Jessica Bateman journalist

I’m an award-winning investigative reporter, narrative feature writer and audio documentary maker based in Berlin, Germany. My longform work explores issues of gender, extremism, faith and belief systems around the world and I’ve been published in The Guardian, the BBC, The Economist 1843, The Washington Post, Wired, POLITICO Magazine, Foreign Policy, The New Republic, The Nation and many more. I also currently cover Germany for Hyphen Online, a new publication focused on issues important to Muslims around Europe, and teach International Journalism at the Council on International Education Exchange, Berlin.

In 2025 I won the European Press Prize Distinguished Reporting Award for my POLITICO Magazine feature about the lasting trauma of Greece's post-civil war black market baby trade and the role Western foreign policy played in this. Other recent projects include a feature about LGBTQ faith communities in the US deep south, which appeared on the cover of The Washington Post's style section, and a multi-country investigation into how anti-abortion activists export their tactics overseas for The New Republic and New Lines magazines. Previously, I was part of the award-winning team that made the BBC World Service investigative series The Anti-Vax Files and The Denial Files.

I have also worked as a foreign correspondent in Greece, Germany and the Balkans, covering everything from immigration and the drugs trade to archeological discoveries. In 2020 I was lead editor on European collaborative journalism project Summer of Solidarity, commissioning and editing feature stories from around the continent. Before relocating to Berlin I spent two years living in Athens, Greece, where I developed a fascination with the dark side of the country’s mass tourism industry. I still pop back occasionally to report on this.

Recognition

European Press Prize Distinguished Reporting Award, winner, 2025
Heinrich Böll Stiftung Transatlantic Media Fellowship, 2023
IWMF Fund for Women Journalists, grantee, 2022
Webby Awards, honoree (as part of team), 2022
Radio 4 Pick of the Year (as part of team), 2021
New York Festivals Radio Awards Best Documentary, finalist (as part of team), 2021
European Collaborative Journalism Programme, 2021
journalismfund.eu cross-border fund, grantee, 2020
IJP George Weidenfeld Bursary, 2019

Portrait by Marco Argüello