Autocratic regimes and threats to press freedom have forced independent journalists and newsrooms into exile with alarming frequency in recent years. Founders and editors from three newsrooms in exile from Bangladesh, Russia, and Venezuela shared their tactics for survival.
Finding victim-survivors to talk about human trafficking is difficult. Three journalists at GIJC23, who cover human trafficking and irregular migration, shared tips on how to find and protect sources.
Tracking ships and planes is essential for investigative journalists covering a wide range of stories around the world, from smuggling to sanctions evasion to environmental crimes. Two experts at GIJC23 shared key lessons learned from their past investigations.
A well-designed, properly distributed survey can build a powerful dataset for an investigation. Here are top tips on planning, designing, and executing them from the team at CORRECTIV.
“In some parts of the world it is harder to be a female investigative reporter than in others,” GIJN’s Gabriela Manuli said at a GIJC23 panel discussing the challenges facing women reporters and editors around the globe.
When reporting on children’s issues, it’s essential to treat them as individuals in their own right and give them agency over the telling of their stories.
Forensic visual investigation has rapidly become a critical method of journalistic inquiry, thanks to new technologies, innovative skills, and the global ubiquity of social media imagery.
How did three reporters investigate complex financial stories featuring Nigerian billionaires, Eurasian oligarchs, and the head of Lebanon’s central bank?
As GIJC23 wraps up in Gothenburg, Sweden, it’s clear that investigative journalism has grown stronger and more intelligent, and reporters have become more collaborative and united than ever before.
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.
Online research expert Henk van Ess has created a seven-chapter guide that offers reporters step-by-step instructions on how to use social media search to perform investigations of people and subjects and he’s also created a detailed tutorial on using facial recognition technology and best practices for putting these tools together in verifying claims online.
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 […]
The global fight against climate change depends on the actions of individual nations — so national accountability is critical.
If you attended GIJC23, please take the time to fill out our post-conference survey, which was emailed to all attendees. If you did not receive an email, please reach out to us at gijc23@gijn.org. Thanks!
The GIJN Bulletin is free and distributed to journalists in more than 100 countries
This year’s DXFest brings you timely conversations, skill-building workshops, master classes, one-on-one meetings, and plenty of opportunities to kick back with friends and colleagues. Find the program here: https://dxfest.com/
One journalist was injured and two others had their reporting equipment destroyed when they were targeted by a drone attack near the front lines of the war in Ukraine recently. Oleksandr Pavlov, a Ukrainian working for a Swedish TV network, fell while fleeing the incoming drone near Zaporizhzhia, injuring his left arm. His two colleagues, reporter Johan Fredriksson and photojournalist Daniel Zdolsek, escaped without harm, but their camera equipment was destroyed when the drone attacked the car they had been traveling in. "It was a direct drone attack on us,” Fredriksson told a Ukrainian news station.
One of the most popular tools for filing Freedom of Information (FOI) requests in the United States will be shutting down as of September 30, 2023. FOIAOnline.gov, which had been operated by the US government's Environmental Protection Agency for more than a decade, will stop accepting new requests as of this coming weekend. Citing rising costs and administrative difficulties maintaining the data, the EPA announced a plan to wind down FOIAOnline two years ago. The US Department of Justice plans a replacement "FOIA Wizard" site, but that will not be operational until later this fall at the earliest, according to a DOJ official.
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.
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 […]
