Over the past twelve years, close to 1,010 journalists have been killed for reporting the news and bringing information to the public. On average, this constitutes one death every four days. In nine out of ten cases the killers go unpunished.
The power of the pen — writers are so dangerous that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation deemed it necessary to start surveillance on many of them, including Hannah Arendt, Allen Ginsberg, Ernest Hemingway, Susan Sontag, and Hunter S Thompson. The book “Writers Under Surveillance” gathers some of these investigation files that were obtained with Freedom of Information Act requests by MuckRock.
This year’s Armenian Revolution saw thousands take to the streets for almost two weeks to protest then-prime minister Serzh Sargsyan and his government. Journalists in the country say that it wasn’t one story that triggered the people’s ire against Sargsyan’s rule but the cumulative investigative coverage over the years.
For there to be real justice in the case of Jamal Khashoggi, the penalty the Saudis pay must transcend time, place and person, and positively advance the cause of journalism and rights of free speech for generations to come, not just achieve criminal convictions, visa restrictions and economic sanctions. Citizen activist Chuck Fall proposes how that might look.
Top officials in Indonesia are dismissing the first collaborative investigative report from IndonesiaLeaks, which was released earlier this month. The report, which implicated a top police official in a bribery case, has resulted in a massive social media campaign aimed at discrediting the investigation, while one of the group’s media partners was hit by a denial of service attack, knocking it offline for several hours.
Since the launch of Serial in 2014, podcast popularity has soared. And an increasing number of investigative journalists have begun aiming for ears as well as eyeballs. At the Uncovering Asia 2018 conference in Seoul, sound experts shared their recommendations on must-hear investigative storytelling.
Investigative reporter and author Hank Phillippi Ryan rounded up nine of her favourite narrative nonfiction true crime books, from Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood to Janet Malcolm’s The Journalist and the Murder.
More than 10 years ago, the first nonprofit investigative journalism organization in Africa was established. More than 20 countries throughout the continent now have similar units. What are the motivating factors behind the proliferation of these organizations on the continent? Who is funding them and how? And are these organizations making an impact in Africa? Ntibinyane Ntibinyane rounded up 14 recommendations for GIJN based on his recent study for the Reuters Institute at Oxford University.
The biggest story since the end of apartheid helped bring down a president. But a year on, its effect on South African journalism has been less clear. Jon Allsop filed this report from Cape Town for GIJN.
The winners of the Eighth National Investigative Journalism Awards, organised by Venezuela’s Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, highlight the relevance and importance of collaborative journalism. By building transregional teams, Venezuelan reporters were able to investigate issues that the Venezuelan state tries to hide.
Some people say journalists are “godless.” But ProPublica’s Marshall Allen, who spent five years in full-time Christian ministry, believes his faith has made him a better reporter. Here’s how his Bible teachings are consistent with the basis of the journalistic profession — telling the truth, without bias.
It has been more than six months since the murder of Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova. The Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism’s Pavla Holcova, who had been working with Kuciak on an investigation, lists several worrying ways that the police have botched the investigation of the couple’s murders.
The #MeToo wave has emboldened Chinese journalists to start covering rampant sexual abuse. GIJN China has rounded up three incidents out of Chinese universities which are on the frontlines of #MeToo reporting in China.
At least 59 Twitter accounts that belong to journalists and media outlets, with a combined following of six million, have been censored in Turkey. Their crime? Doing journalism.
Following editorials in some 350 newspapers across the United States Thursday calling for an end to attacks on the press by President Donald Trump, the US Senate unanimously passed a resolution reaffirming the vital and indispensable role of the free press.
Join journalists across the US who are asking the public to stand up for their rights to free speech and an open government. While the effort started as a campaign by the Boston Globe to ask the President of the United States to stop attacking the news media, Donald Trump’s attacks on the press aren’t ultimately about the press. It’s about the people.
Can a government foot the bill for journalists to carry out their watchdog function, without undue government control or intervention in the editorial process? Paul Clemens Murschetz lists three criteria to ensure state aid for journalism is successful and effective.
A unique collaboration between five international investigative teams and recently-formed Signals Network is offering unprecedented protection to whistleblowers, and has received the backing of famed NSA exposer Edward Snowden. Their first project? A broad call on the misuse of big data. A GIJN report by Rowan Philp.
A new report by Reporters Without Borders is helping to shed light on the latest danger for journalists – threats and insults on social networks that are designed to intimidate them into silence. The organization has put forth these 25 recommendations for governments, international organizations, online platforms, media companies and advertisers to respond to these virulent online campaigns.
There is a growing body of evidence that state spies have been targeting journalists in South Africa. Murray Hunter from the Right2Know Campaign, writes for GIJN about their recently released report which looks at 10 case studies of surveillance against journalists to unpack what happened, how it happened and which parties appear to be responsible.
Peru’s IDL-Reporteros was facing pressure from the Peruvian judicial and legislative authorities to reveal its journalistic sources after publishing a report revealing alleged acts of corruption in the judicial system. But after a push back by journalists and civil society, prosecutors have rescinded their orders.
Traditionally, documentary films can be a hard sell and haven’t always enraptured audiences. However, these films are now rising to the top of the heap given the possibilities of reaching an ever growing audience in a new battleground — the streaming arena, with the likes of established giants Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and Apple.
Memetic Media, a nonprofit organization in Paraguay, has brought together three journalistic projects — Kurtural, El Surtidor and Fotociclo — that bring innovative elements to the production and presentation of investigations,reporting and urban photojournalism to engage a young, neglected audience.
Safety, fake news and collaboration dominated Brazil’s 13th Abraji Congress, where more than 750 journalists gathered in São Paulo for 70 panels and 22 courses and workshops on investigative journalism.
With the opposition in power for the first time since independence in Malaysia, one of the oldest and most influential digital news sites in Asia, Malaysiakini, which was set up in 1999 to show people what the state-controlled media wouldn’t, is looking to the future.
Injunctions, lawsuits, intimidation and pressure to reveal anonymous sources are all well-known tactics to stop journalists around the world from doing their work. Iceland? Not so much. But that’s exactly what has been happening recently to fellow muckrakers at two media outlets there, writes Imad Alrawashdeh for GIJN.
While journalism funded by interest organizations is still something of a gray zone, the question on the table now is no longer whether, but rather how investigative reporters can collaborate with NGOs, writes GIJN founding member Mark Lee Hunter.
Investigative journalism is dangerous because it exposes those in power. In the past six months, it has taken the lives of two journalists working within the EU’s borders. Forbidden Stories is showing its strength in picking up where the slain journalists left off.
