We’re delighted to announce that GIJN has launched two new initiatives with our members: GIJN in Russian, in partnership with the Regional Press Development Institute (RPDI); and GIJN Arabic, in partnership with Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ). We’ll be sharing the best investigative tips & tools, groundbreaking stories, grants & fellowships, data sets and more.
Non-transparent media ownership in Hungary has created a government-friendly and controlled media environment, but investigative journalists such as Hungarian-born Tamás Bodoky are increasingly going online to report on “sensitive” topics including corruption. Small investigative outlets in the country have so far survived with crowdfunding campaigns and institutional grants.
Access to public information, accountability and participatory democracy may have been a reality in many countries for some time — but in Spain they sounded like a utopia. Entrepreneur Jacobo Elosua and computer technician David Cabo decided that this had to change. Their brainchild, Civio, was just recognized with the Gabriel Garcia Marquez award in innovative journalism for its Medicamentalia investigation.
The Center for Investigative Reporting embarked on a new experiment last year: piloting an Animated Investigations collaborative course with the California College of the Arts. The course, which is intended for three semesters and a malleable work in progress, first taught students to animate existing Reveal investigations. However, it slowly transformed into a course where students identified their own underreported stories to animate.
Pioneering British journalist David Leigh, former Guardian investigative editor, shares his insights on story-led investigations, defending your work from lawsuits, dealing with donors, and lifelong learning in journalism.
What a year… We’ve been Trumped and Brexited, blitzed by bogus news, and fighting to protect good journalism pretty much everywhere. But there were flashes of hope and better days. The Spotlight movie and Panama Papers showed the world what great reporting can do. As the year draws to a close, we’d like to share the 10 most popular stories on our site that have grabbed the attention of our dear readers.
The Global Investigative Journalism Network is delighted to welcome seven new member organizations, including first-time representation from Malawi and Ireland. Among them are investigative units from Ukraine and Slovenia, an Irish investigative fund, and a collaborative U.S. site specializing in Freedom of Information requests. The new members bring GIJN’s membership to 145 groups in 62 countries.
The Global Investigative Journalism Network exists to support the world’s truth tellers and provide them with the training, strategies, and networks that help them hold the powerful accountable and give voice to those who otherwise have none. Your support today can help us meet the tremendous demand for these capacity-building efforts in the months to come.
The second-annual Hitchens Prize—honoring the memory and legacy of the late Vanity Fair contributing editor and columnist Christopher Hitchens—was given to Marty Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post, at a dinner held at New York City on November 28, 2016. This year’s citation acknowledged Baron’s long career in journalism and his work as editor at The Washington Post and earlier at The Boston Globe (featured in the Academy Award-winning movie Spotlight this year). In accepting the Hitchens Prize, Marty offered words of wisdom for journalists in the Trump Era.
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.
