Journalists for the Daily Trust in Nigeria told the Committee to Protect Journalists that the military conducted forensic searches on their computers and mobile phones following the publication of a story about a military operation. CPJ’s Jonathan Rozen writes that these raids are emblematic of a global trend of law enforcement seizing journalists’ phones and computers — some of their most important tools.
This past week, the Pen Chapter of San Miguel de Allende honored the 16 journalists murdered this year with an offering typical for Día de Muertos celebration in Mexico. In each home, those who have passed away are remembered with an altar, decorated with flowers, candles, objects, and food that those who have passed away liked when they were alive.
So you’ve spent your own money to report from the field on an investigative story for which you have a modest contract. This is the moment where freelancers have an opportunity to make a true net profit, and gather the nuts for the coming financial winter. Rowan Philp rounded up tips for GIJN on how freelance investigative journalists can seek multiple sales opportunities for every reporting expedition.
Venezuelan investigative news site Armando.info was recently rewarded with a special mention in the Maria Moors Cabot Prize. In a Q&A with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, the site’s co-founder Joseph Poliszuk talks about the challenges of continuing their work with part of the team now in exile.
Journalismfund.eu is an independent nonprofit that promotes cross-border and in-depth journalism in Europe. In this interview, Journalismfund.eu’s Managing Director Ides Debruyne shares his thoughts on “impactful” journalism and why investigative journalism is booming.
Reporters, especially the most independent, critical, and investigative ones, have long been at the receiving end of autocratic governments’ intolerance of dissent. What’s new is the use of the internet and social media platforms to undermine journalists’ credibility, combined with a more sophisticated application of legal instruments and bureaucratic punitive measures, writes GIJN Spanish Editor Catalina Lobo-Guerrero.
By popular demand, we are publishing the prepared remarks that Rappler’s CEO and executive editor Maria Ressa delivered during a rousing keynote speech at the 11th Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Hamburg.
Standing in front of every shadowy network of international criminals are legitimate businesses, such as banks and law firms. But these gatekeepers can also provide a way into your story, writes Megan Clement for GIJN.
When the Bureau of Investigative Journalism asked to see a contract between property developers and the North London borough of Haringey, its reporters were disappointed to receive a heavily-redacted document. This was part of a drive by the UK nonprofit to test the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014, which gives citizens and journalists the right to access the accounts and related documents of city councils and other local authorities.
One of the most fundamental parts of investigating disinformation is looking for the network around a social media account or website. Craig Silverman, media editor at BuzzFeed News, offers up some tips and tools on digging in.
Russ Buettner showed up at strangers’ doorsteps with an overstuffed file under his arm, while he was reporting the Pulitzer Prize-winning expose on how Donald Trump got his money. It was part of a “first contact” strategy for the team of three New York Times reporters to ensure that high value sources helped with key details.
The dominance of the English language might be skewing local and international reporting — as well as the global media development space — writes GIJN’s Managing Editor Tanya Pampalone. She wrote the opening essay for Hostwriter’s new book “Unbias The News: Why Diversity Matters for Journalism.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists has released its latest ranking of the world’s most censored countries, with Eritrea at number one. This Top 10 list is based on CPJ’s research into tactics to muzzle independent reporting, which range from imprisonment to surveillance and restrictions on internet access.
Last week Twitter and Facebook suspended some accounts which originated in China and acted in a “coordinated fashion” with intent to disrupt the recent protests in Hong Kong. We asked Sophia Xu, a China-based social media specialist, to help us better understand the trends in Chinese social media, as well as how to counter fake news and disinformation in the country.
Turkey captivated the world’s attention recently as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s seemingly unstoppable accumulation of power ground to a halt in a series of humiliating defeats in local elections. To the surprise of many, digital news media emerged as a potent medium for information and mobilization for the largely victorious opposition forces in the campaigns.
What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from July 15 to 21 finds Information Is Beautiful’s sharing its gallery of must-read data visualization books, Datajournalism.com highlighting pitfalls in creating charts, the FT analyzing the age of Wimbledon players, and WDR scrutinizing Germany’s opera repertoire.
Storybench identified four areas of emphasis – data, local news, social media, and business models – that will be crucial for journalism students to spend time on, and interviewed five journalism educators across the country who lead especially forward-looking programs and courses.
Ukraine’s largest bank is taking its battle with its former owners to US shores. In a civil lawsuit filed in the state court of Delaware, PrivatBank accuses Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennady Bogolyubov, the billionaires who owned the bank before it was nationalized three years ago, of large-scale money laundering in the United States.
Promoting journalists to management positions without letting them do any reporting is a dangerous road to go down, argues Colombian reporter Ginna Morelo. Here are her proposed 10 commandments of the Journalist, written as an exercise to remind herself about what journalists should never give up on.
The last time GIJN Spanish Editor Catalina Lobo-Guerrero was in El Salvador, she was so shaken up by stories of violence and sexism towards women there that she ended up writing an Op-Ed for The New York Times with the following opening line: “I don’t want to go back to El Salvador.” But last month she returned to the country to attend the ForoCAP, the Central American Journalism Forum.
The winners of the 2019 SOPA Awards were recently announced at a gala held by the Society of Publishers in Asia. Here’s a look at six of the inspiring investigations that were rewarded.
The fifth edition of DIG Festival, the annual international conference that celebrates and awards the best investigative documentaries in the world, is fast approaching. The jury, chaired this year by Naomi Klein, will pick and announce the winners in Riccione, Italy during the festival, from May 30 to June 2.
If current trends continue, the old debate about whether journalists can ever be truly objective may fade away, say Mark Lee Hunter and Luk N. Van Wassenhove. Objectivity, they argue, is morphing into a radically new form.
Once one of Asia’s freest media, the Philippines’ independent news outlets are under sustained attack by President Rodrigo Duterte and his allies, ranging from legal and political assaults to harassment by armies of online trolls. Pro-Duterte columnists are now attacking the modest funding that the country’s media nonprofits receive from overseas, claiming, without evidence, that they are part of a foreign plot to oust Duterte. In this powerful rebuttal, Sheila Coronel, a co-founder of the Philippines Center for Investigative Journalism, takes on the lies and misinformation behind the campaign.
A record 350 journalists gathered in Tokyo over the weekend for Japan’s third investigative journalism conference, by far that nation’s largest and most sophisticated effort to network and train investigative reporters. The conference marks an important milestone for Japan’s beleaguered watchdog press, which has been under sustained assault by powerful political interests.
Following the suicide of Peru’s former president Alan García, the investigative group IDL-Reporteros has fielded accusations that their reporting into corruption caused his death. The team has also received serious threats. Its director Gustavo Gorriti responds in this editorial.
Gräv, Sweden’s annual investigative journalism conference, took place in the seaside town of Kalmar on April 5 and 6. An estimated 600 journalists from nearly a dozen countries were in attendance to mark the 30th anniversary of Gravande Journalister, one of the world’s oldest associations for investigative reporters
GIJN’s managing editor Tanya Pampalone went to the International Journalism Festival Perugia last week. As she navigated the patchwork red bricked roads and listened to some of the biggest names in journalism, she considered the heart-breaking state of our broken industry which is limping along in a dystopian world of authoritarian governments and unchecked tech behemoths and wondered where we’re headed.
