Freedom House, which released its annual report Freedom in the World this week, has documented the 15th consecutive year of decline in global freedom, finding less than a fifth of the world’s population living in what it considers “free” countries.
In a GIJN webinar titled “Investigating the Radical Right: A Global Perspective,” a panel of four veteran journalists with experience in digging into far right groups shared tips, open source tools, and practical insights on how to track their activities.
Outriders, the Polish journalism nonprofit, decided to postpone their membership launch and begin with a newsletter-first editorial strategy, boosted by Instagram influencers, to grow their audience and build a strong foundation for membership. And it’s working.
An alliance of regional radio stations, backed by the Peruvian investigative network OjoPúblico, has begun an unprecedented effort to fight disinformation in Indigenous languages for people living in the Andean and Amazonian regions. To date, hundreds of explanatory pieces about COVID-19 have been created in five Indigenous languages and broadcast by 15 radio stations in eight different regions.
When a former Russian double agent collapsed on a bench in a quiet British cathedral town, it looked like an assassination attempt. Experts soon identified the poison nerve agent Novichok A234. The team at the open source investigative site Bellingcat were watching, and waiting for a chance to dig into what had happened and who was behind it.
Wisconsin-based freelance reporter and writer Howard Hardee writes about the inextricable link between online harassment and disinformation, and what individual reporters and newsrooms can do about it.
Development actors often pay media organizations to publish content that often is just PR material in disguise. Journalist and media development expert Prue Clarke writes that it’s time to rethink a practice that undermines both independent journalism and the aid sector’s credibility.
From the story of an 80-year-old spy in a Chilean nursing home to a whole family fighting the criminal justice system in the US state of Louisiana, 15 documentaries produced under tough pandemic conditions will advance in the Documentary Feature category of the 93rd Academy Awards.
An investigation by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism into phone networks based in the Channel Islands raised questions about the surveillance technology being used by corporate intelligence firms.
Following a seismic year for accountability journalism in 2020, GIJN asked prominent investigative journalists around the world to share topics that their teams will be looking at in 2021. Feedback from editors in 14 countries indicates an unusual amount of subject overlap for watchdog reporters this year, centered around vaccines, technology, and autocracy.
As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its second year, experts in events, medicine, and fundraising offered advice to nonprofit news leaders on how to plan for another year of uncertainty.
Here’s how reporters from a Honduran investigative newsroom dug into the murders of their colleagues, producing stories and a documentary to explore who is behind growing violence and threats against journalists.
In an ambitious nationwide investigation, Pulitzer-winning journalists served as instructors to 270 students across seven universities who had teamed up to cover homelessness in the United States.
The following stories, selected by GIJN Arabic, are not just a list of impressive investigative reports from 2020. We chose them for their significance, their use of investigative tools and techniques, and their commitment to social accountability.
Open source investigation teams around the world sprang into action as they watched a pro-Trump mob violently storm the US Capitol on January 6. A senior investigator with Bellingcat told GIJN how his team was able to scrape and preserve hundreds of social media videos from the attack, and shared ten tips on how any reporter can grab visual evidence during breaking news events.
A new report maps ambitious COVID-era efforts around the world to save journalism, including ideas from the United States, South Africa, Denmark, and Singapore.
In this review of the best investigations in Russian and Ukrainian last year, the GIJN Russian team selected the stories that shed light on systemic societal problems in many countries in the region, and those which may inspire journalists in other parts of the world to investigate corruption, money laundering, and other topics using the same investigative methods and tools.
The pandemic has seen film festivals around the world go virtual, including Transparency International’s Films For Transparency. Here are five of our favorites from the anti-corruption documentaries that made it onto their shortlist.
For this week’s Friday 5, where GIJN rounds up journalism news in English from around the world, we’re reading about a new database of global counter influence operations, the Russian media groups taking on President Vladimir Putin, and Signal’s new group calling feature.
As part of our annual Editor’s Pick series, read on to discover the best investigations in China and Taiwan published this year, selected by GIJN Chinese Editor Joey Qi.
For this week’s Friday 5, where GIJN rounds up journalism news in English from around the world, we’re reading about the new Corruption Tracker for the international arms trade, dodgy deals in personal protective equipment procurement, and a recently launched organization to support whistleblowers legally, as well as financially.
People around the world believe the several promising COVID-19 vaccines were designed to do the two things we most want them to do: reduce severe illness and death, and reduce the spread of the disease. But a central problem, experts say, is that none of the new vaccine trials were designed to achieve either of those goals.
As part of our annual Editor’s Pick series, read on to discover the best investigations in French published this year and selected by GIJN French Editor Marthe Rubio and GIJN Francophone Africa Editor Maxime Domegni.
On October 30, the student news site of duPont Manual High School in Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States, published a bombshell of an investigation: While training officers, the Kentucky State Police had used a slideshow that quoted Adolf Hitler. The reporters behind the story were a 16-year-old and his younger brother.
On the evening of August 4, 2020, a devastating blast at the port in Beirut shook the Lebanese capital. It was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. GIJN spoke to three outlets whose investigations all played a pivotal role in understanding what led to the explosion and why a ship and its deadly cargo were stuck at the port for so long.
A November 18 press release, claiming a safe vaccine that protects 95% of people against COVID-19, by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech was greeted with excited headlines. In this article, two leading health reporters shared tips on how to read such releases and balanced cautious optimism with the provision that the release relied on interim results from a trial in an accelerated setting.
GIJN’s Spanish Editor Andrea Arzaba rounds up the top investigative stories from Latin American media outlets in 2020, focusing on deep dive investigations into important but often overlooked topics including femicide and migration.
In a GIJN webinar three journalists who have experience reporting on the #MeToo movement and sexual abuse told reporters how to investigate an often-hidden crime. Among their tips are preparing interviewees for the process, investigating the story doggedly, and using alternative forms of evidence to verify your story. Read these and other tips for investigating sexual abuse allegations in GIJN’s latest tipsheet.
