7 Highlights from Germany’s Investigative Journalism Conference

This year’s annual conference of the German Association of Investigative Journalists, or Netzwerk Recherche — a GIJN member — brought together new journalism graduates and seasoned veterans alike to discuss the biggest stories and latest investigative techniques, including the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, the rise of right-wing extremism in Europe, global warming, and open source verification tools.

Illustration: Vincent Burmeister for Netzwerk Recherche

Under the tagline “Now is the Time: Investigating for Democracy” this year’s gathering drew over 900 attendees, including more than 200 speakers. The program was geared toward communities or individuals who are underrepresented in the press, with sessions on feminist investigative journalism and on inclusive reporting. Attendees could also participate in a scavenger hunt to test their geolocation skills.

Here are seven conference highlights, curated for journalists worldwide.

1. Journalists Must Carefully Weigh Legal Risks vs. Informing the Public

During the panel “At the Edge of the Law,” journalists and lawyers discussed the risks journalists take in their investigations. Arne Semsrott, editor-in-chief of FragDenStaat (“Ask the State”), an investigative newsroom focused on freedom of information requests, shared his experiences with strategic litigation. Publishing or quoting official documents from ongoing criminal cases is prohibited in Germany, but Semsrott did it anyway — publishing court decisions about an ongoing case against the Last Generation climate activists — “because I believe this law violates press freedom,” he explained. A case against Semsrott — a development he had deliberately sought  — will be heard in October and will settle whether the law is unconstitutional and incompatible with press freedom.

Some journalists are less willing to take legal risks. When a massive leak from a Swiss bank was exposed in 2022, an international team of journalists from 39 countries spent months analyzing the data, but no Swiss journalists were involved. Because of the country’s strict banking secrecy laws, no local media outlet reported on the leak.

Bastian Obermayer, one of the founders of the investigative outlet Paper Trail Media and one of the journalists on the story, said he could no longer visit Switzerland because he fears prosecution. Still, he believes some risks are worth taking. “We should test the limits more,” said Obermayer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and the journalist who first received the Panama Papers documents from an anonymous source. “Many of us already do, but I think there’s more to be done.”

2. Reporting on the War in Gaza Remains Difficult

At a panel discussing how to do balanced reporting on Israel-Gaza, journalists discussed the difficulties of reporting from a war zone. Many faced a dilemma at the start of the war, when they were offered the option of entering Gaza with the Israeli military — but only if they agreed to the terms set by the army.

“I have never had to work like this in my entire career,” said Holger Stark, deputy editor-in-chief of the German newspaper Die Zeit, who entered Gaza with the Israeli military a few weeks after the attacks on October 7.

Reliable information and photographs are also becoming more scarce. “We had a ton of visual material from Gaza in the first days of the conflict,” recalled Hanna Resch, a TV journalist for the German national broadcaster ARD who is based in Tel Aviv. “It’s getting less and less every day. There are times when we don’t get any more pictures at all.” Resch and her colleagues explained how they got creative when they didn’t have any images — by showing a blank screen on TV and playing a voice note from a doctor in Gaza who described the circumstances.

3. Media Companies Should Be Prepared for Court Battles

During a panel titled “I’m Suing You! Investigations into Abuse of Power Under Legal Pressure,” speakers observed that there had been an increase in legal complaints against journalists in recent years in cases where they have reported on alleged misconduct or sexual abuse. But that was not necessarily a bad thing: “It’s perfectly legitimate for those affected to defend themselves. The accusations are serious and damaging to their reputation,” said Juliane Löffler, an investigative journalist for Der Spiegel.

The court cases can be instructive in terms of how to report on suspected abuse of power — particularly about what can be reported and how. But legal cases also cost money and time. “So of course, ask yourself whether it’s worth it. What battles am I fighting?” Lena Kampf, an investigative reporter at Süddeutsche Zeitung said. “But we should be careful not to become too cautious.”

Many journalists are worried about legal cases against sources. Generally, the media can’t give legal advice or represent them. Freelance reporter Nora Volt urged journalists to be open with sources about the risks, talk to them at different stages of the investigation, and make sure they’re still on board.

Gilda Sahibi, a freelance journalist focusing on antisemitism, racism, women’s rights, the Middle East, and science, gave one of the conference’s keynote speeches. Image: Wulf Rohwudder, Netzwerk Recherche

4. Focus on the Super-Rich and their Role in the Climate Crisis

Journalists should consider financial inequality when investigating who is responsible for the climate crisis. One conference panel dug into how the ultra-wealthy are more responsible for fueling the climate crisis than the rest of the population.

“Be precise in your reporting,” said journalist and filmmaker Julia Friedrichs. “Who is rich and who is super rich? There are big differences between millionaires and billionaires.” Even the poor in Germany are rich from a global perspective, added Ajit Niranjan, an environmental correspondent at the Guardian.

5. Using Shadows for Geolocation (and to Detect AI-generated Images)

“Shadow analysis should be part of normal verification,” said Arne Beckmann, a member of the fact-checking team at the German news agency dpa. Beckmann and his colleague, Jan Ludwig, demonstrated how to use shadows to verify when and where an image was taken. You only need Suncalc.org, a free-to-use website.

Shadow analysis can also be used to detect AI-generated images, Ludwig added. “If you have an image with metadata and the shadows don’t fit the metadata, then the shadows are right.” He predicted that AI will soon be able to generate images of people with realistic hands and five fingers (a common problem), “but the shadows will still be wrong because the AI doesn’t understand physics.”

6. Unlocking Telegram, a Treasure Trove of Information

Veronika Völlinger, a journalist at the news agency dpa, noted in her panel on investigating with Telegram that the messaging app has lots of useful information that journalists don’t take advantage of. She suggests using both the mobile and desktop apps because they have different search functions. Another tip: Since some content may be banned in Europe it’s best to get a foreign SIM card for searching Telegram on a smartphone. However, “verification of individual channels remains difficult on Telegram,” she said.

Sergej Maier, a journalist at the television channel RTL, regularly relies upon Telegram bots to investigate Russia-related stories. The bots are usually short-lived, he explained, but he could identify someone via a facial recognition Telegram bot.

7. Best-Practice Examples in Reporting on Global Warming

In addition to the established awards handed out at the conference — the Lighthouse Prize for special journalistic achievement (which went to CORRECTIV for their undercover investigation into the secret far-right plot against Germany) and the Closed Oyster Prize for “information-blocker of the year”— this year the German Prizes for Climate Journalism were awarded for the first time. The award recognizes excellent reporting on the causes and consequences of the climate crisis.

Winners and nominees of the German Prize for Climate Journalism. Image: Nick Jaussi, Netzwerk Recherche

In the investigative category, the German news agency ZDF won for its reporting on billion-dollar fraud in the oil industry in China. In the podcast category, a collaboration between TRZ Media and rbb was recognized for a podcast series digging into the climate activist group Last Generation. The podcast highlighted the challenges that the climate movement is facing. “They got close to the activists — but without losing their journalistic distance,” Barbara Junge, editor-in-chief at taz, said in her laudatory speech.

All of the recorded sessions of this year’s conference can be found here.

Marie Bröckling is a freelance data journalist based in Berlin. She regularly works for NBC News and ZDF, covering criminal justice and China.