We love indictments, and here’s one that caught our eye at GIJN: a recently unsealed document from the US Department of Justice last month, alleging that Venezuelan television mogul Raul Gorrin Belisario was part of a billion-dollar currency exchange and money laundering scheme that paid off high-level Venezuelan government officials. Belisario is no ordinary exile…
It was a year of significant transformation in the Portuguese-speaking world. This was especially true in Brazil, where corruption scandals landed top officials in jail and propelled a far right-wing politician into the presidency. This year, Lusophone journalists not only exposed corrupt practices via innovative projects, they also revealed sexual abuse and abortion challenges. Breno Costa, GIJN’s Portuguese editor, has selected some of the best investigations from 2018 .
More than 450 journalists gathered at the 11th Annual Forum of the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism in Jordan earlier this month. The gathering took place just two months after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, as new details of his assassination continued to surface.
In the seven years since the Arab Spring, hope has given way to deep disappointment. Arab officials are increasingly operating with impunity, and by failing to question, investigate and then reveal, journalists are indirectly complicit. Rana Sabbagh, executive director of the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism calls on journalists in the Arab world not to remain silent bystanders in the face of wrongdoing.
Investigative journalism in this wired world is vastly different from what it used to be. Cobrapost editor Aniruddha Bahal writes about how journalism has changed over time, from postcard complaints to internet trolling, meeting sources in parking lots and using apps and being highly competitive versus collaborative.
Winners of the Javier Valdez Latin American Award for Investigative Journalism were honored during the 2018 Latin American Conference of Investigative Journalism (Colpin), which was held from November 8 – 11 in Bogota, Colombia.
There is one thing everyone in the journalism funding ecosystem can agree on — a free press and informed public is crucial in this age of disinformation. When the media, and truth itself, is under growing attack, philanthropic foundations and individuals are stepping up to the plate — from funding efforts to boost news literacy to building centers for investigative reporting.
A suspect in the brutal rape and murder of a Bulgarian journalist has been apprehended. But questions remain about whether Viktoria Marinova’s coverage of a procurement scandal was the real reason for her killing.
Over the past twelve years, close to 1,010 journalists have been killed for reporting the news and bringing information to the public. On average, this constitutes one death every four days. In nine out of ten cases the killers go unpunished.
The power of the pen — writers are so dangerous that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation deemed it necessary to start surveillance on many of them, including Hannah Arendt, Allen Ginsberg, Ernest Hemingway, Susan Sontag, and Hunter S Thompson. The book “Writers Under Surveillance” gathers some of these investigation files that were obtained with Freedom of Information Act requests by MuckRock.
This year’s Armenian Revolution saw thousands take to the streets for almost two weeks to protest then-prime minister Serzh Sargsyan and his government. Journalists in the country say that it wasn’t one story that triggered the people’s ire against Sargsyan’s rule but the cumulative investigative coverage over the years.
For there to be real justice in the case of Jamal Khashoggi, the penalty the Saudis pay must transcend time, place and person, and positively advance the cause of journalism and rights of free speech for generations to come, not just achieve criminal convictions, visa restrictions and economic sanctions. Citizen activist Chuck Fall proposes how that might look.
Top officials in Indonesia are dismissing the first collaborative investigative report from IndonesiaLeaks, which was released earlier this month. The report, which implicated a top police official in a bribery case, has resulted in a massive social media campaign aimed at discrediting the investigation, while one of the group’s media partners was hit by a denial of service attack, knocking it offline for several hours.
Since the launch of Serial in 2014, podcast popularity has soared. And an increasing number of investigative journalists have begun aiming for ears as well as eyeballs. At the Uncovering Asia 2018 conference in Seoul, sound experts shared their recommendations on must-hear investigative storytelling.
Investigative reporter and author Hank Phillippi Ryan rounded up nine of her favourite narrative nonfiction true crime books, from Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood to Janet Malcolm’s The Journalist and the Murder.
More than 10 years ago, the first nonprofit investigative journalism organization in Africa was established. More than 20 countries throughout the continent now have similar units. What are the motivating factors behind the proliferation of these organizations on the continent? Who is funding them and how? And are these organizations making an impact in Africa? Ntibinyane Ntibinyane rounded up 14 recommendations for GIJN based on his recent study for the Reuters Institute at Oxford University.
The biggest story since the end of apartheid helped bring down a president. But a year on, its effect on South African journalism has been less clear. Jon Allsop filed this report from Cape Town for GIJN.
The winners of the Eighth National Investigative Journalism Awards, organised by Venezuela’s Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, highlight the relevance and importance of collaborative journalism. By building transregional teams, Venezuelan reporters were able to investigate issues that the Venezuelan state tries to hide.
Some people say journalists are “godless.” But ProPublica’s Marshall Allen, who spent five years in full-time Christian ministry, believes his faith has made him a better reporter. Here’s how his Bible teachings are consistent with the basis of the journalistic profession — telling the truth, without bias.
It has been more than six months since the murder of Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova. The Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism’s Pavla Holcova, who had been working with Kuciak on an investigation, lists several worrying ways that the police have botched the investigation of the couple’s murders.
The #MeToo wave has emboldened Chinese journalists to start covering rampant sexual abuse. GIJN China has rounded up three incidents out of Chinese universities which are on the frontlines of #MeToo reporting in China.
At least 59 Twitter accounts that belong to journalists and media outlets, with a combined following of six million, have been censored in Turkey. Their crime? Doing journalism.
Following editorials in some 350 newspapers across the United States Thursday calling for an end to attacks on the press by President Donald Trump, the US Senate unanimously passed a resolution reaffirming the vital and indispensable role of the free press.
Join journalists across the US who are asking the public to stand up for their rights to free speech and an open government. While the effort started as a campaign by the Boston Globe to ask the President of the United States to stop attacking the news media, Donald Trump’s attacks on the press aren’t ultimately about the press. It’s about the people.
Can a government foot the bill for journalists to carry out their watchdog function, without undue government control or intervention in the editorial process? Paul Clemens Murschetz lists three criteria to ensure state aid for journalism is successful and effective.
A unique collaboration between five international investigative teams and recently-formed Signals Network is offering unprecedented protection to whistleblowers, and has received the backing of famed NSA exposer Edward Snowden. Their first project? A broad call on the misuse of big data. A GIJN report by Rowan Philp.
A new report by Reporters Without Borders is helping to shed light on the latest danger for journalists – threats and insults on social networks that are designed to intimidate them into silence. The organization has put forth these 25 recommendations for governments, international organizations, online platforms, media companies and advertisers to respond to these virulent online campaigns.
There is a growing body of evidence that state spies have been targeting journalists in South Africa. Murray Hunter from the Right2Know Campaign, writes for GIJN about their recently released report which looks at 10 case studies of surveillance against journalists to unpack what happened, how it happened and which parties appear to be responsible.
