Resource Guide
Reporting Guide to Holding Governments Accountable for Climate Change Pledges
The global fight against climate change depends on the actions of individual nations — so national accountability is critical.
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.
The global fight against climate change depends on the actions of individual nations — so national accountability is critical.
Required disclosures by public officials about their income and assets can be invaluable to investigative journalists. And information about wealth and its sources can play a vital role in uncovering corruption. Official filings are often the starting point for classic follow-the-money stories. However, disclosure laws have gaps, so the public records don’t always reveal the […]
In this reporting guide we’ve included some of the various definitions of disability, important resources, and key issues for journalists to investigate.
Investigative journalists have long used information about airplanes to uncover corruption, follow wars, track government officials, and point out the levels of greenhouse gases emitted. GIJN has now revised and updated its reporting guide to planespotting and tracking flights around the world.
Organized crime is a global phenomenon. But Africa, with its deep-seated corruption and “resource curse,” is particularly hard hit.
Tps and best practices for covering drug trafficking, money laundering, official corruption, other illicit activity in the region.
In countries without public record transparency rules or strong source protection laws, going undercover can be one of the few tools reporters have to reveal public interest stories.
For journalists, explaining the causes and consequences of rising sea levels is a critical and challenging assignment.
This guide offers a broad array of tools, techniques, and resources — beyond the primary local sources you find — to help watchdog reporters dig into almost any election.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, GIJN has published a series of stories and tipsheets for investigative journalists covering the war.
Women and nonbinary journalists often encounter obstacles, whether they’re out reporting or when they’re back in their newsrooms. GIJN has gathered resources for those who want to connect, handle harassment, and address discrimination issues. We also provide advice and tips from great women investigative journalists that may serve as inspiration. This guide was originally published […]
This guide was written by Toby McIntosh, senior advisor to GIJN’s Resource Center. Editing was by Reed Richardson and Laura Dixon. Illustrations were created by Marcelle Louw.
This updated and expanded guide was written in cooperation with Migrant-Rights.org. Illustrations are by Marcelle Louw. The project manager was Majdoleen Hasan. Editing by Reed Richardson.
How to hire staff and plan out your shoots to tips for better photography and helpful case studies.
Bulletproofing your story demands much more than getting the facts right. It requires a meticulous approach from the start in order to pass quality control.
For details on this guide’s chapter authors, see the Acknowledgments page. Illustrations are by Ann Kiernan. Editing by Laura Dixon, Tanya Pampalone, and Reed Richardson. Andrea Arzaba was the project manager.
Here are tools to help small newsrooms with all the work that isn’t newsgathering: paying the bills; scheduling collaborative projects, and maintaining shared communication channels for team members; editing and posting a podcast; designing a graphic for social media and then seeing how well the post performs. With myriad products on the market all claiming […]
The practice of independent journalism is facing enormous challenges, ranging from authoritarian regimes implementing regressive laws that stifle speech to journalists being unable to make a living from their work. In order to meet those challenges, journalists can benefit from understanding the protections provided by international law.
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 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.
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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.
This guide is created to encourage Indigenous investigative journalists and to provide empowering tips and tools. Developed collaboratively by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA), the guide explores eight key topics.The entries include background information, examples of investigative work, suggestions for stories, and resources for information. This guide […]
This GIJN resource page aims to encourage more investigative reporting about the climate crisis. In Part 1, we begin with articles that provide concrete suggestions for investigative projects. In Part 2, we have collected challenging commentaries on how the media has handled climate change and what it should be doing better. In Part 3, we […]
In 2001 GIJN was born, as investigative journalists from around the globe met for the very first time to share ideas, tips, and best practices to strengthen their reporting in a world where journalism was increasingly under threat.
Today the threat has multiplied, and at GIJN we find ourselves under the same pressures as our member organizations. Most urgently: available funding for investigative journalism has been impacted as some longtime funders who supported journalism in the past are no longer doing so or have closed. Yet our work continues, more important than ever before.
GIJN serves as the global hub for the world’s investigative reporters. Our core mission is to support and strengthen investigative journalism—with special attention to those from repressive regimes and marginalized communities.
We are embarking on our first-ever campaign initiative to help us expand our revenue by the end of the year through individual donors. If you have ever joined one of our free webinars, used one of our free resources, learned a new skill thanks to a GIJN training, or simply believe that press freedom is essential to civil society, we ask you to show your support for GIJN’s work with a donation of your choosing. Called “Friends of GIJN,” this campaign includes a more personalized experience, starting in 2027, for individuals who answer the call to join with us during this unprecedented time.
Truth and democracy are under attack around the world. You can fight back by helping GIJN support investigative journalists with free access to the latest tools and techniques — so they can foster justice and hold accountable those who abuse the public trust.
With a staff based in 24 countries, GIJN works in a dozen languages each day, linking together the world’s most enterprising journalists, offering state-of-the-art training, webinars, tip sheets, and a Help Desk that responds to 2,000+ requests for assistance each year. More than 84% of GIJN’s operating budget goes directly to our program work.
Please make a gift today to support journalists on the front lines of the fight for accountability and human rights.