German investigative journalist Bastian Obermayer – who was leaked the Panama Papers documents – explains the art of finding, using, and safeguarding sources.
Daraj co-founder Diana Moukalled discusses the outlet’s origins in Lebanon, its impact, its funding, and reporting on women’s rights and corruption across the Middle East.
It’s impossible to discuss collaboration in journalism in Indonesia without mentioning Wahyu Dhyatmika who has played an instrumental role in many of the biggest investigations in recent years.
Several years ago a whistleblower reached out to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung with an enticing message: “Hello, this is John Doe… Interested in data?” That story would become the Panama Papers, the first in a number of international collaborations for investigative reporter Frederik Obermaier. Read his tips and advice about investigative reporting.
The Pulitzer Center’s Marina Walker Guevara sees collaboration as one of the most significant paradigm changes in journalism of the past 50 years. In a keynote speech at the Collaborative Journalism Summit, she said that by working together, reporters can investigate stories that “transcend us, transcend our competitive instincts, our newsrooms’ politics, and our own egos.”
For many investigations — especially those involving corporations, or institutions in the West — the final step is to send a letter that sets out your findings and urges a response. Here, several investigative reporters share their tips on how to deal with obstructive subjects and ensure fairness — including fairness for dangerous governments that cannot be alerted to your findings before publication.
The criminal blueprint and its elements need to be understood to efficiently follow the money and stop criminals from doing business as usual. Criminals, both the ones just starting out as well as those who are already well established, have regional and global infrastructure that is continuously built and maintained by what the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) team calls the “criminal services industry.” Here’s OCCRP’s Paul Radu on how it works and how to untangle it.
For data journalists there is a balancing act between publishing information vital to a story and protecting the person behind that information. Vojtech Sedlak explains the pitfalls and offers tips on how journalists can protect the people that feature in the data without compromising the story.
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.
Frustrated by journalism that gave voice to those in power rather than the voiceless, Yasuomi Sawa was inspired to become an investigative journalist. He shares with Scilla Alecci about the state of journalism in Japan, including the limitations to its existing freedom of information laws and how preventing institutional or individual embarrassment can hinder a relentless free press and uncomfortable public debates.
