A panel of Asia experts at GIJC21 unanimously agreed that press freedom in the region faces a bleak future, as governments increasingly use digital platforms to manipulate communities and increase hostility towards journalists.
Spending time with vulnerable communities and focusing on systems of exploitation were the central takeaways from a #GICJ21 panel on covering inequality, in which journalists based in three of the world’s most unequal societies — Brazil, South Africa, and the United States — shared tips on how to tackle this global crisis.
At GIJC21, Washington DC-based nonprofit C4ADS introduced Icarus Flights, a comprehensive new system that helps journalists track and investigate nearly any aircraft around the world.
Longform video investigations are increasingly seen as a significant vehicle for investigative journalism, and in a GIJC21 session on “Breaking into Documentaries,” a team of award-winning filmmakers and commissioning editors shared tips on how journalists can break into the field.
In a GIJC21 session on using maps and satellite imagery for investigations, three experts explained their approaches to analyzing satellite and drone images, and using open source tools. One of the innovative techniques described led to a Pulitzer Prize this year — for exposing China’s network of Muslim detention centers — while another exposed government deception about fires in the Amazon, and a third literally put a vulnerable community in Africa on the map.
At GIJC21, experts from the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma offered advice for journalists on how to take care of their own mental well-being while working in stressful or even dangerous circumstances.
Three experts who contributed to GIJN’s new organized crime reporting guide have shared insights into the modus operandi of criminal syndicates and how journalists can deploy cross-border collaborations to expose their illicit activities.
Increasingly, investigative journalists are being hacked, doxxed, harassed, and assaulted by external threats, so GIJN — with generous support from the Ford Foundation — is proud to launch a first-of-its-kind safety guide for newsrooms at GIJC21: the Journalist Security Assessment Tool (JSAT).
After the opening, plenary session of GIJC21, Mediapart editor and French journalist icon Edwy Plenel spoke with GIJN’s French editor, Marthe Rubio, to offer five, high-level tips for running a successful investigative news outlet.
At the plenary session of GIJC21, an all-star team of five watchdog editors defined the front lines of a battle among investigative journalists for both democratic ideals and the survival of an independent press. The conference brings together 1,800 editors, reporters, and civil society leaders from 148 countries for an online, five-day event.
