Visual Data Journalist
Hong Kong
Permanent contract

Who are we?

AFP is a leading global news agency providing fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the events shaping our world and of the issues affecting our daily lives. Drawing from an unparalleled news gathering network across 151 countries, AFP also is a world leader in digital verification. With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world in six languages, with a unique quality of multimedia storytelling spanning video, text, photos and graphics.

Job description

AFP, one of the world’s leading news agencies, is looking for an experienced, motivated graphic artist with strong data journalism skills to join the Asia-Pacific team.

Based in our Hong Kong newsroom or one of the main regional editorial hubs (Bangkok or Seoul), you will drive data-visualization innovation and be responsible for conceiving, pitching, designing and producing static and possibly animated news-related graphics.

You will collaborate closely with our team of Asia regional editors and reporters on coverage, as your ideas and the data you visualize could also form the basis for stories that will be produced by your colleagues in text, photo or video.

Your main task will be to produce graphics on breaking news events unfolding across the Asia-Pacific region, focusing on data-driven graphics, including maps. You will look for and exploit relevant datasets and choose the most relevant visualizations, as well as explainers with strong graphic-added value.

Depending on breaking news, you will also produce graphics for dominant news stories happening outside the Asia region.

You would also keep an eye out for more general graphic stories that would serve AFP’s broader editorial priorities, such as the environment, climate change and developments in the digital world.

You will also help promote data-journalism within the newsroom, in Hong Kong and elsewhere, being able to alert the rest of the newsroom if your visualizations help identify a specific trend, a new piece of information.

You will work with a set of advanced data processing and visualization tools, including mapping tools. You will ensure the accuracy of the information you produce.

You will closely monitor social media and strictly adhere to the Agency’s guidelines on social media activity as well as to the graphics department’s internal guidelines.

As a general rule, you will commit to respecting AFP’s ethics charter as well as all the editorial guidelines in force and in the Agency’s style guide.

You will contribute to the fight against misinformation by helping factcheckers in the network and ensure you are trained in the various methods of online verification, now indispensable for all journalism. Online training is available here.

In an ever-changing media environment, the nature of the job could evolve in line with coverage demands and the requirements of an increasingly diverse client base.

Preferred experience

• Driven and self starting person with a flair for translating news event and trends into visual conten
• Ability to explain complex subjects in a simple way
• Have strong interest in collecting data sets, in organizing the data with the appropriate tools, in innovative forms of visualizations, cartography and explainers
• Perfect understanding of visual journalism and today’s best practices
• Solid knowledge of the web and data gathering and analyzing tools, including mastery of spreadsheets
• Solid knowledge of visualization and cartography tools like QGIS
• Perfect knowledge of Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effect
• Coding knowledge (mostly Python)
• Deep interest in news and a high degree of responsiveness to events
• Initiative and creativity
• Be highlight-motivated and fizzing with ideas
• Ability to work under pressure
• Be collaborative to work as part of a team, with a foresight and a high degree of autonomy and versatility
• Fluent in English speaking, reading, writing. French would be a plus

Recruitment process

Please visit our site and send your CV, Portfolio and Cover Letter by clicking on Apply online

Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted for further steps in the recruitment process.

AFP is committed to equal opportunities and greater diversity within its teams. We therefore encourage all applications in order to preserve the wealth of profiles, cultures and languages that constitute the strength of our network.