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News & Analysis

DIG Festival Honors Investigative Films That Exposed Scandals

by Rowan Philp • October 7, 2021

A jury of 10 veteran journalists assembled by GIJN member DIG (Documentari Inchieste Giornalismi, Italian for Documentaries, Investigation, and Journalism) announced winners in seven categories this week. From betrayals by Western oil companies in Africa to hidden radiation poisoning and collusion between criminals and government spooks, the winning teams tackled tough topics with dogged patience and innovative approaches.

This Investigative Journalism Class Launches Careers and Creates Change

by Samantha Gross • October 6, 2021

Andrew Lehren believes in the power of curiosity, and learning-by-doing. Here, he and some of his former students describe a method of journalism instruction that emphasizes collaboration, new tools, and innovative story pitching.

Research

Document of the Day: Global Organized Crime Index

by GIJN Staff • October 5, 2021

State-embedded actors are the most dominant criminal actor type in the world. The degree to which criminality permeates state institutions varies, from low-level corruption to full state capture, but across the spectrum this involvement has implications for countries’ capacity to respond to organized crime.

Organized Crime Reporting Tools & Tips

Investigating Arms Trafficking

by Khadija Sharife • October 4, 2021

National laws that govern arms dealing are uneven, contradictory, influenced by corrupted leadership, and rife with loopholes. Other barriers to exposing the weapons trade range from maritime and aviation secrecy concealing the transportation of arms; corporate entities that shield dealers and operators; the role of neighboring countries as conduits, and a barter system that allows one illicit commodity, such as ivory, to be exchanged for another.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: China’s Vast Fishing Fleet, Europe’s Internet Speed, Afghan Resources, and US Murders Rate

by Peter Georgiev and Connected Action • October 1, 2021

Tracking the most popular data journalism stories on Twitter from September 20 to September 26, using NodeXL mapping and our own human curation, we found investigations into burning oil in the Greek islands and heat-related deaths in German cities. In this edition, we also feature an exclusive story about China’s vast, secretive fishing fleet, a look at the US arms race, and an analysis of suspicious anomalies in the recent Russian election results.

Data Journalism Reporting Tools & Tips

Interpreting Data: Tips to Make Sure You Know How to Read the Numbers

by Miriam Forero Ariza • September 30, 2021

When using data for investigative stories, it is important to learn how to obtain and clean the information. But it is also vital that you interpret your findings correctly and extract the right conclusions from the numbers, filters, and spreadsheets. If you do the math correctly but fail to read the answers properly, you may end up misleading your audience.

News & Analysis Reporting Tools & Tips

Reporting on Climate Injustice in One of the Hottest Towns in America

by Brooke Stephenson • September 29, 2021

Climate reporter Liz Weil and visual reporter Mauricio Rodríguez Pons first became interested in Thermal, which is just north of California’s Salton Sea, because it is one of the hottest places in America. They soon realized it’s also a prime example of how wealth inequality is inextricably linked to climate justice.

Data Journalism My Favorite Tools

My Favorite Tools: Indian Journalist and Data Designer Gurman Bhatia

by Hanna Duggal • September 28, 2021

For GIJN’s My Favourite Tools series, we spoke with Indian journalist and information designer Gurman Bhatia. She has worked at the Hindustan Times in Delhi and been a part of the award-winning team at Reuters Graphics, where she worked on visualizations for topics as diverse as election fraud in India, use of force during protests in Hong Kong, and bushfires in Australia.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Merkel’s Legacy, Russia’s Politics, Korea’s Missiles, Melting Ice Archives

by Peter Georgiev and Connected Action • September 24, 2021

Tracking the most popular data journalism stories on Twitter from September 13 to September 19, using NodeXL mapping and our own human curation, we found projects by Reuters and the German newspaper Morgenpost analyzing Merkel’s legacy in numbers. In this edition, we also feature a story looking into North and South Korea’s missile programs, a piece on school segregation in the United States, and more worrying climate change revelations.

Methodology News & Analysis

Investigating What Assad’s Regime Did with Money to Rebuild Syria

by Majdolin Hasan • September 21, 2021

The war in Syria has dragged on for a decade, which has led to more than six million people being displaced within the country’s borders, and a similar number have fled the country as refugees. But what has happened to the money raised to help rebuild the country? Journalist Mohammed Bassiki dug deep into the documents and followed the money trail to find out.

How They Did It Methodology

How They Did It: Using Trackers to Investigate Where Unwanted Clothing Ends Up

by Minna Knus-Galán and Jessica Stolzmann • September 21, 2021

What happens to the clothes we donate to charity? Or the clothes we buy online, try on, and then return? Two Finnish journalists used tracking devices in order to investigate these post-consumer supply chains, finding that many items make their way on a complex journey to Africa and the Middle East before sometimes ending up in landfill.

Statues looted from Koh Ker temple complex in Cambodia

Reporting Tools & Tips

Investigating Antiquities Trafficking

by Donna Yates • September 20, 2021

The illicit trade in antiquities is a form of transnational crime that connects the theft at heritage sites to the elite world of the global art market, often via a web of organized crime.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Remembering 9/11, TikTok Sex & Drugs, Global Forest Fires, Indigenous Schools

by Peter Georgiev and Connected Action • September 16, 2021

Tracking the most popular data journalism stories on Twitter from September 6 to September 13, we found a visual project by the South China Morning Post explaining the global impact of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in US history, a Guardian investigation into the history of Canada’s residential schools, and a video project by Le Monde exploring the recent history of forest fires around the world.

News & Analysis

Will Myanmar’s Press Crackdown Muzzle Reporting on Environmental Crimes?

by Carolyn Cowan • September 15, 2021

Myanmar’s new regime leaders escalated their forceful crackdown on nationwide protests with sweeping restrictions on the media, severely curtailing independent journalism in particular, and opening the way for serious environmental crimes.

News & Analysis

SLAPP Fight: How Journalists Are Pushing Back on Nuisance Lawsuits

by Jared Schroeder • September 14, 2021

“There certainly appears to be a worrying trend around the world where powerful companies or public officials attempt to censor public participation on matters of public interest through lawsuits, for instance in the law of defamation,” explained Dario Milo, a South Africa-based attorney who specializes in communication law and is a member of the European Union’s Expert Group on SLAPPs.

Reporting Tools & Tips

A Journalist’s Guide to Investigating Drug Trafficking

by Steven Dudley • September 13, 2021

Covering drug trafficking is inherently difficult and can be dangerous. Information is also scant. In most cases, it is best to begin by getting the best data possible. However, in all cases, proceed with caution: data on drug trafficking, especially drug seizures, gives you only a small part of the picture and can even distort reality in some cases.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Bitcoin Mining, Ida’s Torrential Rains, and the Pandemic’s True Death Toll

by Peter Georgiev • September 10, 2021

Tracking the most popular data journalism stories on Twitter from August 30 to September 5, using NodeXL mapping and our own human curation, we found a series of infographics by Al Jazeera illustrating the scale of the looming crisis. In this edition, we also feature a New York Times investigation into Bitcoin’s energy use, an examination of the Black mortality gap in the United States by The Marshall Project, and a look at the varying successes of the actors who have played James Bond by The Times (UK).

News & Analysis

The Story of India’s COVID-19 Pandemic, as Told by Its Women Journalists

by Jyoti Punwani • September 9, 2021

A collaborative project brought together 40 women journalists from 30 states across India to tell the stories they had uncovered while investigating the impact of COVID-19. But their coming together turned into a much broader conversation about the challenges of their work and lives.

News & Analysis

Reading 50,000 Records to Expose a Hospital Bankrupting Poor Patients

by Fund for Investigative Journalism • September 8, 2021

When Giacomo Bologna was working on his first freelance story, he reached out to the Fund for Investigative Journalism for help. With a grant to cover his gas mileage, the cost of copying records, and his time, Bologna set up shop in a small room on the third floor of a courthouse in Mississippi and started reviewing paper files to trace a large nonprofit hospital’s practice of aggressively pursuing payment from thousands of poor patients.

Data Journalism My Favorite Tools

My Favorite Tools: Venezuela’s Lisseth Boon on Design and Data Visualization

by Andrea Arzaba • September 7, 2021

Since her arrival at Runrun.es, Lisseth Boon has conducted investigations on human rights violations, gold trafficking, illegal mining, and environmental crimes, many of them recognized with national and international awards. Her team has also worked with media platforms both inside and outside of Venezuela such as Consejo de Redacción and Connectas in Colombia, Convoca in Perú, and Mongabay. It has also participated in transnational collaborative projects such as the Panama Papers, Fincen Files, Swiss Connection, Lava Jato (Operation Car Wash), Vigila La Pandemia, and Tierra de Resistencia.

Organized Crime

Investigating Mafia States and Kleptocracies: A Q&A with OCCRP’s Drew Sullivan

by David E. Kaplan • September 6, 2021

GIJN’s forthcoming guide to investigating organized crime features a chapter on what we call mafia states – countries that essentially operate as a criminal cartel and run the affairs of state much as a crime syndicate runs rackets. To explore this topic, we asked GIJN’s executive director David Kaplan to interview Drew Sullivan, co-founder and editor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Fading Immunity, Women Losing Work, Myanmar Murders, Teen Pregnancy, Britain’s Wealth Gap

by Peter Georgiev and Connected Action • September 3, 2021

Tracking some of the most popular data journalism stories on Twitter from August 23 to 29, we found a thread by Financial Times journalist John Burn-Murdoch exploring what we know so far about the long-term effects of immunizations, a look into the pandemic’s impact on the global female workforce by The Washington Post, and an investigation into teen pregnancies in Peru by OjoPúblico.

News & Analysis

Why Covering the Environment Means Risking Your Life In Many Parts of the World

by Antoine Char • September 2, 2021

Investigating the environment in developing countries can be a particularly dangerous game – far more so in the Global South than in North America and Europe. Journalists in the developing world are prime targets for powerful political and economic interests, operate in a hostile climate, and often lose their lives far from the Western media spotlight.

News & Analysis Sustainability

How Mission-Driven News Sites Are Betting on Reader Revenue in Latin America

by Laura Oliver • August 31, 2021

For digital-first news outlets in Latin America, lessons learned from reader-funding experiments are being transformed into highly tailored membership programs that offer a chance at a more sustainable future. Independent, mission-driven or subject-specific news sites, in particular, are leading the way, converting close relationships with audiences into funding through editorially-linked, labor-intensive initiatives.

News & Analysis Safety & Security

After the Taliban Takeover, Will an All-Female Afghan News Site Survive?

by Raksha Kumar • August 30, 2021

Afghan journalist Zahra Joya, 28, is not hopeful of a bright future for women journalists in her country. In November 2020, she used her personal savings to recruit five women journalists and start Rukhshana Media. They wanted to go around the country and tell the stories of maternal mortality, domestic violence and women’s reproductive health. Since then, they have published stories on the taboo of menstruation, child marriage, street harassment, gender discrimination and what it means to live as a survivor of rape.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Chaos in Kabul, Heat Deaths, Earth’s Biomass, Mapping Global Wildfires, Smearing the Greens

by Peter Georgiev and Connected Action • August 27, 2021

Our mapping of top data journalism links from August 16 to 22 found maps by The New York Times and Washington Post showing chaos at Kabul airport as thousands flee the Taliban, an investigation into heat-related deaths by NPR and Columbia Journalism School, a look at a mysterious poster campaign attempting to smear Germany’s Green party, and a comprehensive visualization of Earth biodiversity.

News & Analysis

A Cross-Border Collaboration Exposes Digital Sex Crimes in Asia

by Sarah Karacs • August 26, 2021

How did a team of reporters across Asia investigate digital sex crimes, and what did they learn about interviewing victims of image-based abuse during their deep dive into this phenomenon? Sarah Karacs speaks to the team to find out how the collaboration worked, and what they learned about a phenomenon of growing concern worldwide.

Reporting Tools & Tips

60 GB of Data, 27 Years of Hidden Payments: How Brazil’s Journalists Used FOIA to Reveal Pension Payments

by Júlio Lubianco • August 25, 2021

Seventy stories and still counting. This is the main result of an ongoing struggle waged since 2017 for the disclosure of all pension and retirement payments by the Brazilian government. On the front line is GIJN member Fiquem Sabendo, a journalism agency specializing in that country’s Freedom of Information Act.

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