In the aftermath of a car bombing that killed one of Malta’s leading investigative reporters, her family set up an organization to fight for justice and ensure her legacy lives on.
Across the investigative journalism community, GIJN has heard uniform voices of solidarity, and numerous creative strategies for surviving this fundraising crisis.
This chapter examines the energy transition in response to the climate crisis, and how the future of the fossil fuel industry remains relevant for investigative reporters.
This chapter examines some of the fossil fuel industry’s claims and strategies that obstruct climate action, and offer tips for vetting and investigating them.
GIJN calls upon elected officials in the US to reverse the catastrophic action of withholding USAID funds from independent investigative newsrooms around the world.
The investigative consortium El CLIP developed a collaborative database that empowers journalists to access public documents, contracts, and datasets across Latin America.
After a tip-off about unsustainable logging, Low Choon Chyuan conducted a year-long investigation combining on-the-ground environmental reporting with QGIS and satellite imagery.
The nonprofit newsroom — whose founders and senior leadership are all women — has taken a innovative, youth-focused approach to covering corruption.
At a recent GIJN webinar, three experts explained how reporters can get regular, free access to high-quality satellite images covering almost anywhere on Earth.
Reporters at the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism explain how they used data to reveal systemic gender-based violence in Eswatini in southern Africa.
The latest edition of our Top 10 in Data Journalism column also highlights the risks of nuclear war, drought in the Amazon, and a guide to the upcoming Year of the Snake.
Media organizations should focus on serving specific communities with shared interests and values rather than trying to reach “everyone.”
This investigation sought to answer key questions that no government could answer: What happens when someone goes missing at Europe’s borders? And how many burial sites are there across Europe?
The UK’s Post Office scandal saw hundreds of people wrongly prosecuted. For over a decade, investigative journalists from small outlets plugged away to uncover the truth.
GIJN spoke to the author of a 2024 Gabo Award-winning investigation into the case of 700 horses found abandoned in a field outside Buenos Aires.
Filipino journalist Jaemark Tordecilla explains how he made and refined a custom AI tool that makes it easier to report on public spending from budgets published online.
This reporting guide provides watchdog journalists with key context and practical advice to enable better investigations of the fossil fuel industry.
A comprehensive list of national, regional, and global reporting grants and fellowships.
Read our updated guide to reporting on health and medicine, featuring lessons learned from covering the coronavirus outbreak.
Featuring advice on fact checking, digital security tips, interview techniques, and guidelines for editors.
The global fight against climate change depends on the actions of individual nations — so national accountability is critical.
Empower the World’s Watchdog Journalists
The GIJN Bulletin is free and distributed to journalists in more than 100 countries
Nominations for the 36th annual Courage Awards are open. Candidates must be full-time staff or freelance women or nonbinary reporters, writers, editors, photographers, or producers of any nationality, working in any country. The IWMF’s annual Courage in Journalism Awards “honor women and nonbinary journalists who set themselves apart by exhibiting extraordinary bravery, persistence and resilience.” Nominations may be made in English, Spanish, or French through links provided on the IWMF Courage Award site, and will be accepted until March 30, 2025. Self-nominations are not accepted.
According to a statement by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a record number of journalists were killed in 2024 — at least 124 journalists in 18 countries, making it the deadliest year for reporters since the organization started recording numbers more than 30 years ago. The statement added that 85 journalists — nearly 70% — were killed by the Israeli military in the Israel-Hamas war. The Israeli military responded that they were unable to investigate alleged incidents because not enough information had been provided, and that it takes all operationally feasible measures to mitigate harm to journalists and civilians.
Source: South African National Editors
South African and South African-based journalists can submit applications for the 2025 Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism, which recognizes outstanding investigative reporting that reveals untold stories and holds the powerful to account. The prize is open to South African journalists or journalist teams that published or broadcast a story or series of stories of an investigative nature between January 1 and December 31, 2024. The top prize is 200,000 rand (US$10,866); the runner-up wins 100,000 rand. The deadline for submissions is February 24.
A new global survey by Freedom House looked at the epidemic of transnational repression during the past 10 years and found many disturbing patterns. According to the report, one quarter of the world's governments have used transnational repression tactics in the past decade, but it singled out the worst offenders as China, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Cambodia, and Tajikistan, countries where press freedom has likewise been rapidly deteriorating and journalists are increasingly under attack. Freedom House also documented 26 governments targeting exiled journalists in 124 different incidents of intimidation or physical violence since 2014.
Source: Global Forum for Media Development
The Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) has published a guidance document and released a informational webinar for nonprofit news outlets affected by the worldwide US funding freeze instituted by the new Trump White House. The suspension of funding, announced earlier this week, has already had an impact, disrupting the work of numerous investigative outlets around the world that receive financing from US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL). GFMD also has a Fundraising Help Desk (click though to access) to support and mentor journalism and media development in this challenging environment.
Source: Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released its annual census of jailed journalists and found that last year saw the second-highest total of most media workers behind bars in its history tracking such detentions. In all, 361 journalists were incarcerated as of Dec. 1, 2024, just below the all-time high of 370 recorded in 2022. More than a half of the detained journalists — 189 — were detained in just five countries: China, Israel and the Palestinian territory, Myanmar, Belarus, and Russia. The census noted that "many of the journalists in CPJ's 2024 census have been sentenced to spend significant parts of their lives in jail."
The Pulitzer Center has opened calls for applications to journalists looking to cover issues related to the environment and the climate crisis in the lead up to COP30. This editorial grant "aims to support investigative projects that examine how domestic and international climate policies influence the governance of rainforest and ocean ecosystems. This includes exploring, for example, how regulations — or their absence and misuse — facilitate problematic industrial operations, unsustainable supply chains, and opaque carbon offset schemes." Submissions can be made in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Bahasa Indonesia. Deadline: February 15.
UNESCO is now accepting nominations for its annual Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, which was established 28 years ago to recognize an individual or organization that has made an outstanding contribution to defending press freedom in the past year. Named in honor of Cano, a Colombian journalist gunned down outside his newspaper office in Bogota in 1986, the prize committee accepts submissions of up to three candidates each from member states, press-focused NGOs, and professional organizations. The deadline to apply is midnight February 14, 2025.
Reuters Institute has published a survey looking at expectations and predictions for the journalism industry in 2025. Ominously, it found that just 41% of media leaders are confident about the future of the press, a drop of nearly 20% from just three years earlier. This includes an expectation that referral traffic from most social media sites will continue to erode, and concern over "AI slop" infecting the information environment and undermining the work of fact-based reporting. While more than half — 56% — are optimistic about their site's business prospects for 2025, worries about further demonization of the press and physical attacks still color much of the industry, especially with the arrival of several far right governments into power around the world.
Source: International Center for Journalists
The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is now accepting applications for its News Creator Award for Excellence in Independent Video Journalism. This honor, which will be given to eight winners at the 2025 International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, recognizes high-quality, digital-first video journalism from independent reporters around the world. The deadline for nominations is midnight US EST on January 15.
The managing editor of HumAngle, which covers the human costs of conflict and terrorism, discusses the challenges of investigative coverage in Nigeria.
GIJN’s Benon Herbert Oluka talks to Golden Matonga, investigations director at the Platform for Investigative Journalism – Malawi, about his career uncovering corruption.
Investigative reporter Annie Hylton on her journey from law to journalism, overlooked stories, and advice for interviewing sources living with trauma.
Throughout her career, the trailblazing Sydney Morning Herald investigative journalist Kate McClymont has exposed graft, bribery, and misconduct.
The investigative consortium El CLIP developed a collaborative database that empowers journalists to access public documents, contracts, and datasets across Latin America.
This investigation sought to answer key questions that no government could answer: What happens when someone goes missing at Europe’s borders? And how many burial sites are there across Europe?
Filipino journalist Jaemark Tordecilla explains how he made and refined a custom AI tool that makes it easier to report on public spending from budgets published online.
GIJN is proud to announce that it is the new administrator for the annual SIGMA data journalism awards, which are now accepting submissions for the 2025 round.
In the aftermath of a car bombing that killed one of Malta’s leading investigative reporters, her family set up an organization to fight for justice and ensure her legacy lives on.
The nonprofit newsroom — whose founders and senior leadership are all women — has taken a innovative, youth-focused approach to covering corruption.
GIJN member Mongabay is leading the way in environmental journalism with a innovative global-plus-local approach to watchdog reporting.
Since its inception, the Cameroon-based journalism collective has had a double mission: first to train journalists, and then to encourage them to work together.
Our second regional spotlight series examines the successes and challenges facing our members in Africa and others reporting from the continent. These articles tell the stories of growing journalistic collaboration, courage, and innovation in the face of repression, legal intimidation, lack of access to information, and even physical threats.
Our first regional spotlight series celebrates the achievements of our members in Latin America and others reporting from the region. These articles tell the stories of reporters across the continent, digging into the investigations that matter, and detailing how outlets are creating innovative reporting projects amid their own specific local challenges.
Global elections in 2024 will affect more citizens than in any previous year, and will likely reset humanity’s liberty compass for years ahead. This project features an elections reporting guide, stories on cutting-edge tools for investigating campaigns and candidates, and lessons learned from the best in local watchdog reporting from around the world.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, GIJN has published a series of stories and tipsheets for investigative journalists covering the war. This includes a wide range range of topics, from tracking Russian assets to investigating war crimes.
Satellite imagery has become a game-changer for investigative journalism, offering powerful tools to uncover hidden stories.
The 2024 elections marked a seismic year for democracies worldwide, presenting investigative journalists with unique challenges and opportunities.
In Africa, more than in most other parts of the world, the hurdles that journalists have to overcome to report beyond their own countries or continent are numerous.
This session was designed to provide investigative journalists with the skills to investigate the arms trade and military aid.
