Global Investigative Journalism Network

Aiming for the Stars: Teaching Investigative Journalism

by James Hollings • March 24, 2014

This paper was presented during the professor’s track at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in October 2013 in Rio De Janeiro. For more on educators and investigative reporting, see the Investigative Journalism Education Consortium. This paper outlines an approach to teaching investigative journalism that produces publishable stories within an approximately four –month period. It is based on a five-step method that has been developed over the past few years on a journalism programme for graduate students.

News & Analysis

Spurring Cross-Border Collaboration on Journalism Investigations in Latin America

by Margaret Looney • March 12, 2014

More and more, Latin American journalism is thriving in the digital space. Investigative journalism platforms online are joining forces, data journalism bootcamps are taking off and there are new accelerators looking to fund innovative news projects. “In today’s world, journalists spend more time in the virtual world than in the paper stacks,” said Carlos Eduardo Huertas, director of Connectas, a nonprofit which supports transnational journalism.

Case Studies

YanukovychLeaks Update: “The Project Is Becoming Bigger”

by David E. Kaplan • February 27, 2014

The extraordinary story of how Ukrainian investigative reporters saved thousands of documents left by fleeing ex-president Viktor Yanokuvych has gone viral. YanukovychLeaks.org, the site thrown together by an impromptu team of journalists and hackers, has received more than 600,000 visitors since going live on Tuesday – and those documents have been viewed 3.8 million times. “That means people really do care about transparency. It is valued,” says Drew Sullivan of the nonprofit Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which is helping provide resources for the project.

News & Analysis

YanukovychLeaks: How Ukraine Journalists Are Making History

by Drew Sullivan • February 25, 2014

In the hours after Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev, reports started surfacing that there were documents floating in the reservoir on his palatial 350-acre estate outside the capital. The estate is well known to the media as an off-limits location; journalists, in fact, had never entered more than 300 yards past the front gate, and even at the height of Yanukovych’s openness and good relations, journalists had only been allowed to the front door to receive cakes on journalism day.

Data Journalism

11 Ways to Rethink Open Data and Make it Relevant

by Miguel Paz • February 24, 2014

It’s time to transform open data from a trendy concept among policy wonks and news nerds into something tangible to everyday life for citizens, businesses and grassroots organizations. Here are some ideas to help us get there.

Reporting Tools & Tips

Holding Big Fish Accountable: How to Uncover Corruption

by Umar Cheema • February 10, 2014

In a 2011 Transparency International survey, more than 3,000 business executives from around the world were asked to assess the effectiveness of various approaches to weeding out corruption. The result: nearly half (49%) indicated that investigative journalism played a critical role. Respondents from Pakistan (73%) and Brazil (79%), countries where the press reports fiercely on suspected acts of corruption, placed particular faith in the media’s ability to uncover wrongdoing. Why did the participants feel so strongly that journalists can help?

Reporting Tools & Tips

The Art of the Interview

by María Emilia Martin • February 7, 2014

The interview is one of the—if not the—most important tools we as journalists have to obtain information, to expand on information we may have from other sources, and to clarify facts and see things from different perspectives. We use the interview to expand upon the basic “who, what, where, how, when and why” of newsgathering. This is true whatever beat we may be covering: health, economics, politics, or issues having to do with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Periodismo de Datos

27 de enero de 2014

Recursos

Investigative Journalism: It’s All About Cross-Border Cooperation

Investigative journalists and other citizens interested in uncovering the organised crime and corruption that affect the lives of billions of people worldwide gain, with each passing day, unprecedented access to information. Huge volumes of information are being made available online by governments and other organisations, and it seems that the much-needed information is in everyone’s grasp. However, corrupt officials in governments and organised crime groups are doing their best to conceal information and to hide their wrongdoings.

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Intro: Reporter’s Guide to Millennium Development Goals

Editor’s Note: For the next two weeks, GIJN is running a series drawn from the newly released Reporter’s Guide to the Millennium Development Goals: Covering Development Commitments for 2015 and Beyond, published by the International Press Institute. Agreed to in 2000, the UN Millennium Goals comprise an ambitious agenda to improve quality of life around the world, focusing on such issues as poverty, gender equality, and education.

The GIJN Top 10: Our Most Popular Stories of 2013

by Gabriela Manuli • December 18, 2013

As 2013 nears an end, we’d like to share our top ten stories — the stories that you, our dear readers, found most compelling. The list ranges from impassioned calls for journalists to fight back to the dangers of big data, from the latest techniques for tracking business across borders to the arcane practice of plane-spotting. Please join us in taking a look at The Best of GIJN.org.

GIJC13 Videos

November 4, 2013

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22 Fellowships and Grants for Investigative Journalists

Seeking a chance to improve your skills and expand your world? Tired of the everyday routine in your newsroom? We’ve updated our guide to grants and fellowships of special interest to investigative journalists around the world. There are plenty of short-term and long-term opportunities, both for staff and freelance reporters. Follow the links for information on deadlines and background on the various programs.

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Data Journalism: GIJN’s Global Guide to Resources

As our governments and businesses become increasingly flush with information, more and bigger data are becoming available from across the globe. Increasingly, investigative reporters need to know how to obtain, clean, and analyze “structured information” in this digital world. Otherwise, they and the news organizations they work for will miss some of the most important […]

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The Global FOI Guide

Today, more than 90 countries have laws that require officials to turn over public records, and the number continues to grow each year. And even in countries with no laws specifying whether records should be made available, it never hurts to ask.

Below are a few of the best resources for journalists seeking to file records requests in countries with laws governing access to information.

Safety & Security

A Digital Security Primer

March 23, 2013

A concise guide to digital security for investigative journalists, including email, passwords, logins, and malware, with links to tipsheets and tutorials.

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Digital Security

Español Journalists are being strongly urged to protect their communications and information from growing threats. Yet several studies show that most of us in the media, despite believing the danger is real, are not adopting basic protections. The Rory Peck Foundation issued a Digital Security Guide aimed at freelancers, stressing that “even taking small, simple […]

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Safety and Security

The figures are grim for our colleagues around the world. Since 1992, more than 1,400 journalists have been killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Well over 890 of them have been murdered with impunity; that is, no killer was ever brought to justice. And today, more than 274 journalists are in prison worldwide, […]