social class. It’s a constant effort that gained new urgency across the industry with the Black Lives Matter movement.

It is crucial to have partners like the Refugee Journalism Project (RJP). They provide pathways for people who might otherwise think pursuing a journalism career – or exercising their profession in a new country and foreign language – was just a pipe dream.

The collaborations help us meet and hopefully inspire people who might not otherwise think of Bloomberg as a place to start or pursue their careers. 

We’ve offered classes on business journalism and shown how it can be just as exciting as covering sports or fashion. Understanding how finance, markets and the economy work can be the foundation for breaking news on any beat. We’ve done skills-based workshops, mentoring and discussions about career possibilities. We’ve hosted groups in our London headquarters so that they see our incredibly international newsroom in action. We collaborate annually with the Refugee Journalism Project on a six-month fellowship within Bloomberg News. Our first RJP fellow, Fraidoon Poya, is now a full-time employee.  

When someone like Fraidoon joins the newsroom, they bring new perspectives and sources to our coverage, whatever the subject. Fraidoon says that while he learned about markets and how to follow the money, he drew on his 14 years as a writer and documentary photographer in Afghanistan to provide input on tackling stories or editing footage. 

There are challenges. Our partners serving displaced and refugee communities are navigating incredibly difficult and sensitive situations. That requires a great degree of flexibility from everyone involved. 


Every organisation is different, and the needs of individuals vary, but at Bloomberg, we are actively working to incorporate more refugees into our global workforce. Collaborating with strong organisations with track records of supporting communities is key to how we work. Our efforts in the newsroom dovetail with initiatives across the company and at Bloomberg Philanthropies.

We’ve offered career readiness workshops with the International Rescue Committee in New York and the HeadStart Young Refugee Program in London; technology bootcamps with non-profit partner, Re:Coded; and, in 2020, Bloomberg joined the Tent Partnership for Refugees. These are all part of our global Corporate Philanthropy program, which is working to ensure that more individuals from underrepresented communities have the relevant skills and experience for employment and entrepreneurship.