Luz Mely Reyes, 2018

“I have to go, because I am a journalist.”

Venezuelan journalist Luz Mely Reyes recalled speaking these words to her mother on February 4, 1992, when news of an attempted coup reached her as a rookie reporter. Her mother feared for her safety and begged her to stay home. Reyes asked for a blessing and went to work. She repeated the sentence in her 2018 Committee to Protect Journalists acceptance speech after more than twenty-five years covering politics. The line does not erase fear or turn danger into spectacle. It explains why a reporter may accept carefully considered risk when the public urgently needs verified information about who holds power and what is happening in the streets.

That responsibility begins with preparation. During political upheaval, a newsroom should confirm reporting routes, establish check-in times, provide protective equipment, and decide when a journalist must leave a scene. Editors need multiple ways to contact field teams and a clear escalation plan if someone disappears. Reporters should distinguish what they personally observe from claims made by officials, protesters, witnesses, or social-media accounts. Fast reporting is valuable only when locations, dates, images, and identities have been checked. Safety and accuracy reinforce one another because a prepared journalist can devote more attention to evidence instead of improvising every decision under pressure.

Reyes later co-founded Efecto Cocuyo after leaving a senior newspaper role. Her speech described Venezuelan newsrooms weakened by closures, exile, threats, and attacks. Independent outlets responding to those conditions need durable systems rather than heroic improvisation alone: shared archives, diversified funding, secure source communication, legal support, and collaboration across borders. They must also make corrections visible and explain what remains uncertain. Trust grows when audiences can see how a conclusion was reached, especially in a crisis where governments and political movements compete to control the narrative.

The quote remains powerful because it connects professional identity to public service without suggesting that journalists owe the public unlimited personal risk. A reporter’s duty is to seek and verify consequential facts; an employer’s duty is to reduce avoidable danger and support the people doing that work. Audiences also have a role by valuing local reporting, resisting harassment, and distinguishing evidence from partisan assertion. Reyes went to work because the country was entering a defining moment. The continuing lesson is that journalism serves democracy when courage is matched by method, care, and institutional backing. Saying ‘I have to go’ should mean that the reporter has a necessary question to pursue, a plan for returning safely, and colleagues prepared to keep the public record intact if conditions become worse. That combination turns individual resolve into reliable coverage and lasting civic memory.