Women in Journalism; Leah Boleto in conversation with Ash Sarkar

On Tuesday evening I had the pleasure of joining an intimate group of young women for a fireside chat between the self-proclaimed ‘luxury communist’, Ash Sarkar, and Leah Boleto, Sky News anchor, hosted by the Women In Journalism organisation.

Leah asked Ash a series of questions enabling us to get an insight into her upbringing, what led her to be so passionate and vocal on politics, and her work now with Novara Media. They finished by opening up the floor to the young budding journalists and students, who were keen to find out from Ash how she got to where she is and how best she would navigate certain situations they were facing when entering the world of journalism, as a woman.

When I arrived at the event it was a cold mid-February evening, I’d been working from home that day and to be honest, I’d had a pretty uninspiring day. It also doesn’t help that nothing positive seems to be coming out of the news headlines at the moment. However, as I walked home from the event that night, I couldn’t (without being cheesy) feel somewhat optimistic about the future. It was a real pleasure to hear so many different women be so inquisitive in Ash’s career to better their own. There seemed to be an energy in the room of wanting to challenge the norm and really make a change for the better. I found myself trying to remember as many names as I could as it seemed only possible these girls would be doing something influential in journalism in years to come.

Two points that stuck with me -

When asked what media she reads, her guilty pleasures, and publications she refuses to pick up, her answer was ‘nothing is a guilty pleasure’, and she reads everything and anything.

Ash said, ‘Her worst work is her tweets because no one has reviewed them’. A constant reminder that teamwork always wins and to always get a second opinion!