The African Investigative Publishing Collective recently conducted a multi-part investigation into the associates that handle business for African kleptocrats. Evelyn Groenink shares how the story took form and the massive challenges faced by reporters spread across multiple countries.
A small nonprofit investigative newsroom played an outsized role in the removal of South Africa’s president and his corrupt inner circle last year. Now, amaBhungane is building a separate hub to help new investigative start-ups throughout southern Africa. Rowan Philp writes about the newsroom and its latest initiative for GIJN’s new series about its members.
In an era of digital media disruption, Africa Confidential has avoided the complicated revenue tools many news media have been forced to experiment with, like soft or metered paywalls, crowdfunding, programmatic ads, blockchain systems or slashed costs and access fees. Instead, the London-based political news group has defied global trends by not only retaining its old school subscription model, but actually increasing its annual cost to a sky-high 902 British pounds. Rowan Philp writes for GIJN on AC’s secret to success.
Despite difficult reporting environments, journalists in sub-Saharan Africa produced some seriously impressive investigations in 2018. GIJN Africa editor Raymond Mpubani compiled a list of some of the top stories produced this year, published by outlets based in the region.
Earlier this year, Botswana’s INK Centre for Investigative Journalism tracked down a dossier which detailed the heinous crimes of Gukurahundi — a series of massacres of civilians carried out by the Zimbabwe National Army in the 1980s — which had been kept under lock and key for decades. It was the first time the names of the deceased and blow-by-blow accounts of how the executions were carried out were made available to the public. INK’s Ntibinyane Ntibinyane writes for GIJN on how they did it.
More than 10 years ago, the first nonprofit investigative journalism organization in Africa was established. More than 20 countries throughout the continent now have similar units. What are the motivating factors behind the proliferation of these organizations on the continent? Who is funding them and how? And are these organizations making an impact in Africa? Ntibinyane Ntibinyane rounded up 14 recommendations for GIJN based on his recent study for the Reuters Institute at Oxford University.
The biggest story since the end of apartheid helped bring down a president. But a year on, its effect on South African journalism has been less clear. Jon Allsop filed this report from Cape Town for GIJN.
There is a growing body of evidence that state spies have been targeting journalists in South Africa. Murray Hunter from the Right2Know Campaign, writes for GIJN about their recently released report which looks at 10 case studies of surveillance against journalists to unpack what happened, how it happened and which parties appear to be responsible.
In late May, journalists from CENOZO in West Africa — with support from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — published #WestAfricaLeaks, the largest collaboration of investigative journalists in the region, exposing tactics used by regional tycoons, multinational companies and politicians to take their money offshore and out of reach. Here’s how they did it.
A collective of African Investigative journalists has found that publishing stories about corruption in their home countries doesn’t always put much pressure on those leaders who plunder state resources, but publishing in the countries where their donors live has the potential to hit them where it hurts — their bank accounts.
