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November 20, 2025 • 09:00
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Guide Resource

Digging into Disappearances: A Guide to Investigating Missing People and Organized Crime

Millions of people disappear every year, according to the International Commission on Missing People, and organized crime is involved in many of these cases. The violence associated with drug trafficking in particular, but also wildlife smuggling, resource theft, human trafficking, and other criminal rackets, plays a key role in many of the disappearances. Journalists act […]

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Tips and Strategies: Freelancing during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Freelancing as an investigative journalist is challenging in the best of times, and it has proven even more difficult during the coronavirus pandemic. From managing physical risks to losing work due to the global economic slowdown, the difficulties are unique and the challenges varied. For more on Distribution, Promotion, and Freelancing, see our GIJN Guide. Here […]

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Freelancing Investigative Journalism: How to Pitch

Selling freelance investigative journalism proposals is a lot like selling other stories, but harder. There just aren’t enough media outlets willing to engage in watchdog reporting. For more on Distribution, Promotion, and Freelancing, see our GIJN Guide. And pitching investigations which may have uncertain and controversial outcomes is especially challenging, requiring the establishment of mutual trust. […]

Resource Tipsheet

The Forensic Methods Reporters Are Using to Reveal Attacks by Security Forces

The excessive force used against anti-racism protesters around the world, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in the US, reveals the need for more visual forensic skills in newsrooms to hold police to account. GIJN identified 12 tools and 12 methods that proved effective in several recent investigations that exposed harm done by security forces.

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Tracking COVID-19 Contracts: A GIJN Guide and Webinar

How to investigate government spending related to the COVID-19 pandemic is the subject of a new resource from GIJN. Our guide describes how to understand and probe the procurement process and identifies the red flags that may signal fraud and corruption.  

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New Sources of Media Funding on the COVID-19 Pandemic

বাংলা |Español The pressing need for good reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged a growing list of donors to offer grants to journalists. Looking for more resources on covering COVID-19? Be sure to check GIJN’s Resource Center. In addition, offers of aid to publishers are emerging in light of the increased financial pressures on small […]

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How to Pitch Your Long-form Video COVID-19 Story to Major Broadcasters

Investigative filmmaking on the coronavirus pandemic is continuing apace, despite the obstacles presented by travel restrictions, health risks, and the relentless daily news cycle. There are plenty of opportunities for journalists to work with major broadcasters, including GIJN’s new online tool to pitch commissioning editors, launched at our latest webinar on collaborative TV and video investigations.

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Managing in the Virus Year: Planning Considerations for Small, Independent Media

As the coronavirus outbreak dents media revenues, investigative nonprofits are grappling with tough issues around income and expenses. Following GIJN’s latest webinar on strategies for financial survival, entrepreneurship expert Ross Settles details the planning considerations that could help shape these difficult decisions in the months ahead.

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How Reporters Can Flatten the Stress Curve While Covering the Pandemic

At first glance, the COVID-19 story appears overwhelming at every professional and personal level for individual reporters, from psychological trauma and shelved investigations to the health risks to their families. But experts say planning and daily habits can make the work manageable — and that the work itself, and the sense of making a difference, represents a coping strength that reporters can exploit.

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GIJN Africa: Reporting COVID-19

Media organizations across Sub-Saharan Africa have developed a considerable number of Africa-specific resource guides, tools and tips geared at improving the capacity of journalists across the continent to carry out impactful reporting on the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. GIJN has collected many of these resources below. Telling the story of COVID-19 in Africa: A basket of […]

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GIJN Africa: Access to Public Records

Resources that are available for journalists in Sub-Saharan Africa who seek public information in countries with laws governing access to information.

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GIJN Africa: Safety and Security in Africa

To protect journalists from safety and security risks, some African and global organizations have set up programs that offer support to muckrakers who are in trouble, either in selected African countries or across the continent.

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What is the Commercial Model for Investigative Media?

Journalism has been mired in an economic crisis for years, prompting journalists to find new models of funding, and to experiment, innovate, and learn from one another. Some nonprofit organizations are raising funds through a range of commercial activities. GIJN’s latest Resource Center addition, written by Ross Settles from the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the Hong Kong University, is designed to help journalists navigate the complex field of commercial revenue.

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Women Investigative Journalists on Work and Life

More and more women muckrakers are breaking important stories around the world. But despite increasing numbers and, to a lesser degree, more senior women in the business, there is still a lot to be done to fight inequality and discrimination.

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Where Can Foreigners Make FOIA Requests? Read the New GIJN Guide

In some countries, foreigners can use the national freedom of information law to file requests, according to a new GIJN resource, GIJN’s Guide to National Rules on Where Foreigners Can Make FOI Requests. Check out the color-coded chart, which includes the pertinent language of the laws in countries around the world.

Guide Resource

GIJN’s Guide to Citizen Investigations

Citizens can investigate, and they do — all over the world. Today we’re launching a new GIJN guide to help non-journalists investigate even more. It’s full of techniques used by investigative journalists that will be helpful to citizen investigators, too. These include searching the internet, finding out who owns corporations, investigating politicians, and much more.

Guide Resource

Citizen Investigation Guide

Curiosity fuels investigations, and there’s no monopoly on who can be curious. Citizens can investigate, and they do. GIJN provides some great examples below. This GIJN guide aims to help non-journalists investigate even more. The sections teach the techniques used by investigative journalists.

Resource Tipsheet

Data Journalism Training Courses

Looking to learn a new programming language or improve your spreadsheet skills? These online vendors offer free or low-cost online courses and video tutorials on a variety of topics and languages. Check GIJN’s YouTube page for the free webinars. The Social Data School, led by Cambridge Digital Humanities in association with the Minderoo Centre for […]

Resource Tipsheet

Visualization Tools

There are a plethora of programs available for data visualization. Some are very simple to use and require no coding, while others are more difficult to learn but offer greater flexibility and interactivity. Here are some of the most popular options for journalists. ArcGIS online is a tool from Esri to create and share online […]

Resource Tipsheet

Visualizing Data

Once you’ve done your analysis, you may want to create graphs, charts, or maps to display your results. Here are some resources to help you display your data in visually appealing, reader-friendly formats. Flowing Data offers a plethora of tutorials that will help you visualize your data. You’ll learn how to make cartograms, upset plots, […]

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Using R

R is a popular programming language most commonly used for data cleaning, statistics, and data visualization. Both the R program and R-Studio are open source. Below are some books and online resources to get you started. Many of the online vendors listed under “Training Courses” offer free or low-cost classes in R. Datajournalism.com offers this […]

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Mapping

If you have a dataset involving geographic locations, these tools and tipsheets can help you analyze your data using maps. The most commonly used mapping programs in newsrooms are ArcGIS from Esri (which has free options for journalists) and the open-source program QGIS. Some also are useful for visualizing, but we’ve added a separate list […]

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