Phoebe Davis

Since Phoebe Davis became a reporter for Tortoise in 2021, she shown the breadth of her journalistic skills: from an exclusive on the increasing rate of suicide among UK doctors and health care workers, the tense relationship between the Chinese government and Hollywood, the impact of Uganda’s anti-LGBT+ law, the science behind climbing K2 in winter and MPs taking their partners – who are also on their staff – on significantly more paid-for holidays than their colleagues. She also voiced Tortoise's Invaded: Voicemails from Ukraine podcast series which followed the lives of Ukrainians across the country in the aftermath of the Russian invasion – a series featured in the Financial Times best podcasts of 2022 list. But it is specifically in how women’s rights intersects with her assigned reporting brief – health, education and public policy – where Phoebe has carved out her path in the Tortoise newsroom. Her most recent exclusive on British police testing women for abortion drugs and requesting data from menstrual tracking apps after unexplained pregnancy loss is one of Tortoise’s highest-performing stories for 2023. Her post on X detailing the story had over 1 million impressions and 30,000 engagements. Thousands reshared the piece including Dr Ann Olivarius OBE, an American-British lawyer who specialises in sexual discrimination and the UK’s shadow technology minister who wrote “Welcome to Gilead”. The story is the latest in a series of news reporting by Phoebe investigating then increase in women in the UK facing prosecutions for illegal abortions across England and follows her reporting in 2022 on the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US, including an investigation into the legal-birthplace of Supreme Court Amy Coney Barrett. One of the key themes of Tortoise’s reporting in 2023 has been “impunity”, Phoebe’s exclusive on the Premier League’s failure to conduct mandatory consent training after a number of senior players were accused of sexual assault and abuse surmises that theme perfectly. Following increased scrutiny on Manchester United in how they handled the allegations against first team player Mason Greenwood, Phoebe confirmed that the club had not conducted their training as directed by the Premier League. Rights groups who had campaigned for the training to take place in the first place thanked the investigation for keeping the Premier League accountable. The story went on to receive coverage in the Sun and Daily Star. So too is Phoebe’s coverage of gender apartheid in Afghanistan. Working with Senior Reporter, Will Brown, Phoebe revealed that top UN agencies had bowed to Taliban pressure for male only offices which had been infiltrated by Taliban informants. A decision which one female UN employee told Tortoise meant the organisation had “not only betrayed its own women staff but also the whole Afghan women”. Tortoise was told this story was shared with high level officials within the UN due to the concerns raised and Phoebe has continued to report on the gender persecution in Afghanistan, including the increase in suicide among women and girls in the country.