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Register for #GIJC25: Ticket Sales Close On
November 10, 2025

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Chapter Guide Resource

Introduction to Investigative Journalism

Investigations have underlying principles, elements, and rigorous requirements for evidence, accuracy, and fairness. They also require strong and detailed planning.

GIJN Hub

GIJN Africa: Members in Sub-Saharan Africa

GIJN Africa: Newsletters

Resource

GIJN Africa: Safety and Security in Africa

To protect journalists from safety and security risks, some African and global organizations have set up programs that offer support to muckrakers who are in trouble, either in selected African countries or across the continent.

Resource

GIJN Africa: Access to Public Records

Resources that are available for journalists in Sub-Saharan Africa who seek public information in countries with laws governing access to information.

Around the World

Apply for African Investigative Journalism Conference 2025 Fellowships

Source: AIJC

The journalism department at Wits University in Johannesburg has opened the call for fellowship applications for AIJC2025, which will be held from 5-7 November. This year AIJC is running two fellowship tracks: one for early-career journalists under the age of 30 with five or fewer years of experience, and one for mid-career journalists with five or more years of experience, and also welcomes applications from freelance journalists. The fellowship covers major travel costs, shuttles, accommodation, conference fees, and meals. The deadline for applications is May 23, 2025. 

Submissions Open for 2025 Javier Valdez Latin American Investigative Journalism Award

Source: IPYS

The Press and Society Institute (IPYS)  and Transparency International (TI) have announced the 2025 edition of the Javier Valdez Latin American Investigative Journalism Award, open to all investigative work on matters of public interest. Journalists can apply as individuals or as a research team, with one or mulitple pieces of work published in a media outlet in Latin America and the Caribbean — in Spanish, Portuguese, or English. Works published between July 1, 2024, and May 31, 2025, in print, radio, television, or electronic media are eligible, and materials must be submitted in digital format.  

US Justice Dept Rescinds Policy Preventing Reporters’ Phones from Being Searched

Source: The Washington Post

The US Justice Dept. has rescinded a Biden-era policy that prevented officials from searching journalists’ phones when conducting investigations into leaks from government personnel to news media. Attorney general Ban Bondi said the Justice Dept. would only search reporters’ phone records when all other methods have been exhausted, but media advocacy groups have expressed concern that this policy weakens First Amendment rights and will herald a return to the previous Trump administration’s attempts to use the courts to obtain phone and email records of journalists at The Washington Post, CNN, and The New York Times.

Athens Court Dismisses Lawsuit Brought Against Greek Investigative Outlets

Source: International Press Institute

An Athens court dismissed a SLAPP case brought by Grigoris Dimitriadis, the Greek prime minister’s nephew, against journalists who had reported on Dimitriadis’s connection to a spyware scandal. The court ruled in favor of Nikolas Leontopoulos, Thodoris Chondrogiannos, and Christoforos Kasdaglis from Reporters United and Dimitris Terzis of newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton, concluding that their reporting — which revealed that Dimitriadis’s phone number had been used to target 11 individuals with spyware hacks — had been accurate. The reporting did not suggest Dimitriadis was responsible for the hacking, only that his phone number had been used.

Judge Halts Trump’s Voice of America Shutdown

Source: BBC

Following Trump’s executive orders to defund and wind down operations at Voice of America and other US-funded news services — placing over 1,300 VOA employees, including about 1,000 journalists, on leave — a federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore all jobs and funding.  The judge found that the administration had likely violated the International Broadcasting Act and Congress's power to appropriate funding, ordering the administration to take steps to restore employees and contractors to the jobs they had before the executive order, and to do the same for Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.

2025 Africa Investigative Journalism Conference Call for Proposals

Source: AIJC

The 2025 Africa Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC) is inviting suggestions for speakers, panels, themes, or training to be held at the conference. The AIJC, Africa’s largest gathering of working journalists that showcases the continent’s best investigative reporting, will be held at Wits University in Johannesburg from November 5-7, 2025, and like previous years will feature talks, panel discussions, masterclasses, workshops, and networking sessions. Proposals should be submitted via a link on the AIJC website by May 30. AIJC2025 will be the conference’s 21st iteration. Last year, the event yet drew 450 journalists from 55 countries.

Mental Health in Journalism Summit

Source: The Self-Investigation

Registration is open for the 2025 Mental Health in Journalism Summit. Organized by non-profit The Self-Investigation, the summit’s second iteration will be a three-day online event dedicated to building collective resilience, exchanging strategies for healthier workplaces, and examining the latest trends and case studies on mentally healthy workspaces in journalism. Managers, editors, reporters, freelancers, media professionals, academics, and mental health experts are welcome to attend. The summit will feature one day of sessions in Spanish and days of sessions in English, and will be held October 8-10, 2025.

Scholarships for Columbia Journalism School’s Summer Investigative Journalism Course

Source: Columbia Journalism School

Zürich-based Swiss media company TX Group is supporting three scholarships for the 2025 Summer Investigative Reporting Course at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, which covers the fundamentals of investigative reporting. Scholarships are open to investigative reporters and editors living and working in Africa, Latin America, and Asia and include tuition and course fees, travel to New York City, and lodging. Applications must be received by 11:59 pm (Eastern Standard Time) on April 30, 2025. Applicants will be notified of decisions on their application by May 30, 2025 and the course takes place July 7-25.

Governor’s Lawsuit Against Mississippi Today Dismissed

Source: Mississippi Today

A judge has dismissed former Mississippi governor Phil Bryant’s defamation lawsuit against the investigative outlet Mississippi Today in a case that spanned two years. Bryant first filed the suit in 2023 over public comments the outlet made about its reporting on a welfare fraud scandal involving $77 million in misused funds that began during Bryant’s term as governor. The one-page ruling sided with lawyers for Mississippi Today, who had argued that it had engaged in constitutionally protected speech and that it did not meet the 'actual malice' standard for defamation of a public figure. Bryant’s lawyer said the former governor would appeal the dismissal.

Serbia Targets BIRN Journalists with Pegasus Spyware

Source: Amnesty International

According to an Amnesty International report, Serbian authorities targeted two investigative journalists — both from GIJN member the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), which focuses on state-sponsored corruption — with Pegasus Spware in February 2025. Both journalists received a text message from an unknown number, which included a link that the Amnesty Security Lab states was an attempt to install Pegasus spyware on their devices. Amnesty’s report also concludes that the spyware operator acted on behalf of the Serbian government. At the time, the journalists were working on stories on foreign investments and state-linked corruption cases.

MENA Focus

Our third regional spotlight series examines the challenges facing our members and other outlets in the Middle East and North Africa, such as war, backsliding democracies, self-censorship, exile, surveillance and imprisonment of journalists, and the hostile legal environment — and why this reality on the ground makes investigative journalism there all the more essential.

Africa Focus

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.

LATAM Focus

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.

Man voting in Brazil while others wait in line to vote

2024 Elections

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.

Videos

Resource Video

How Africa Connects to Your Story

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.