In Tunisia, where the first protests of the Arab Spring took place, a start-up with a focus on investigative journalism and narrative storytelling is attempting to exploit the country’s relative media freedom to win over readers.
Member Profiles
Prachatai: A Gutsy Thai News Outlet Committed to Being the ‘Voice of the Voiceless’
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In August 2020, the leaders of Thailand’s pro-democracy movement published a list of demands after tens of thousands of reformists joined their call to take to the streets. Only one local media outlet dared to publish them: Prachatai, a bold start-up committed to promoting freedom of expression and democracy.
Member Profiles
The Nonprofit News Site Taking on Agribusiness in the US Heartland
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From an investigation into a COVID-19 outbreak in the meatpacking industry to exposes on migrant worker housing, the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting has made reporting of agribusiness through in-depth research, data analysis, and collaboration their core mission. This story tells how this small nonprofit has gone from a “one-man shop” to become a reliable source of watchdog reporting on an industry mostly discussed in daily business stories and trade magazines.
Sundance Film Festival
Q&A with Carrie Lozano: Sundance’s New Head of Documentary Filmmaking
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Carrie Lozano is a talented storyteller, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, and recently became the director of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program. She spoke to GIJN’s Spanish editor, Andrea Arzaba, about the challenges and opportunities for documentary filmmakers and how her background has shaped her work.
private prisons
Investigating South Africa’s Prison for Profit
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The perpetrators of violence in South Africa tend to receive little sympathy and sparse coverage in the national press. But when Ruth Hopkins started to explore allegations of wrongdoing inside the country’s prisons, she was inundated by claims of abuse and torture. This story explores her decade-long investigation into incarceration in the country.
Member Profiles
The Small Nonprofit Shaking Up French Investigative Journalism
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The French investigative journalism outlet Disclose made waves in 2019 by revealing the shocking extent of pedophilia in amateur sports and the widespread use of French-manufactured arms in the Yemen conflict. One of its founders tells GIJN why a reader-supported model is allowing it to exist “halfway between the media and an NGO.”
Profiles
One Magazine’s Fight for the Indian Mind
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Secularism in the world’s largest democracy is threatened by a Hindu-nationalist movement that takes pages from the playbooks of authoritarian leaders around the world. In this longread, journalist Maddy Crowell shares the first-hand story of one New Delhi-based magazine that is trying to protect democracy in India when other news outlets fail to hold power to account.
theater
Using Theater—and Zoom—to Tell Stories of Investigations into Solitary Confinement
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After spending time in solitary confinement in Iran, Sarah Shourd started to explore what confinement meant in the United States and has produced a body of work about what she found in prisons around the country. Her play about confinement – “The BOX”– was broadcast over Zoom, bringing a story about the desperation of solitary confinement to audiences experiencing isolation around the world.
Member Profiles
A Small Publication in India Plays a Big Role in Citizen Matters
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Citizen Matters is the flagship publication of the Bengaluru-based Oorvani Foundation, a nonprofit working on open knowledge platforms that help develop better cities. Today, it has successfully transitioned to become an online-only news site, and has been expanding its reach to other cities, writes Amruta Byatnal for GIJN.
Member Profiles
Powering Up Geo-Journalism for Investigative Environmental Reporting
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The South African investigative site Oxpeckers uses a combination of data analysis, collaboration, and interactive data visualization tools to tell the most compelling stories about the land and those accused of damaging it. From mining to environmental crimes and wildlife trafficking, it has brought investigative techniques to beats like mining that were once the preserve of business reporters.
Profiles
Aggressive Reporting, Fierce Writing, and FOI Requests: How a Small Town Editor Won a Pulitzer
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When Jeff Gerritt first started asking questions about deaths in Texas jails, he was told “it’s not news for someone to die in county jail.” But his reporting and the Op Ed pieces that resulted from it led to a Pulitzer Prize, a rare win for a scrappy thrice-weekly paper in an era where the journalism industry is seeing increasing cutbacks and layoffs.