GIJN Webinar — Where Do We Go From Here? New Avenues for Investigative Reporting on the COVID-19 Crisis

Editor’s note: This webinar has now taken place. You can see the recording on GIJN’s YouTube channel.

The global pandemic has led to more than half a million deaths, and many millions suffering from debilitating illness and economic devastation. It has exposed and amplified injustice, inequality and criminal activity around the world and has been marked by an unprecedented amount of disinformation. Unsurprisingly perhaps, debates about science, medicine and data of all kinds, central to an analysis of what is happening, are all too often highly partisan and unedifying. The pandemic also has accelerated the crisis in the news media industry itself just at a time when trustworthy news and watchdog reporting are so crucial to the public interest.

We are six months into the COVID-19 crisis, and this global pandemic is far from over. To mark this milestone, GIJN is pleased to offer its 18th webinar in our series Investigating the Pandemic. Where Do We Go From Here? – New Avenues for Investigative Reporting on the Pandemic will reflect on what investigative journalism has achieved so far and what challenges lie ahead.

Four senior journalists from India, Bosnia, Uganda and the United States will discuss groundbreaking investigative stories published or broadcast to date, analyze current coverage, and assess what needs further investigation.

• • Syed Nazakat is an award-winning journalist, media entrepreneur, and founder and editor-in-chief of DataLEADS, a Delhi-based firm which conducts data analysis, visualization, Pan-Asia boot camps and India’s first data-driven website dedicated to healthcare reporting.
  • Miranda Patrucic is a senior editor for Central Asia at the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in Sarajevo. She has played a pivotal role in probes that led to government investigations in multiple countries, prison sentences for corrupt officials, and more than $1 billion in penalties and seized properties.
  • Peter Mwesige is co-founder of the African Centre for Media Excellence in Uganda. He has worked as group training editor of the Nation Media Group, East Africa’s biggest multimedia company. He has also worked as a consultant on journalism, communication, media and politics for the UNDP, UNESCO and the World Bank.
  • Jeanne Lenzer is an independent medical investigative journalist and former Knight Science Journalism fellow. She is a regular contributor to the international medical journal The BMJ, and her articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The (London) Independent, USA Today, and many other outlets.

Since the start of the pandemic, GIJN has produced nearly 40 free webinars in 7 languages, offering resources to journalists worldwide for investigating the COVID-19 crisis.

In September a new series of GIJN Online Events will start with a full program of webinars, workshops and resources focused on COVID-19 and other investigative areas. Thursday 3 September marks the start of a four-webinar series called “Digging into Disappearances: Organized Crime and Missing People,” with sessions in English, French and Spanish. Watch our Twitter feed @gijn and newsletter for details on future events.