The Global Shining Light Award honors watchdog journalism in developing or transitioning countries, carried out under threat or in perilous conditions — and the 2023 competition attracted a record 419 applications from 84 countries with winners coming from Nigeria, South Africa, Venezuela, Bangladesh, North Macedonia, and Ukraine.
In a keynote speech to investigative journalists gathered from around the world, Ron Deibert, founder and director of Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, laid out the new, fearsome digital threats facing the world’s watchdog journalists.
Investigating Russia from outside the country might be one of the toughest jobs in investigative journalism today. From cultivating sources to verifying information, the challenges for security, safety, and veracity are numerous.
As climate change impacts communities across the globe in the form of wildfires, record heat, deadly flooding, and devastating droughts, there is a growing urgency in investigating the causes and impacts.
An all-star team of five journalism experts shared their approaches to investigating the ever-evolving world of organized crime.
Four editors — and veterans of the global push-back against autocracy — discussed effective methods for holding the enemies of democracy accountable.
Three veteran journalists shared tips on maximizing the potential and navigating the pitfalls of artificial intelligence and cross-border collaborations.
In this training course, reporters from around the world will learn how to investigate the digital environment in order to understand and expose attacks and manipulation.
The director of Citizen Lab warns that spyware and a “general descent into authoritarianism” have created a perfect storm for democratic institutions.
Each year the jury for the DIG Festival scours hundreds of submissions to find the best investigative films and podcasts from around the world.
This comprehensive, 16-chapter guide includes expert advice from more than two dozen specialists and journalists.
GIJN’s Reporter’s Guide to Investigating Digital Threats gives expert advice from journalists and security analysts who are covering and working against the latest manipulation threats, including disinformation, malware, spyware, and trolling. The guide is part of an ongoing Digital Threats project, in which GIJN is working with Craig Silverman and a group of cutting-edge specialist […]
Watchdog reporters should discard the idea that damage from natural disasters is simply due to “acts of nature,” and rather think of it as a mix of hazardous events and human actions.
The global fight against climate change depends on the actions of individual nations — so national accountability is critical.
The GIJN Bulletin is free and distributed to journalists in more than 100 countries
Agents from France's domestic intelligence agency (DSGI) raided the home of journalist Ariane Lavrilleux and detained her for questioning for more than 30 hours in response to her reporting on the spy agency's role in extrajudicial killings in Africa. Lavrilleux, who works for the French media site Disclose, a GIJN member, was targeted for allegedly violating national security. She recently published a series based on secret state documents, revealing that DSGI allegedly conducted a counter-intelligence operation that led to the fatal bombing of smugglers along the Egypt - Libya border. She now has been released.
Sports journalist Saeede Fathabadi, who writes under the byline Saeede Fathi, recounted her recent harassment and imprisonment by Iranian authorities. Fathi, the first female editor-in-chief of an Iranian sports magazine, had returned to Iran from her current home in Vienna to work on a documentary when the massive, nationwide protests erupted over the killing of Mahsa Amini. Not long after Fathi posted online in support of other journalists being detained, Iranian authorities stormed her parents' house and detained her for what would turn out to be a "breathtakingly hard" two-month stint in the notorious Evin Prison.
According to an investigation by Access Now and the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, the CEO and publisher of a Russian independent media site had her phone infected with NSO Group's Pegasus spyware. Galina Timchenko, who runs Meduza in exile from Latvia, reportedly had her iPhone targeted for hacking just two weeks after her site was branded a "undesirable organization" by the Kremlin in response to critical coverage of President Vladimir Putin and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This is first known case of Pegasus being used against a Russian journalist.
Source: Fund for Investigative Journalism
The Fund for Investigative Journalism is now accepting grant proposals for groundbreaking stories that uncover wrongdoing in the public or private sector. Grants of up to US$10,000 are available and paid directly to freelancers or media outlets to cover expenses related to reporting, including travel, record and document fees, and paying for journalists' time. The final product can be in print, online, video, radio, book, podcast, or documentary format, but all pieces must be published in English by a US-based media site. (International stories are eligible as long as they have a strong US angle and come from a US-based reporter.)
Access to the Voice of America (VOA) Turkish website has been blocked following a court order. On August 21, in response to a request from Turkey's media regulator, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK), Ankara's 9th Criminal Court of Peace issued the ban without holding a hearing. VOA spokesperson Bridget Serchak said the broadcaster has no plans to obtain a license as it “cannot comply with any directive intended to enable censorship.” Last year, RTUK banned access to VOA Turkish's previous domain name, amerikaninsesi.com, for refusing to comply with the regulator's license requirement because of censorship concerns.
The prosecutor’s office in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan's capital, has filed a lawsuit in city courts to liquidate Kloop Media, an independent news outlet and GIJN member known for its reporting on corruption. According to the prosecutor’s document, the reason for the suit is “the implementation of activities that go beyond the scope provided for by the charter.” However, the document focuses mostly on the "negative impact" of tone of Kloop's publications, such as “sharply criticizing the policies of the current government.” Kloop was founded in 2007, and gained prominence in 2010 when it covered Kyrgyzstan’s revolution.
The EU Digital Services Act has now gone into effect, placing strict new transparency and accountability rules upon major online platforms like Google, Meta, TikTok, and Twitter/X. As of August 25, more than 40 of the largest web platforms must now more carefully safeguard what is seen by users in Europe across a broad range of categories, while honoring fundamental rights like freedom of expression and data protection. According to the new regulations, these tech giants are now more directly responsible for content on their sites — and potentially subject to large fines for violations — and must crack down on breaches of the law related to disinformation.
Source: The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation / CASE
The number of nuisance lawsuits filed in Europe last year increased to at least 161, breaking the previous record of 146 set in 2020, according to figures published by The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation and the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE). Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) are “vexatious” lawsuits filed to shut down acts of public participation, including public interest journalism. They can be brought against media companies, journalists, and anyone who works to hold the powerful to account. Individual journalists were most often the targets of SLAPP cases, followed by media outlets, editors, activists, and NGOs.
The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) is inviting journalists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Kosovo to apply for a three-day training session on digital rights reporting to be held in Sarajevo on September 26-28. The specialized course will enable journalists from the region to understand digital rights comprehensively, with a focus on reporting breaches, content blocking, manipulation, and digital propaganda as well as open-source investigations, data journalism, fact-checking, and more. Successful applicants will also be eligible for a small grant to produce a digital rights story. Applications close September 5.
The Africa Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC) has opened fellowship applications to attend its annual conference later this year. The 2023 conference, to be held from November 20 - 22 in Johannesburg, has a limited number of free fellowships, which are open to "journalists with a proven track record in investigative journalism and at least three years’ experience." Fellows that attend AIJC23 will be required to produce at least one story or other piece of content about their experience at the conference. The deadline to apply is August 31.
A reporting team provides the backstory of the Guardian’s years-long investigation into the world of online child sex trafficking.
The authors give a behind-the-scenes look at their investigation into a massive chemical fire in Houston in March 2019.
A study found many Google News Initiative projects in Middle East and Africa struggle to become more than makeshift versions of the original idea.
Bellingcat fellow Dennis Kovtun tests the online geolocation capabilities of two popular AI chatbots — Microsoft’s Bing AI and Google’s Bard — and finds both have some serious drawbacks.
Featuring wage theft mapping in New York, the alarming rise in US airliner near misses, Russia’s brain drain, and a historical analysis of the Great Kantō earthquake in Japan 100 years ago.
With stories about global water stress, the boom in fentanyl trafficking at the US-Mexico border, the devastating fires in Maui, and strategies for taking penalty kicks.
This edition highlights a cross-border exposé of the different underworld groups operating in the Amazon’s border areas, and a look at the global impact of violence from US gun exports.
This week’s column features stories on the record-breaking global heat, popular French baby names, Russia’s war dead, and the likely breakout stars of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
GIJN member El Surtidor is a Paraguayan news organization created in 2015 that prioritizes innovation and multi-platform, visual journalism.
The group has built an international network of more than 100 trained investigative journalists and environmental experts probing the activities impacting the natural world.
Swedish reporter Ester Blenda Nordström went undercover to expose working conditions on rural farms, the difficult journeys of migrants traveling to the United States, and to explore the life of the country’s Indigenous Sami community. In this book excerpt, read about the woman dubbed the country’s first investigative reporter.
GIJN member Danwatch was launched in 2007 by civic groups in Denmark with a focus on both research and journalism. Danwatch has since grown to have one of the largest specialized investigative journalism teams in Denmark, with 13 reporters, one of them based in South America.
The 13th Global Investigative Journalism Conference (#GIJC23), held in Gothenburg, Sweden from Sept. 19 – 22, 2023, gathered more than 2,100 journalists from 132 countries to hold workshops, share innovative methods, and celebrate a community increasingly facing censorship, corporate hacking, and authoritarian threats. This project is a compendium of GIJN’s coverage of the conference panels.
Today, there is plenty of beat reporting and feature writing about the world’s climate crisis. But what’s missing are the investigative journalists, the ones who follow the money and hold corporations and governments accountable for what they have done – and what they haven’t done. GIJN is working to change this. Our Climate Accountability Project […]
We are seeing mounting evidence of war crimes in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ranging from attacks on civilians and use of illegal munitions to sexual violence against women and children. In addition to releasing the first reporting guide on this crucial topic in 20 years, GIJN is compiling essential training materials to guide journalists in […]
Organized crime and corruption are widespread, deeply rooted and growing in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region with some of the world’s highest rates of poverty and inequality. Powerful criminal groups operate with the help of politicians, government officials and a “criminal services industry”, including corrupt banks. They make their money through the illegal narcotics trade, human […]
The Golden Triangle, where the borders of Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos intersect, is one of the world’s renowned centers of criminal activity. The region’s underworld economy turns over billions of dollars annually in narcotics production, human trafficking, wildlife smuggling, illegal mining, and more. Its cross-border illicit networks have global impact, working with criminal groups across […]
The US government engages with virtually every country in the world and in multiple ways. These can include Presidential and Congressional activity, foreign assistance, criminal investigations, public and private financial transactions, lobbying, arms sales — and much more. In this online Masterclass, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Martha Mendoza is in conversation with GIJN’s David Kaplan. Mendoza […]
Football (soccer to Americans) is the world’s most popular sport and the World Cup one of its highlights, anticipated by millions, even billions around the globe. The next World Cup takes place in November-December this year in Qatar, based on a decision made in 2010 by football’s governing body, FIFA (the International Federation of Football […]
