Resource Guide
Guide to Investigating Organized Crime in Africa
Organized crime is a global phenomenon. But Africa, with its deep-seated corruption and “resource curse,” is particularly hard hit.
Resource Center
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.
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Resource Guide
Guide to Investigating Organized Crime in the Golden Triangle
Tps and best practices for covering drug trafficking, money laundering, official corruption, other illicit activity in the region.
Resource Guide
GIJN’s Guide to Undercover Reporting
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.
Resource Guide
GIJN’s Guide to Investigating Sea Level Rise
For journalists, explaining the causes and consequences of rising sea levels is a critical and challenging assignment.
Resource Guide
GIJN’s Elections Guide for Investigative Reporters
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.
Resource Guide
Investigating Russia and the War in Ukraine
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, GIJN has published a series of stories and tipsheets for investigative journalists covering the war.
Resource Guide
Resources for Women Journalists – A GIJN Guide
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 […]
Resource Guide
Climate Change Accountability: Guide to Investigating Methane
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.
Resource Guide
Reporting on Migration in the Gulf: A Revised and Expanded GIJN Guide
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.
Resource Guide
How to Set Up a Video Unit: A GIJN Guide for Small Organizations
How to hire staff and plan out your shoots to tips for better photography and helpful case studies.
Resource Guide
A Guide to Fact-Checking Investigative Stories
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.
Resource Guide
Reporter’s Guide to Investigating Organized Crime
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.
Resource Guide
Business Tools
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 […]
Resource Guide
A Journalist’s Guide to Avoiding Lawsuits and Other Legal Dangers
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.
Resource Guide
Investigating Femicide: A GIJN Guide
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.
Resource Guide
Investigating Sexual Abuse: An Updated Reporting Guide
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.
Resource Guide
Partnerships and Collaborations
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 […]
Resource Guide
Freelancing: Platforms That Earn Income for Writers
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 […]
Resource Guide
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 […]
Resource Guide
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.
Resource Guide
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 Guide
GIJN/NAJA Guide for Indigenous 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 […]
Resource Guide
Climate Crisis: Ideas for Investigative Journalists
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 […]
Resource Guide
Planespotting: An Updated Guide to Tracking Aircraft Around the World
In 2019, GIJN first launched its guide to planespotting and flight tracking around the world. In the wake of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which led to a great migration of Russian oligarchs and their assets, as well as Elon Musk’s efforts to block bots from tracking planes in real time on Twitter, we’ve now […]
Resource Guide
GIJN’s Global Guide to Freedom of Information
More than 115 countries worldwide have laws that require officials to turn over public records.
Resource Guide
Land Ownership Records: So Useful, but Challenging to Find
Finding out who owns land can be tough. While property registration systems exist in almost all countries, the quality and availability of the information vary widely. World Bank experts estimate that only 30% of the world’s population has a legally registered title to their land, a widely quoted figure that Bank officials stress is a […]
Resource Guide
Prospecting and Cultivation: A Fundraising Primer
Growing your major gifts program — or getting one started in the first place — can feel like an overwhelming responsibility. The philanthropic landscape is extremely competitive, and the prospect of identifying and soliciting prospective donors can seem cumbersome and intimidating. While the non-profit journalism landscape has flourished, opening up new revenue streams and business […]