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Boyoung Lim had positions as a police officer, an investigative reporter, and the director of the AI Accountability Network at the Pulitzer Center. It was an unconventional career path that was neither planned nor linear.
Lim, who was raised in South Korea, never saw herself as a journalist. She always wanted to work as a police officer.
After completing her studies at the Korean National Police University, she started focusing on cybercrime. She claims that unlike most other crimes, cybercrime necessitates extensive cross-border cooperation between the business sector and foreign law enforcement organizations. As an investigative reporter with the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism – Newstapa (KCIJ-Newstapa), South Korea’s first nonprofit investigative journalism center, she later developed these talents by working on investigations as a team, which she learned from this experience.
(In actuality, Lim applied to the outlet initially “just to see how a newsroom works,” but when they saw her potential, they offered her a job as an investigative reporter.)
Lim oversaw cross-border partnerships at Newstapa, working on topics like the Implant Files, an examination of the flawed regulation of medical devices, with networks like the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Collaborating with the German public broadcaster NDR, “Fake Science” Factory revealed how Korean scholars utilized fraudulent conferences and publications to enhance their professional reputation and go on taxpayer-funded trips.
However, Lim’s fascination in algorithmic surveillance, how governments use it, and how societies are affected by it began with China Cables, an investigation into the monitoring and mass incarceration of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
Now, Lim heads the Pulitzer Center AI Accountability Network, which offers training and reporting grants to help journalists report on AI but also with AI. According to Lim, she has always loved investigations — as a police officer and as a reporter. In her current post, she finds herself having more impact by supporting journalists to get the funding and expertise they need to hold AI and algorithms accountable.
In this Q&A, part of GIJN’s ongoing interview series with leading investigative journalists, Lim gets candid about overcoming imposter syndrome and burn-out as she transitioned from police officer to investigative journalist.
GIJN: Of all the investigations you’ve worked on, which has been your favorite and why?
Boyoung Lim: The project I had the most fun doing is the ‘Fake Science’ investigation while I was with Newstapa. In collaboration with NDR, who had found several Korean names published in sham journals, we uncovered how academics and students at top universities in Korea (believe it or not, in both North and South Korea) had been using fake conferences and journals as a way to inflate their academic performance while producing low-quality research.
To show our audience how this works, our team submitted an auto-generated paper full of gibberish to one of these conferences. Surprise, surprise, it was accepted. This is their business model: as long as you pay a fee, whatever you submit is accepted without question. They don’t care whether you show up at the conference. Some attendees would not even bother to attend the actual meeting and go sightseeing in cities like Venice, Italy. The problem is most of these Korean academics travel to these conferences on government funding, i.e., taxpayer money. We found a considerable number of academics citing these conferences as achievements in their grant reports to the National Research Foundation of Korea. The story shook Korean academic circles and spurred discussions around research ethics and performance assessments standards.
GIJN: What are the biggest challenges in terms of investigative reporting in the country or region you report on?
BL: The biggest challenges of investigative reporting in South Korea are two-fold: political and economic. From the weaponization of legal action against investigative journalists to the deprioritization of investigative reporting in most newsrooms due to financial constraints.
In September, Newstapa, my former newsroom and the most prominent independent investigative newsroom in South Korea, was raided by the prosecutors’ office amid claims the outlet had defamed the president. Newstapa has also reported on a scandal pre-dating the current president’s time in office, when he was the country’s top prosecutor, as well as a court case involving the First Lady.
On top of that, earlier this year Newstapa and civil rights groups successfully sued the prosecution service to disclose their usage of the special activity expense budget, which previously had never been made public. This legal battle to hold the prosecutor’s office accountable to taxpayers took three years. I can imagine all of this has made those in power very uncomfortable. South Korea is a proven democracy. How the authorities of this country unabashedly decided to weaponize legal actions against journalists — who are trying to hold power to account for the sake of democracy and are just trying to do their job — is deplorable.
On the economic side: from what I hear from other South Korean journalists, the investigative reporting budget is the first to be cut when newsrooms face financial issues. There seems to be a lack of acknowledgement on the positive role investigative and accountability reporting play in a democracy. Fortunately, there is some hope here. More journalists are exploring and experimenting with nonprofit and other alternative financial models to support their work. For example, Newstapa is incubating independent investigative newsrooms through its Newstapa Journalism School by providing training on investigative reporting techniques and how to run a nonprofit newsroom. A local startup investigative newsroom was launched through this project. Newstapa has an ambitious goal to establish 100 independent investigative outlets through this initiative.
GIJN: What’s been the greatest hurdle or challenge that you’ve faced in your time as an investigative journalist?
BL: What I struggled with was the feeling that I was an imposter. I buried myself in work to make up for my lack of education in journalism, to prove to myself that I deserved my space in the newsroom.
Sometimes it got so bad that I was guilting myself on the weekends, pushing myself harder and not letting myself take a good break, thinking that I didn’t deserve one. I failed to appreciate the uniqueness of my career trajectory. Imposter syndrome is the best friend of burnout, from which I suffered severely. In hindsight, I should not have listened to the voice of doubt inside me and should have given myself more credit.
GIJN: What is your best tip or trick for interviewing?
BL: These are some of the things I have always found useful before interviews:
- Read everything there is out there to read about the person or topic.
- Make a list of core questions and less important ones.
- Don’t immediately jump into the core questions when starting the interview. You don’t want to scare them off.
- People love being listened to. Listen sincerely, as if your interviewee is the only person in the world… but verify everything they say.
BL: It really depends on the type of investigation and what the topic is. My all-time go-to’s are: good old-fashioned pen and paper. Spreadsheets. Post-its. Lining up material in chronological order.
GIJN has lots of useful how-to’s and resources for different types of investigations, as well as tipsheets. If anyone is interested in how to hold AI systems and the people behind them accountable, the Pulitzer Center has some great tips and toolkits for reporting on and with AI.
BL: Advice that resonated with me came from books I read and movies I watched to learn more about writing and journalism. From Anne Lamott’s book, “Bird by Bird”: “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.”
From the Japanese movie, “The Journalist”: “Believe and doubt yourself more than anyone else.”
GIJN: Who is a journalist you admire, and why?
BL: This is a tough one. There are so many I admire. Most of them you might know, as they are well-known and well-celebrated. But we need to remember that there are also so many journalists out there who we are not aware of, but are risking their lives, have lost their lives, or have been imprisoned for doing their job. They may be less known or less celebrated precisely because they happen to work in a country or region that gets less attention than others.
I recently attended a panel at GIJC23 and was touched by the fearless work of journalists at Zan Times (Afghanistan) whose names we do not know for security reasons. Working as a female journalist under Taliban rule could cost your life, yet they are still working and trying their best to inform their communities and the world. I am humbled by stories I hear about journalists working in such situations with courage and commitment.
Our industry doesn’t celebrate enough those who are not journalists themselves, but whose work makes our work possible. We should remind ourselves to appreciate those who work with us – journalists or not – and people from other walks of life who support our work.
