Tips and Tools for Investigating Leaks • Frederik Obermaier

In this masterclass video, Frederik Obermaier, co-founder of Paper Trail Media and one of the journalists behind the Panama Papers, shares practical advice on how to investigate leaks.

He explains how journalists can find and work with leaks today, from making themselves visible to whistleblowers to identifying relevant datasets and platforms where leaks are already available. Obermaier highlights key tools such as Aleph and Datashare, and shows how to search, organize, and analyze large volumes of data efficiently.

He also walks through essential steps (from verifying documents and asking the right questions to spotting stories within massive datasets) showing how leak investigations have evolved since the Panama Papers and why the real challenge today is turning data into impactful stories.

Additional resources / tools mentioned in this video:

• OCCRP Aleph: https://aleph.occrp.org/
• OpenAleph: https://search.openaleph.org/
• ICIJ Datashare: https://datashare.icij.org/
• Distributed Denial of Secrets: https://ddosecrets.org/

Credits:

• Interview: Sarah Ulrich
• Video Editing: Quentin Egloff
• Music: Lionel Marçal
• Filming: Ron Lopez, Reynald Ramirez, Hashim Hakeem
• Supervision and Coordination: Sandrine Rigaud