Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://gijn.org/)
Cutting-edge tools and techniques for digging into autocracy, climate change, health and medicine, disinformation, organized crime, and attacks on journalists headline the 12th Global Investigative Journalism Conference this November — presented by investigative reporters and forensic experts on the front lines.
Cybercrime is any criminal activity perpetrated in a digital realm. While we often think of cybercrime as defined by “hacking,” there are many other types of crimes that are part of this world, and everything from trafficking in child pornography, to withdrawing illicit funds, to the theft of source code, falls into the category of “cyber” crimes.
Since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, data-driven reporting on COVID-19 has gone through several phases, including infection trends and vaccination rates. Here, a leading Malaysia-based data journalism trainer shares five post-pandemic coverage areas where data reporting can be equally effective.
The most popular data journalism stories on Twitter between October 4 – 10, as discovered by our NodeXL mapping and human curation, feature stories on the Nobel prizes awarded to journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, reporting on Hong Kong’s national security law, a look at a fuel shortage in the UK, and a seasonal selection of Halloween costumes.
In a collaboration of 16 news organizations, the Pegasus Project revealed that thousands of citizens — including 180 journalists — were selected as targets of commercial spyware by 11 governments. The coordinators of that project told GIJN how the investigation worked, and offered detailed tips on how to investigate while under extreme threat of digital surveillance.
In this excerpt, the executive editor of a regional US news outlet reveals the tactics that worked — and didn’t work — in their innovative campaign to raise $1 million to fund investigations. Among the key tips that emerged: one-on-one meetings, direct reach-outs, and published “what it cost” boxes are effective, and framing the pitch around benefits for the community, rather than the outlet, causes donors to dig deeper.
Disappearing people benefits the perpetrators in several ways: it considerably complicates any investigation, the person — dead or alive — remains hidden most of the time, and it can be mixed or confused with other crimes, such as kidnapping, child abduction, human trafficking, forced recruitment, murder, or desecration of a human corpse.
