How They Did It
Uncovering Syria’s Stolen Children
This collaborative investigation brought together international and local journalists to reveal how the Assad regime used a global childcare charity to aid the disappearance of children.
Tag
disappearances
10 posts
Resource
Political Kidnapping and Forced Disappearances
Disappearing people benefits the perpetrators in several ways: it considerably complicates any investigation, the person — dead or alive — remains hidden most of the time, and it can be mixed or confused with other crimes, such as kidnapping, child abduction, human trafficking, forced recruitment, murder, or desecration of a human corpse.
Data Journalism
Data Journalism Top 10: Hawaii’s Disappearing Beaches, Stolen Paintings, Investigating Disappearances, Herd Immunity Calculator
Hawaii’s scenery can be breathtaking, with cliff-rimmed white-sand beaches and surf-worthy waves. But our NodeXL #ddj mapping (Dec. 28-Jan. 3) found ProPublica highlighting dramatic erosion of the island state’s beaches over the past century. Also in this edition, we feature an interactive graphic to calculate the time to achieve COVID-19 herd immunity based on the US vaccination rate, a global vaccine distribution tracker, Federica Fragapane’s visualization of stolen paintings, and a compilation of 2020’s best data visualization lists.
How They Did It News & Analysis
How They Did It: Tracking Down a Rwandan Genocide Suspect
A French freelance journalist tracked down a man accused of being involved in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. Here’s how French journalist Théo Englebert delved into the eight-month investigation, including his top tips for finding someone who wants to disappear.
Tracking Down the Disappeared: Top Tips from Investigative Reporters on the Front Lines
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.
How to Investigate Forced Disappearances in Latin America
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.
My Favorite Tools Reporting Tools & Tips
My Favorite Tools with Quinto Elemento’s Marcela Turati
For our series on journalists’ favorite tools, we spoke to award-winning Mexican journalist Marcela Turati, co-founder of Quinto Elemento Lab, about the resources she uses to investigate disappearances in Mexico’s drug war. While information from victims’ families is paramount, she also shared insights on the value of open source tools, bank records, social media mining, and collaboration with nonprofit forensic teams in tracking the patterns behind the crisis.
GIJN Webinar — Digging into Disappearances: How to Follow the Trail of Missing People
Millions of people go missing every year. Some vanish of their own accord, but many are victims of organized crime, security agencies, and criminal states. Journalists play a key role in investigating these disappearances, but the work is difficult, dangerous and often harrowing. In the final webinar of the GIJN series, Digging into Disappearances, we will hear from four senior journalists who have investigated notable missing persons cases related to criminal organizations and criminal conduct.
New Guide and Webinar Series: How to Report on Disappearances
Reporting of organized crime and missing people is complex and nuanced, and journalists must be both careful and deliberate in their approach. GIJN’s new guide rounds up case studies and examples of published investigations, relevant organizations to be aware of during the research stage, and tips for on-the-ground reporting.
Digging into Disappearances: Organized Crime and Missing People
In this GIJN webinar, Digging into Disappearances: Organized Crime and Missing People, on Tuesday, September 8 at 9:00am EST, we bring together two senior investigative journalists who will share their strategies and tips on how to investigate a disappearance, how to manage sources, victims and authorities, as well as raise some of the broader considerations of investigating criminal organizations.