This summer a Swedish prosecutor announced that a 30-year probe into the killing of a Swedish prime minister would be closed since there was “reasonable evidence” that the assailant had been identified. The man now believed to have carried out the crime was identified two years ago by investigative journalist Thomas Pettersson, who spent 12 years investigating who killed Olof Palme.
In week four of GIJN’s project to arm reporters with tools for the toughest election stories, #gijnElectionWatchdog shared a dataset of individual swing state electors, tools for exposing deepfake videos, an app to push back against online harassment of female reporters, and key tips on impact in a low-trust landscape.
The jury for the DIG Awards – an annual celebration of the best investigative documentaries made around the world – has revealed the films and programs that have made it onto the annual shortlist. The final awards will be given as part of DIG’s festival, which is taking place in the historic city of Modena in northern Italy this week.
Personal data is big business, and not only for private firms. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from September 21 to 27 finds a number of troubling investigations: Channel 4 News revealed that Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign used personal data from Facebook and Cambridge Analytica to deter Black voters from casting their ballot; Consumer Reports found that companies were making it difficult for people to opt out of having their data sold despite a landmark California law that protects individual data rights; and Noteworthy and The Business Post highlighted a concerning lack of clear regulation surrounding access to, and use of, genetic and patient data by private firms.
In this global GIJN webinar, “Investigating the Police: Reporting Tips and Tools,” co-organized with the African Investigative Journalism Conference, we bring together four experienced journalists: two from Africa and two from outside the continent, who have investigated law enforcement. They will share their experience and reporting techniques ranging from source development to forensic analysis.
In this open letter, Berlin-based journalist Sara Schurmann implores her colleagues worldwide to consider the implications of climate change and how to cover it.
In this summary of GIJN’s webinar series on investigating disappeared persons, you’ll hear top tips from the award-winning journalists whose work shined a light into the shadows and gave hope to the families of those who mysteriously vanished.
In the first of three GIJN webinars focusing on the US 2020 election, Sarah Blaskey of the Miami Herald, Pulitzer-winning reporter David Cay Johnston, and AP’s race and ethnicity writer Kat Stafford set out the shocking stakes of the election, and offering key tips on how to tackle, and “land”, the stories that really need telling.
For this week’s Friday 5, where GIJN rounds up key reads from around the world, we found a ready-for-prime-time study on financial crimes in the US art market, how misinformation actors are weaponizing the Wayback Machine, and Google’s not-so-altruistic $1 billion for publishers.
In week three of GIJN’s project to arm reporters with tools to tackle the toughest US election stories, #gijnElectionWatchdog includes three little-known election “killer apps” – one to zero in on coordination behind disinformation; one to assess foreign interference; and one to dig into far right groups bent on intimidating voters.
“Death is the great equalizer,” or so the saying goes. But our NodeXL #ddj mapping from September 21 to 27 finds an investigation by The Boston Globe Spotlight team that proves otherwise: race and income influences how and when people die. In this Top 10 #ddj edition, we also found The Markup launching its new privacy tool, the Financial Times examining how Finland, and the cities of Madrid and New York City handled the pandemic, as well as a great guide by Datawrapper’s Lisa Charlotte Rost to choosing better colors for your charts.
What does it mean to pursue independent journalism in an environment of democratic retrenchment? Nic Dawes, a former editor at South Africa’s Mail & Guardian and India’s Hindustan Times, reflects on the role of the media in holding power to account as the US election draws close.
How should journalists investigate what has happened to people who have disappeared? What is the best way of dealing with their families, the organized crime groups often involved in the cases, and corrupt officials? Mexican investigative journalist Marcela Turati and Óscar Martínez from El Salvador, both specialists on reporting on transnational organized crime, shared their tips during GIJN’s Spanish language webinar.
In week two of #gijnElectionWatchdog, GIJN’s project to arm US reporters with effective tools for election accountability coverage included a comprehensive election equipment database, campaign finance deep access, daily time-saving tools, and the rules for all 50 states in a single spreadsheet.
In this GIJN webinar, “The US Election: Digging into Disinformation,” the second of two that focus on the US Election, we bring together three extraordinary journalists who will share their analysis of the election info wars — and their tips for navigating the tsunami of disinformation while investigating in the public interest.
For this week’s Friday 5, where GIJN rounds up key reads from around the world, we found The Markup creating an online privacy tool, suggestions on how to make your maps more neutral, and practical tips for pitching donors during a pandemic.
How fast is the coronavirus spreading in countries around the world? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from September 14 to 20 finds data visualization designer Jan Willem Tulp simulating the speed of COVID-19 infections and German television news program ZDF heute mapping how the pandemic traversed the globe. Meanwhile, Thibi Recipes explores tutoring data journalism as if you’re following a cooking recipe, the Financial Times reports on climate extremes, and ICIJ and Buzzfeed bare suspect financial data.
With traditional media funding models in disarray, membership offers news outlets an alternative way of ensuring their profitability or survival. GIJN spoke to the Membership Puzzle Project’s Ariel Zirulnick about their latest guide and her top tips for organizations considering going down this route.
Citizen Matters is the flagship publication of the Bengaluru-based Oorvani Foundation, a nonprofit working on open knowledge platforms that help develop better cities. Today, it has successfully transitioned to become an online-only news site, and has been expanding its reach to other cities, writes Amruta Byatnal for GIJN.
United States’ government actions and policies at home and abroad affect people’s lives around the world. The outcome of the upcoming November election — not only for president but for the US Congress — will have global impact. In this GIJN webinar “The US Election: What’s At Stake”, the first of two focusing on the US Election, we bring together three American journalists who are digging into American politics to find out what’s at stake and what journalists need to investigate.
Digital technologies have changed whistleblowing, with a growth in new tactics and strategies based on the use of encryption-based communication tools. Philip Di Salvo writes for GIJN about his research into new platforms.
For this week’s Friday 5, where GIJN rounds up key reads from around the world, we found a guide for setting up a media membership model, DW Akademie’s handbook for media start-ups, and Google’s latest initiative to support digital news publishers.
In its first week, #gijnElectionWatchdog showed reporters how to quickly flag campaign finance abuses; listed Twitter handles for nearly all US secretaries of state; explained America’s wildly different vote recount rules by state; and found a pioneering tool to dig into dark money ad spending on Facebook.
Territorial disputes — over land, borders, or resources — are a long-standing source of tension around the world. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from September 7 to 13 finds Al Jazeera explaining the India-China dispute over a shared Himalayan border in seven maps, and the Financial Times attempting to put into context the tensions between Turkey and its neighbors competing over natural gas discoveries. We also find Stanford University and Big Local News offering data reporting grants on the pandemic, and other groups offering free data journalism workshops and webinars.
From the global coronavirus pandemic to the soul-searching that has come as a result of the Black Lives Matter protests, 2020 has cracked open society’s fault lines. Organizations are questioning their role, and journalism has not been spared this moment of introspection.
We’re delighted to announce that GIJN has launched a new initiative: GIJN Afrique. We’ll be sharing the best investigative tips and tools, groundbreaking stories, grants and fellowships, data sets and more, in French, with a focus on French-speaking countries across the African continent.
