GIJN Welcomes 10 New Members from 10 Countries

The Global Investigative Journalism Network is delighted to welcome 10 new member organizations. We are particularly pleased to welcome for the first time groups from Ghana, Liberia, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Venezuela. Among the new members are award-winning reporting centers in Serbia and South Africa, online publishers in Malaysia and Venezuela, an African cross-border reporting network, and training groups based in Liberia, Germany, Mexico, and the Netherlands.

The new groups bring GIJN’s global membership to 138 groups in 62 countries. For a full listing, please see our membership directory. Membership in the Global Investigative Journalism Network is open to nonprofits, NGOs, and educational organizations, or their equivalent, that actively work in support of investigative reporting and related data journalism.

Please join us in welcoming our newest members to GIJN:

The African Investigative Publishing Collective (Ghana/Netherlands) is an association of veteran investigative journalists from 12 African countries who have dedicated their working — and often also private — lives to the exposure of wrongs in their societies. It is inspired by a commitment to dig deeper, unearth injustice and uncover truths in the public interest, that is, in the service of democracy, transparency and development.

AmaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism (South Africa) is among the leading sources of investigative reporting in southern Africa. Previously the M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism, AmaBhungane is a non-profit company that develops investigative journalism—a public interest task it believes promotes free, capable and worthy media, and open, accountable and just democracy.

Armando.info (Venezuela), was founded by three well-known Venezuelan investigative reporters: Alfredo Meza, Joseph Poliszuk, and Ewald Scharfenberg. It started in 2010 as a project from Instituto Prensa y Sociedad de Venezuela (Press and Society Institute of Venezuela or IPYS Venezuela), an NGO aimed at fostering investigative reporting and freedom of press. In July 2014, Armando.info became independent from IPYS Venezuela and began publishing one investigative story per week. Until January 2016 it had 600,000 visitors.

Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (Serbia) is a non-profit organization founded by a team of young journalists who for years have been engaged in exposing crime and corruption, and who have received many awards for their work. KRIK is dedicated to revealing organized crime and corruption that permeates all levels of society. “Our goal is to help the readers to better understand how crime and corruption affect their lives,” KRIK says. KRIK seeks to provide in-depth investigative stories, as well as the latest news in this field, and is also building an online database of documents.

Free Press Unlimited (Netherlands) is an NGO dedicated to initiating and enhancing independent quality journalism worldwide. Free Press Unlimited helps local journalists and media organizations in war zones and conflict areas, repressive states or fragile democracies, to provide their audience with trustworthy news and information. Free Press Unlimited believes that objective information can be of life-and-death importance and that investigative journalism is key in advocating for basic human rights and establishing a strong democracy.

The Interlink Academy for International Dialog and Journalism (Germany) strives to professionalize journalism and advance freedom of the media around the globe. The organization was established in 2014, is not-for-profit, and serves the global community of journalists. The focus of the Interlink Academy is on the new opportunities in research and publishing opening up with the digitization of the media. We develop and organize international conferences, exchange programs and professional trainings for journalists from all spheres worldwide.

Malaysiakini (Malaysia), launched in late 1999, is the country’s first online news website managed by a team of professional journalists. Its mission is to provide independent news and views in a country where the traditional media is tightly controlled by the government. Over the years, Malaysiakini has published a number of major investigative reports.

New Narratives Inc (US) and New Narratives Liberia is a team of Liberia’s leading journalists and media houses. Since its inception in 2010 they have played a central role in shaping the national dialogue with comprehensive reporting on major societal ills. They’ve started national conversations and exposed corruption in areas such as resources extraction, rape, drug trafficking, teen pregnancy, and child prostitution. 

New Zealand Centre for Investigative Journalism was established in 2013 to encourage and support investigative journalism in New Zealand and the South Pacific. The Centre aims to bring together journalists, documentary makers, authors, students, and others who have a desire to do investigative journalism. Since being founded, the NZCIJ has held two annual conferences at Wellington’s Massey University, in 2014 and 2015.

Periodistas de a Pie (Mexico) is an organization of journalists that provides training, network-building, and capacity-building, with the primary purpose of promoting the creation of high quality journalistic products. PdP has provided training since 2007. Over the years, it has supported the professionalization of journalists around the country from freelancers, to photographers, to displaced journalists and those who work for media outlets that don’t provide opportunities to improve their work.