Awards, Grants, & Fellowships Data Journalism
Announcing the Sigma Awards 2025 Shortlist
GIJN, the new home of the Sigma Awards, is proud to announce the 2025 shortlist for the best data journalism projects and portfolios in the past year.
News & Analysis
How State Agents Target Journalists the Government Claims to Protect: Stark Warnings from Mexico and Honduras
A deep dive into how government-run journalist protection programs in Latin America are failing to shield the press from attacks and intimidation by state agents and organized crime.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Essential Open Source Tools for Journalists Investigating Air Pollution
Here is a list of open source data tools that journalists can utilize to track air pollution, uncover its sources, and reveal the corporate networks responsible.
Silencing the Press: The Case of Alsu Kurmasheva and the Growing Threat of ‘Foreign Agent’ Laws
The RFE/RL reporter spent 288 days in a Russian prison after she was accused of failing to declare herself a “foreign agent.”
News & Analysis Press Freedom
Chaos and Credibility: A Snapshot of How AI Is Impacting Press Freedom and Investigative Journalism
GIJN offers a snapshot of how watchdog reporters are confronting algorithmic abuses and misinformation while also employing AI as a key newsroom tool.
News & Analysis Press Freedom
Reporters Without Borders: Global Press Freedom at Unprecedented, Critical Low
As reporters mark World Press Freedom Day, RSF’s 2025 annual ranking reveals press freedom around the world has fallen to a new, unprecedented low.
Data Journalism Top 10
Electing a New Pope, North Korea Fighting Ukraine, Vaccination Rates to Stop Outbreaks, and a Deadly Gold Mine in Turkey
Also highlights how X influences Elon Musk’s government policy, the numbers behind the successful Danish toy maker Lego, and mapping the Sudan conflict.
Getting the Story Out News & Analysis
Why Whistleblowers Need Allies Like Lawyers and Journalists to Expose Corruption
Insiders who successfully sound the alarm often do so with help — by partnering with allies who can amplify their message and help shield them from retaliation.
Data Journalism News & Analysis
Tracking US Migrant Detention Data: What Journalists Need to Understand
The US government’s detained immigrant population flatlined in April, but there’s more to the numbers than meets the eye. Here’s what journalists need to know about the data.
How They Did It
How a Filipino Reporter Exposed Disinformation Networks Defending an Ex-President After His Arrest
Philippine reporter Cristina Chi uncovered an orchestrated disinformation campaign on Facebook to falsely portray the arrest of the country’s ex-president.
How Publishing Investigations as Books Can Add Depth, Increase Visibility, and Fight Censorship
In this story, several investigative journalists from Mexico speak about the experience of turning their exposés into books.
How They Did It
Investigating How Illegal Gold Gets Into the Legitimate Supply Chain
This Pulitzer Center-supported investigation dug into illegal gold mining in South America, and traced how these illicit products are secretly fed into legitimate supply chains.
Data Journalism Reporting Tools & Tips
As Trump White House Disappears US Environmental Data, Reporters Can Turn to OECD
The wide range of international environmental data that the OECD offers, though often Eurocentric, is still extensive in scope and comparatively reliable.
News & Analysis Sustainability
Journalists as Founders — Intrepid Pioneers or Reluctant Managers?
There are myriad number of reasons why reporters decide launch their own news sites, but these enterprising journalists often face a series of new, daunting challenges.
Chapter Guide Resource
GIJN Releases E-Book of Reporter’s Guide to Investigating Fossil Fuels
This digital book version of our reporting guide, which runs to 133 pages, includes expert analysis and practical advice to enable better investigations of the fossil fuel industry.
Guide Resource
Guide to Investigating Fossil Fuels
This guide provides watchdog journalists with key context and practical advice to enable better investigations of the fossil fuel industry.
Resource Tipsheet
Tipsheet: How Journalists Can Use a UN Process to Evaluate National Human Rights Records
The UN process for evaluating national human rights records is long and complex, but offers valuable material for journalists.
Resource Tipsheet
Grants and Fellowships for Journalists
A comprehensive list of national, regional, and global reporting grants and fellowships.
Guide Resource
Guide: Introduction to Investigative Journalism
Featuring advice on fact checking, digital security tips, interview techniques, and guidelines for editors.
GIJN Hub
Upcoming event
Register for #GIJC25: Ticket Sales Close On
November 10, 2025
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Assistant Professor of Practice in Open-Source Investigative Journalism
University of Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Deadline: Open until filled
Visual Impact Producer
Lighthouse Reports
Remote/hybrid
Deadline: May 12, 2025
Digital Security Training Intern
Freedom of the Press Foundation
New York, US
Deadline: May 26, 2025
Around the World
Apply for African Investigative Journalism Conference 2025 Fellowships
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
10 Questions MENA Focus Week
‘Never Stop Learning’: Reporting on Yemen Beyond the Headlines
The investigative journalist — who has covered Iraq’s secret sex trade, the Yemen war, and the Sanaa funeral bombing — shares insights from working on a difficult beat.
10 Questions
Investigating Clandestine Gold Mines, Deforestation, and Corporate Misconduct: The Reporter Who Made the Amazon His Beat
Brazilian freelance reporter Hyury Potter recently won the Pulitzer Center’s Breakthrough Journalism Award.
10 Questions
Exposing Industrial Pollution and Creating the ‘Forever Chemicals’ Beat
In a career spanning more than 20 years, Le Monde reporter Stéphane Horel has brought a creative and, at times, humorous approach to groundbreaking environmental investigations.
10 Questions
From Poet to Reporter, Covering the Human Angle of Conflict in Nigeria
The managing editor of HumAngle, which covers the human costs of conflict and terrorism, discusses the challenges of investigative coverage in Nigeria.
Awards, Grants, & Fellowships Data Journalism
Announcing the Sigma Awards 2025 Shortlist
GIJN, the new home of the Sigma Awards, is proud to announce the 2025 shortlist for the best data journalism projects and portfolios in the past year.
Data Journalism News & Analysis
Tracking US Migrant Detention Data: What Journalists Need to Understand
The US government’s detained immigrant population flatlined in April, but there’s more to the numbers than meets the eye. Here’s what journalists need to know about the data.
Data Journalism Reporting Tools & Tips
As Trump White House Disappears US Environmental Data, Reporters Can Turn to OECD
The wide range of international environmental data that the OECD offers, though often Eurocentric, is still extensive in scope and comparatively reliable.
Data Journalism
Data Don’ts: Expert Tips to Avoid Misleading Audiences With Numbers
At a NICAR 2025 panel, data journalism experts discussed nuanced number errors that watchdog reporters often make that can confuse readers and disrupt story angles.
Member Profiles
Fighting a War with Data Journalism: Ukraine’s Texty and the Battle for Truth
The team at the award-winning data journalism outlet suspected that Russia would invade — they could see clues in the data. We profile the team and their work combating false conflict narratives.
Member Profiles News & Analysis
The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation: Continuing the Legacy of a Trailblazing Journalist
In the aftermath of a car bombing that killed one of Malta’s leading investigative reporters, her family set up an organization to fight for justice and ensure her legacy lives on.
Member Profiles News & Analysis
‘Dogged and Systematic:’ How the Investigative Reporting Lab Covers Corruption and Governance in North Macedonia
The nonprofit newsroom — whose founders and senior leadership are all women — has taken a innovative, youth-focused approach to covering corruption.
Member Profiles
How Mongabay Exposes Threats to the Environment and Indigenous Communities
GIJN member Mongabay is leading the way in environmental journalism with a innovative global-plus-local approach to watchdog reporting.
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.
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
Gathering Evidence and Documents in Conflict and War Zones — A MENA Case Study
This GIJN webinar explores how investigative journalists can document human rights abuses in war zones, with a focus on methods to ensure the information gathered can later be used by legal investigators or international courts. Drawing from their on-the-ground experience in Syria, Iraq, and Palestine, our expert panel will share practical tools, ethical considerations, and field-tested techniques for recording testimony, analyzing open source material, and archiving evidence in a secure and legally sound manner.
Resource Video
How to Acquire Free Satellite Imagery for Your Investigations
Satellite imagery has become a game-changer for investigative journalism, offering powerful tools to uncover hidden stories.
Resource Video
Lessons Learned from Investigating the 2024 Elections
The 2024 elections marked a seismic year for democracies worldwide, presenting investigative journalists with unique challenges and opportunities.
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.