Investigations into extrajudicial killings, violent conflicts over land and timber, and trafficking of cultural heritage items took home the top three prizes at the 2016 Latin American Investigative Journalism Award (#COLPIN2016), held in Panama last weekend. The jury also highlighted the existence of networking, collaborative, and transnational work methodologies streaming from data journalism
What are the hot data journalism tweets? Here are top links for Nov. 21-27: Korea president scandal (@ReutersGraphics); post-truth questions (@nicolaskb); UK beneficial ownership (@Global_Witness); exhaust data (@paulxmccarthy); dataviz catalog (@SR_Visual_Info); Turkish schools (@dagmedya) & more.
Investigative reporting has never been a profitable business, especially when it relies on the support of governments or non-profit foundations. But now the funds are dwindling and costs are on the rise. Donors have new priorities, not least a global and intensifying refugee crisis and de-radicalization. However, Arab journalists fought to initiate free speech and honest reporting in the Arab region and continue to fight to maintain them, with no intention of giving up now.
Even as the Panama Papers disclosures have sparked almost 150 official investigations in at least 76 countries, they have also provoked pushback from individuals and governments displeased with revelations of the hidden economic holdings of the global elite. Politicians, business executives and thousands of their supporters have responded with vitriol, threats, cyber attacks and lawsuits. But one of the benefits of collaboration is the way journalists can band together to overcome these issues.
In a post-truth future, it can be frustratingly hard to fight fake news and rumors beyond one’s immediate reach. In a system where no source is deemed fully trustworthy, research and citations are diminished to just another set of opinions. This has been China’s story for decades. In 2016, it is starting to be the U.S.’ story as well.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are top links for Nov. 14-20: #USElection2016 (@visualisingdata, @simplystats); mapping Turkish women murders (@FemicideMap); polarized America (@LazaroGamio); visual vocabulary (@martinstabe); drug overdose deaths (@nytgraphics); & more.
Last week, Google announced funding for 124 European media projects in the second round of its Digital News Initiative (DNI) Innovation Fund. Among the awardees are seven members of the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN): Correct!v, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the Investigative Reporting Project Italy (IRPI), the RISE Project, the Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism, Direkt36, and Atlaszlo.hu.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are top links for Nov 7-13: guide to be a data journalist (@willems_karlijn); infobeautyaward winners (@ddjournalism); bulletproofing data course (@ejcnet); data pitfalls (@journalismnews); EU & US economic data (@github); & more.
Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election has given rise to questions about credibility of traditional media outlets, the role of the media in shaping public opinion, and a changing media landscape. Even the future existence of free media as it is known today is a cause of concern for many in the media community if Trump’s attacks against the press during his election campaign are taken into account. GFMD has complied a selection of articles encompassing these wide-ranging issues.
The paper trail has changed — money now moves digitally and business registries are databases — and this lets journalists do more than ever before in tracking people and companies across borders. Here’s a useful list of which business databases to start looking into if you’re background companies in China, India, and the Philippines.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are top links for Oct 31-Nov 6: election maps vs. cartograms (@LazaroGamio); US political geography (@nytgraphics); data pitfalls (@journalismnews); affordable healthcare (@sangerkatz); French literary awards @dataletemps); & more.
This year’s African Investigative Journalism Conference, boasting about 250 attendees from 28 countries, concluded an enthusiastic three days of workshops and presentations on Wednesday in Johannesburg, South Africa. Now in its eleventh year, the AIJC is the largest gathering of investigative journalists in Africa. With 70 sessions, the conference was, as one attendee put it, “a candy store for journalists.”
Earlier this month the Indian news site Newslaundry won a prestigious Ramnath Goenka Award for a series of stories based on Right to Information (RTI) requests. The information — over 2,000 letters from Indian state-owned enterprises revealed how political leaders routinely misused up to US$15 million in public funds by asking for media ads or sponsorships for their pet organizations. Here’s the inside story of how the piece almost didn’t come to light.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are top links for Oct 24-30: Clinton/Trump facial analysis (@benheubl ); 10K edits to Clinton/Trump Wikipedia pages (@chrisalcantara); Amnesty 36-year dataviz (@jwyg); Latinos in office (@UnivisionData); open source tools (@M_Mandalka); & more.
“Stolen Memory” is the investigation that led to the creation of the first journalistic platform that collects massive data on illicit trafficking of cultural artifacts from Latin American countries. It is a project of Peruvian digital investigative journalism site Ojo Público, which invited four important media in the region to participate in a transnational and collaborative investigation.
For International Day to End Impunity, our excerpt today is an annex from a new UN report. It makes for a chilling read — an updated list of the status of judicial inquiries into journalist killings from 2006 to 2015. Out of 827 journalists killed in the past decade, only 63 have been resolved. The message right now is clear: opponents of a free press can literally get away with murder. Until we fix the problem of impunity, it will be impossible to meet the UN development goal of ensuring public access to information.
Today, November 2, marks International Day to End Impunity. Since 2014, the UN and press freedom groups have commemorated the day to spotlight the glaring number of unresolved journalists’ murders and the lack of punishment for their perpetrators around the world. This year’s awareness campaign is aptly titled “My Killers Are Still Free.”
On Wednesday, the UN and press freedom groups worldwide will mark International Day to End Impunity, commemorated since 2014 to highlight the glaring number of unresolved journalists’ murders and the lack of punishment for their perpetrators. As part of a series to mark the occasion, GIJN is pleased to excerpt “The Assault on Reporting” from a new report by David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are top links for Oct 17-22: challenging dataviz assumptions (@eagereyes); Clinton/Trump facial analysis (@TheEconomist); R & RStudio (@mjfrigaard); pharma money (@srfdata); code database (@srfdata); German lobbyists (@tagesspiegel); & more.
Mark your calendars! Be sure to join us for the seminal event in investigative journalism for 2017 — the Global Investigative Journalism Conference. It’s the GIJC’s 10th anniversary and our first time in Africa. There will be over 100 sessions, all targeted at working journalists determined to dig beneath the surface.
Corruption is one of the most dangerous beats for journalists, and one of the most important for holding those in power to account. There is growing international recognition that corruption is also one of the biggest impediments to poverty reduction and good governance. This is why journalists on this beat must be protected, including by multilateral lending institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are the top links drawn from tweets during October 10-15: infographic sketches, the growth of data journalism, the Tapestry Conference, using Googlescraper, conflicts over water, and an Olympics dataviz.
The first Southern African Investigative Journalism Conference in Botswana took place in that country’s capital Gaborone from October 7-8 this month. About 175 journalists from 10 countries participated in the event, which featured talks ranging from the dangers of reporting on corruption and the Panama Papers in Africa to personal testimonies of reporters who have faced persecution and threats of violence for their reporting.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are top links for Oct 3-8: spy plane viz (@BuzzFeedNews); ggplot2 (@jburnmurdoch); graphics origins (@cjgiaimo); open source search tools (@OpenSemSearch); East & West Germany differences (@rick_n); Colombia drinking water (@eltiempo); & more.
All around the world, very real benefits result when legal tools are used to obtain government information. Because there are so many frustrations for those who seek information, it’s sometimes easy to overlook the positive benefits. Freedom of information (FOI) reform advocates need to document and celebrate the victories.
When the president of the parliament states that there are some MPs “doing nothing,” you know what to do as a data journalist: you turn to the numbers. This is how I did that and how I got a scatter plot in a printed paper and an interactive one online.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are top links for Sept 26-Oct 1: future journo tech-jobs (@mkramer); open-source search tools (@OpenSemSearch); data viz projects (@chrtze); isotype chart generator (@albertocairo); data & digital collaboration (@jwyg); and more.
The job of journalists in Italy uncovering and reporting scandals about the Catholic Church has changed. The news media are dedicating more space to these stories, while internal factions within the Church have given an advantage to reporters on the Vatican beat. But dealing with the topic can still be quite tricky…
