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The Erasmus Mundus student shares his experience studying at City St George's and working to make media more inclusive

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“When I was growing up, the only representation of gay people I saw in the media made me feel ashamed. But then I found other media online -  in English, from abroad - and it gave me a different perspective,” said Daniel Villatoro, a City St George’s student and investigative journalist from Guatemala. Daniel was named Young Journalist of the Year by One Young World in 2022 and leads a programme dedicated to improving LGBTQ+ reporting in Latin America.

“Seeing those stories – it was light in the darkness. If our programme had existed when I was a kid, maybe I wouldn’t have struggled so much. That’s why I do what I do. So that kids growing up in Guatemala today can read stories in their own media - stories about being Indigenous and queer, about trans women organising together, about love, identity and survival.

That matters. Media matters. And I’ll keep doing this work - stubbornly - because I love it. And I love what it does for the world.

Daniel, 32, is an Erasmus Mundus student studying Media Innovation and Business Reporting MA. He has been living in London for nine months and first decided to undertake the master’s after completing a human rights fellowship at Columbia University in 2021.

While in New York, he was exposed to international law lectures and global networks which inspired him to broaden his journalism expertise.

Already an established investigative journalist in his home country of Guatemala, Daniel first worked for an investigative magazine at age 19 while he studied his undergraduate Communications and Journalism degree.

“It was right around the time of WikiLeaks, and that magazine had access to the leaks,” said Daniel. “I didn’t originally want to be an investigative journalist, but when I turned 18, I started paying more attention to how important journalism was in shaping society. I felt like people really needed to care about what was happening in our country.”

Five years later, Daniel was working at a senior reporter role at Plaza Pública, an online investigative news publication. As a young, driven journalist at the beginning of his career, Daniel said he was willing to take on new challenges and wanted to explore data journalism.

“I ended up working on global projects and there was a strong online community around this type of work. I remember The Guardian had an open data blog that shared different methods and I learned a lot from that.”

Daniel then received a fellowship from the School of Data, which led to him running the programme while still working as a freelance journalist. He trained other investigative journalists from across the continent in data and technology tools  but could not shake the feeling that another issue demanded his time and attention, he said.

“Eventually, my focus shifted. I'm gay and Guatemala doesn’t have legal protections - it’s not criminalized, but there are no guarantees either. I started paying attention to how other countries were making progress and I wondered what needed to happen for things to change back home.

“At the time, I had a bit of a name as a young journalist, and I started gathering with other LGBTQ+ people - mostly folks from the media or NGOs - to think about what we could do. We began informally, just meeting and talking. Then in 2020, we turned it into something formal.”

Daniel co-founded  an NGO called Visibles. “I had to step back from journalism a bit to focus on that, but it felt necessary - we needed more inclusive structures in our media,” he said.

Alongside this work, aged 25, Daniel started an LGBTQ+ reporting programme in partnership with the International Women’s Media Foundation. Seven years later, the programme is still running with the aim of training journalists on how to report more accurately and inclusively on LGBTQ+ issues.

On the need for a programme like this in the region, he said:

In our media, like with many underrepresented groups, the only stories that get attention are the tragic ones. People are also afraid to ask questions and many countries in our region lack progressive education or policies. That’s where media plays a crucial role.

Even though I loved investigative reporting, I felt like there were already so many people holding politicians to account - but not enough people fighting for correct, respectful LGBTQ+ representation in the media. That’s what pushed me to do this.

As well as training courses, the programme offers grants and has supported over 200 stories told in a range of mediums including podcasts and documentaries with topics ranging from trans femicides to menstruation experiences.

“Over time, I began getting more recognition. At first, it was for my investigative reporting. But then it started shifting - people began acknowledging the social impact of the work, not just the stories. It became about the long-term change we were helping build,” he said.

In 2021, Daniel moved to New York for his Columbia fellowship. “That’s when I realized I wanted to do a formal master’s. I love learning. When you're from a small country, you end up learning so much by experience - on the ground, interviewing people, doing the work - but often, your academic institutions don't reflect the work you're actually doing.”

After living in the US and visiting the UK to accept his Young Journalist award where he rubbed shoulders with influential British journalists, Daniel took the plunge and applied for the Erasmus Mundus programme.

He spent his first year on the programme in Denmark before relocating to London. Daniel receives financial support through the scheme which he says has been instrumental in allowing him to live out his academic dreams.

Another drive behind Daniel’s choice to study media innovation was the changing political climate of his home country, which became increasingly far-right. Journalists exposing corruption among politicians and officials face threats and violence in the country, say press freedom watchdogs.

Daniel personally knew journalists who have been targeted and said:

It was heartbreaking. Friends left their families overnight. Seeing people prosecuted like that -  I felt like I had to step back and think: how can I be better? That’s why I joined this programme. It had that media innovation component that I think is so needed.

On studying his chosen field in the capital, he said:

I think City St George’s, University of London is one of the best places for journalism. Everyone reacts the same way when I say I’m doing my master’s there - they know it’s a great course. We’ve had incredible guest speakers like Maria Ressa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, and the global executive editor-in-chief of Bloomberg. City St George’s gives you a real X-ray view of what journalism is like today.

“Coming from a small country, I know I’ve done what I could in that environment, but this is a much bigger playing field. UK journalism isn’t just local, it’s global. There’s real influence here - and that makes it an important space to be in.”