GIJN’s Resource Center is here to help journalists expand their knowledge and skills. The Center holds more than 2,000 items in 14 languages – from tip sheets and guides to instructional videos. Use the menu on the right to navigate it or the search box below to find topics you’re interested in.
GIJN has updated our popular step-by-step guide on verifying images to help find out whether the photo you saw on social media is the real thing. Try out some simple-to-use free tools — including TinEye, Google Reverse Image Search, Photo Sherlock, and Fake Image Detector — to check the source of a picture and whether it has been manipulated.
In an effort to help journalists and others trying to leave Afghanistan, GIJN has put together this list of resources for emergency evacuation and asylum processes.
In June, a French court indicted executives from two surveillance companies on charges of complicity in torture in Libya and Egypt, following revelations by journalists about their alleged technology sales to repressive regimes. In a series of interviews, investigative reporters shared tips and tools that newsrooms around the world can use to uncover the spyware and monitoring systems their governments are buying.
Whether investigating human rights abuses, money laundering, or even public officials’ conflicts of interests, reporters are increasingly developing their own databases for investigative projects. Here are a series of tips drawn from the experiences of a number of international journalists and from the author’s personal experience gathering and creating data sets for investigative stories.
Columbia Journalism School’s Dart Center offers resources and tools for journalists coping with stress and trauma, from self-care to harassment. And some tips for newsroom managers.
GIJN invited journalists and activists to answer one key question about reporting on illegal wildlife trafficking: What stories should investigative journalists interested in this subject concentrate on? From the trafficking of less-noticed animals to bushmeat and investigating the zoonotic diseases that can pass between humans and animals, read their answers based on years in the field, in this story.
This spreadsheet is a list of major reports, key groups, examples of investigative journalism, and relevant databases on lllegal Wildlife Trafficking. The collection is part of GIJN’s Illegal Wildlife Trafficking guide, which can be found here. Suggestions for additions to the collection are welcome. Please email here.
Human trafficking is a persistent and pervasive crime around the world, and a critical and impactful area for journalists to investigate. In this GIJN Original, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Martha Mendoza gives her tips for digging into the subject.
In a RightsCon session hosted by GIJN, three editors shared survival strategies for independent newsrooms in authoritarian nations, as threats to the press, and institutions of accountability, grow around the world. They described a form of journalistic judo, where journalists can find advantages in the very tactics used to repress them.
Femicide — the intentional murder of women because they are women — is a global problem. According to the UN’s latest estimates, 50,000 women and girls are killed each year by intimate partners or other family members. GIJN’s latest resource aims to help journalists understand what femicide is, find and understand the data available, and suggest which experts to interview.
The Internet Archive is a nonprofit library that is best known for the Wayback Machine, a staple for investigative journalists around the world. Launched 20 years ago, the Wayback Machine now archives much of the public web at the rate of more than 1 billion archived URLs per day.
In early April, Russian authorities raided the Moscow apartment of IStories editor Roman Anin, who is widely regarded as one of the world’s top investigative reporters. In response to the raid, IStories’ lawyer, Vasily Grischak, gave a briefing to journalists on how to deal with a police raid — tips which GIJN has translated here.
Looking for sources? Finding experts in a particular field is a good place to start for many stories. GIJN took a look at various guides to expert sources. After cutting those that are outdated, too specialized, or tools of the PR industry, we found a handful worth consulting. Here are six services with functioning, reliable databases used by journalists searching for expert sources.
Looking for tips, tools, and tutorials? The below guides focus on investigative journalism and provide case studies and examples from around the world. Most are available for free, unless indicated otherwise. You can also find our guide to investigative journalism manuals in Chinese and Spanish. Have an addition that you’d like to share? Send us […]
In order to break through the noisy internet landscape, you need to put in the work to build a long-term relationship with your readers, so that they remember your name and keep coming back. But what are the best platforms for you to use? And how can media organizations choose the apps that best reach their audiences? GIJN’s Rossalyn Warren has some tips.
GIJN has rounded up seven of the talks in the TED back-catalogue that are most interesting and relevant for investigative journalists. Available for free online, and in multiple languages, this selection spreads the word about tools, stories, and interesting investigations to audiences around the world.
The subject of sexual violence remains a sensitive if not taboo subject in much of the world and often goes unreported. Watchdog journalism has started digging deeper into sexual violence, but these investigations are still few relative to the estimated number of cases worldwide.
From investigating corruption in state oil contracts to exploring pollution caused by mining, the extraction of oil and other natural resources is a field ripe for investigation by journalists. The Natural Resource Governance Institute, a US-based nonprofit, has a new guide to help journalists explore the industry.
From where to pitch to how to avoid being sued, and how much you should be getting paid for your work: a new, nine-part GIJN-resource covers the business side of doing investigative journalism. The guide covers a variety of subjects, aiming to help both individuals and media institutions by providing practical tips and advice.
Freelance journalists are often on their own when it comes to security, both physical and digital, but there are many helpful resources. Help on many topics is available in the resources listed below, and even more are included in these GIJN resource pages: Safety and Security Digital Security Legal Defense Emergency Aid for Journalists Working […]
Collaborations on investigative projects are increasingly popular. Working together with partners can multiply and maximize reporting resources and increase readership. Special skills can be acquired, such as analyzing data, creating visualizations, or preparing multimedia elements. There is a steadily growing amount of literature on how to do collaborative investigations — how to build trust, create […]
There are a growing number of sites that help writers earn money while self-publishing. Whether these are right for you will require research. In this section, we are not exploring the many places that help create websites, newsletters and blogs, or looking into the plug-ins that permit sales and subscriptions. Nor are we getting into […]
Freelance investigative journalists should seriously consider having insurance to protect against the risk of being sued. “Media liability” policies are shields against the financial costs of litigation over libel, slander, defamation, invasion of privacy, plagiarism, copyright infringement and more. Insurance can cover potentially very large legal bills and monetary damages due to adverse court judgments […]
Having insurance while on risky assignments may be a prudent investment and less expensive than you fear. Get the publisher to pay for it if possible. What to insure for? Classic travel problems: missed flights, lost documents, etc. Medical issues: sickness, injury, etc. (COVID-19 coverage is excluded.) Evacuation, if necessary. Kidnapping. Disability insurance. Repatriation of […]
Contractual Considerations Contract negotiations for investigative articles should cover several issues that aren’t as relevant for, say, a feature about cute kittens. There are some fairly universal points on which to concentrate, including: A definition of the scope of work and how changes will be handled. The terms of payment. Who owns the rights. For […]
There are no platforms designed specifically for journalists to sell investigative story ideas, but a few websites may prove useful. To find a publisher for an investigative idea, most reporters suggest alternative routes, such as doing research on possible outlets and making personal contacts. (See more about networking in the section on pitching stories.) However, […]
Update: In 2022, GIJN published an elections guide with four chapters. You can read it here. It’s fair to say that the United States has never seen an election quite like this one. On November 3, Americans will vote to elect a president, members of the US Senate and House of Representatives, and thousands of […]
