GIJN’s Resource Center is here to help journalists expand their knowledge and skills. The Center holds more than 2,000 items in 14 languages – from tip sheets and guides to instructional videos. Use the menu on the right to navigate it or the search box below to find topics you’re interested in.
Carbon offsets are truly an international climate change story. This short version of our GIJN guide helps reporters understand, research, and investigate the global players.
Carbon offsets are truly an international climate change story with potential for cross-border collaboration between journalists.
Featuring a broad array of tools, techniques, and resources to help watchdog reporters dig into almost any campaign or election.
People with disabilities are the largest intersectional minority group, according to the UN, and virtually every reporting beat has a disability angle.
This resource was last updated in 2023 by GIJN’s Toby McIntosh and Emily O’Sullivan. Investigative journalists play a crucial role in holding corporations to account, and have revealed labor abuses, environmental violations, corporate impunity and other instances of malpractice through deep-dives into companies and their owners. However, government records on corporations often reveal only the […]
Online research expert Henk van Ess has created a seven-chapter guide that offers reporters step-by-step instructions on how to use social media search to perform investigations of people and subjects and he’s also created a detailed tutorial on using facial recognition technology and best practices for putting these tools together in verifying claims online.
Featuring expert advice from journalists and security analysts who are working to combat disinformation, malware, spyware, and trolling. The guide is part of an ongoing Digital Threats project, in which GIJN is working with Craig Silverman and a group of cutting-edge specialists to offer a unique cyber investigations online training program specifically tailored for investigative […]
Satellite images are powerful tools for discovery and analysis, plus provide vivid illustrations. Discover GIJN’s favorite resources.
This comprehensive guide includes expert advice from more than two dozen specialists and journalists.
The global fight against climate change depends on the actions of individual nations — so national accountability is critical.
In this reporting guide we’ve included some of the various definitions of disability, important resources, and key issues for journalists to investigate.
Investigative journalists have long used information about airplanes to uncover corruption, follow wars, track government officials, and point out the levels of greenhouse gases emitted. GIJN has now revised and updated its reporting guide to planespotting and tracking flights around the world.
Organized crime is a global phenomenon. But Africa, with its deep-seated corruption and “resource curse,” is particularly hard hit.
Tps and best practices for covering drug trafficking, money laundering, official corruption, other illicit activity in the region.
In countries without public record transparency rules or strong source protection laws, going undercover can be one of the few tools reporters have to reveal public interest stories.
For journalists, explaining the causes and consequences of rising sea levels is a critical and challenging assignment.
This guide offers a broad array of tools, techniques, and resources — beyond the primary local sources you find — to help watchdog reporters dig into almost any election.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, GIJN has published a series of stories and tipsheets for investigative journalists covering the war.
Women and nonbinary journalists often encounter obstacles, whether they’re out reporting or when they’re back in their newsrooms. GIJN has gathered resources for those who want to connect, handle harassment, and address discrimination issues. We also provide advice and tips from great women investigative journalists that may serve as inspiration. This guide was originally published […]
Reducing methane emissions is the single fastest way to fight climate change, according to climate scientists. In this guide, identify specific sources of methane and hold companies and countries accountable.
This guide was written by Toby McIntosh, senior advisor to GIJN’s Resource Center. Editing was by Reed Richardson and Laura Dixon. Illustrations were created by Marcelle Louw.
This updated and expanded guide was written in cooperation with Migrant-Rights.org. Illustrations are by Marcelle Louw. The project manager was Majdoleen Hasan. Editing by Reed Richardson.
How to hire staff and plan out your shoots to tips for better photography and helpful case studies.
Bulletproofing your story demands much more than getting the facts right. It requires a meticulous approach from the start in order to pass quality control.
For details on this guide’s chapter authors, see the Acknowledgments page. Illustrations are by Ann Kiernan. Editing by Laura Dixon, Tanya Pampalone, and Reed Richardson. Andrea Arzaba was the project manager.
Here are tools to help small newsrooms with all the work that isn’t newsgathering: paying the bills; scheduling collaborative projects, and maintaining shared communication channels for team members; editing and posting a podcast; designing a graphic for social media and then seeing how well the post performs. With myriad products on the market all claiming […]
The practice of independent journalism is facing enormous challenges, ranging from authoritarian regimes implementing regressive laws that stifle speech to journalists being unable to make a living from their work. In order to meet those challenges, journalists can benefit from understanding the protections provided by international law.
Femicide — the intentional murder of women because they are women — is a global problem. According to the UN’s latest estimates, 50,000 women and girls are killed each year by intimate partners or other family members. GIJN’s latest resource aims to help journalists understand what femicide is, find and understand the data available, and suggest which experts to interview.
The subject of sexual violence remains a sensitive if not taboo subject in much of the world and often goes unreported. Watchdog journalism has started digging deeper into sexual violence, but these investigations are still few relative to the estimated number of cases worldwide.
A GIJN GUIDE Investigating Health & Medicine In this era of the pandemic, journalists worldwide suddenly find themselves on the health beat, trying to make sense of competing claims, varied specialists, and a science that seems to change by the day. Here’s an antidote: a comprehensive, global guide to investigative reporting on health and medicine. […]
Collaborations on investigative projects are increasingly popular. Working together with partners can multiply and maximize reporting resources and increase readership. Special skills can be acquired, such as analyzing data, creating visualizations, or preparing multimedia elements. There is a steadily growing amount of literature on how to do collaborative investigations — how to build trust, create […]
There are a growing number of sites that help writers earn money while self-publishing. Whether these are right for you will require research. In this section, we are not exploring the many places that help create websites, newsletters and blogs, or looking into the plug-ins that permit sales and subscriptions. Nor are we getting into […]
Millions of people disappear every year, according to the International Commission on Missing People, and organized crime is involved in many of these cases. The violence associated with drug trafficking in particular, but also wildlife smuggling, resource theft, human trafficking, and other criminal rackets, plays a key role in many of the disappearances. Journalists act […]
Citizens can investigate, and they do — all over the world. Today we’re launching a new GIJN guide to help non-journalists investigate even more. It’s full of techniques used by investigative journalists that will be helpful to citizen investigators, too. These include searching the internet, finding out who owns corporations, investigating politicians, and much more.
Curiosity fuels investigations, and there’s no monopoly on who can be curious. Citizens can investigate, and they do. GIJN provides some great examples below. This GIJN guide aims to help non-journalists investigate even more. The sections teach the techniques used by investigative journalists.
At the 2023 Global Investigative Journalism Conference, we held a panel on indigenous investigations. According to the UN, over 476 million indigenous people are living in 90 countries. Many are on the front lines defending their lands and cultures, and they have become minorities in their own homes. Here are Indigenous journalists from Canada, Taiwan, […]
This GIJN resource page aims to encourage more investigative reporting about the climate crisis. In Part 1, we begin with articles that provide concrete suggestions for investigative projects. In Part 2, we have collected challenging commentaries on how the media has handled climate change and what it should be doing better. In Part 3, we […]
In 2019, GIJN first launched its guide to planespotting and flight tracking around the world. In the wake of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which led to a great migration of Russian oligarchs and their assets, as well as Elon Musk’s efforts to block bots from tracking planes in real time on Twitter, we’ve now […]
More than 115 countries worldwide have laws that require officials to turn over public records.
Finding out who owns land can be tough. While property registration systems exist in almost all countries, the quality and availability of the information vary widely. World Bank experts estimate that only 30% of the world’s population has a legally registered title to their land, a widely quoted figure that Bank officials stress is a […]
Growing your major gifts program — or getting one started in the first place — can feel like an overwhelming responsibility. The philanthropic landscape is extremely competitive, and the prospect of identifying and soliciting prospective donors can seem cumbersome and intimidating. While the non-profit journalism landscape has flourished, opening up new revenue streams and business […]
GIJN’s research provides tips on how to plan and carry out a crowdfunding campaign, names of national and regional crowdfunding sites, suggestions of useful tools to use. And some stories from those who have done it. At GIJN’s 2019 Hamburg conference, Tamas Bodoky of Atlatszo in Hungary, elaborated on seven suggestions (see his tipsheet): Establish […]
Exposing the connections between the products we buy and the circumstances of their creation has proved to be fertile ground for investigative journalism. In seeking to understand the origins of our food, raw materials and manufactured goods, reporters have uncovered slavery, environmental crimes, corruption and human rights abuses. In this new GIJN resource page, we identify the investigative tools used for tracking the “supply chains” that link fields, oceans, mines and factories with the end products we buy.
Supply chains are networks between companies and their suppliers that produce and distribute a specific product. They may include providers of raw material, firms that convert the material into products, storage facilities and distribution centers, and retailers who bring the ultimate product to consumers. The products are as varied as the marketplace: clothing, electronics, vehicles, […]
More than 90,000 commercial ships make up the world’s commercial fleet, their locations closely tracked and the resulting data available for free. GIJN has compiled a comprehensive list of resources to track ships (including big yachts and fishing boats). We link to four dozen valuable sources of information. At the 2023 Global Investigative Journalism Conference, […]
With an estimated 257 million migrants in the world, migration has emerged as one of the most contentious national and international issues. GIJN has gathered resources on this topic, including: Useful sources of factual information Reporting guidelines and media criticism Information on journalism prizes (and the winners) concerning migration Examples of recent and varied stories […]
Researchers estimate 40 million people exist in some form of slavery today, ranging from debt bondage and false contracts to sex trafficking, forced marriage and child labor. To help journalists cover human trafficking and slavery, GIJN has created this collection of resources including documents and reports, places to find expertise and advice on best practices in reporting and investigation.
The extractive industries –the development and exploitation of oil, gas, and mining resources — is a critical topic for investigative journalists, particularly in developing countries. Revenues from natural resource extraction contribute substantially to GDP and in many cases make up the bulk of government revenue. The companies in the extractive sector are large and influential. How […]
Elections all over the world are endangered by a vast array of sophisticated digital threats. This year, when more voters head to the polls than ever before, AI-driven deepfakes threaten electoral processes everywhere, with potentially disastrous consequences for at-risk democracies. AI-generated audio simulations — in which a real voice is cloned by a machine learning […]
Free and fair elections are fundamental to a functioning democracy. Investigative journalism helps to ensure the integrity of the electoral process by exposing and correcting false narratives and disinformation that can influence public opinion. This reporting not only helps voters to make informed decisions but empowers them to assess the information they encounter, fostering a […]
Although there has been progress on the development of affordable green energy, global greenhouse gas emissions are rising inexorably, according to one of the world’s leading authorities, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate change is global, but the causes are not: fossil fuels — largely coal, oil, and gas — account for more than […]
In this short interview Jane Lytvynenko, an independent investigative reporter and an instructor for GIJN’s Digital Threats course, talks about how to start investigating online manipulation and also what challenges she faces when doing digital threats investigations. ———————– The Global Investigative Journalism Network is an international association of journalism organizations that support the training and […]
Cryptocurrencies have taken the financial world by storm, yet few people truly understand them. Despite an industry raked by volatility and billion-dollar scandals, they have gained popularity not only among investors and anarchists, but also organized crime figures and cyber thieves looking to avoid the traditional financial system. Experts insist there are ways to investigate […]
In this global economy, it’s become easy to hide one’s assets overseas, whether you’re a Mexican crime boss or a Russian oligarch. Backgrounding an individual’s holdings is essential, but ferreting out front companies, tax dodges, and hidden assets can be a tough undertaking. Here are two of the best at doing this. ———————– The Global […]
Satellite images play a crucial role in many investigations. Reporters are using them to analyze battlefields and war crimes. Eyes from above also are invaluable for many kinds of climate change stories, such as to document methane emissions, drought, and sea level rise. Our expert panelists will discuss many possible opportunities for using satellite images. […]
Russia matters. A generation after the Cold War, Moscow still has thousands of nuclear weapons. By land mass, Russia is the world’s largest country, stretching from Europe to Asia and the Arctic, and it has influence over regional conflicts around the world — not just its disastrous invasion of Ukraine but in the Caucasus, Central […]
Following Ron Deibert’s keynote, we have an all-star panel of journalists on the front lines of the digital war being waged against watchdog media. Moderator Sheila Coronel will lead an hour-long discussion about what it’s like to have your newsroom invaded, your sources exposed, and your actions tracked every day. We’ve asked noted journalists from […]
If we follow the headlines, AI is either going to kill us all or solve all our problems. Meanwhile, in the real world, algorithms deployed in hospitals, schools, courts, and even refugee camps are creating new forms of discrimination and exclusion among the most vulnerable citizens. Actual, life-changing harm, not doomsday futuristic scenarios. In this […]
Our keynote speaker this year is Ron Deibert, director of the groundbreaking Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Deibert was among the first to sound the alarm about a global information security crisis — warning that the digital revolution would spark a new era of surveillance, censorship, and disinformation. Deibert’s interdisciplinary team at Citizen […]
Watchdog reporting makes a critical contribution to society by exposing wrongdoing, fighting corruption, and promoting accountability. But how do we measure this, and explain to a skeptical public the value of investigative reporting? At a time of unprecedented attacks on the press, a broken financial model, and low public trust, it is critical to understand […]
Security is essential for journalists, and for investigative journalists in particular. Tackling the issue, let alone understanding its complexities, can be challenging. To make the process easier, GIJN has worked with experts at the Ford Foundation to adapt Ford’s Cybersecurity Assessment Tool (CAT) for use by watchdog journalism groups. Our new Journalist Security Assessment Tool […]
Organized crime and corruption are widespread, deeply rooted and growing in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region with some of the world’s highest rates of poverty and inequality. Powerful criminal groups operate with the help of politicians, government officials and a “criminal services industry”, including corrupt banks. They make their money through the illegal narcotics trade, human […]
The Golden Triangle, where the borders of Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos intersect, is one of the world’s renowned centers of criminal activity. The region’s underworld economy turns over billions of dollars annually in narcotics production, human trafficking, wildlife smuggling, illegal mining, and more. Its cross-border illicit networks have global impact, working with criminal groups across […]
Sexual violence is a feature of conflict and war. Its impact is felt by individuals, but also by families and communities, and its destructive effects persist for generations. Reporting criminal acts of any sort in an active conflict is difficult enough; documenting and reporting sexual violence during a conflict poses even more challenges. In this […]
The US government engages with virtually every country in the world and in multiple ways. These can include Presidential and Congressional activity, foreign assistance, criminal investigations, public and private financial transactions, lobbying, arms sales — and much more. In this online Masterclass, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Martha Mendoza is in conversation with GIJN’s David Kaplan. Mendoza […]
Shireen Abu Akleh, a prominent Palestinian-American journalist working with Al Jazeera, was killed by a gunshot to the head on the morning of May 11, 2022, while reporting from Jenin, a city in the West Bank. Abu Akleh was covering a raid by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The controversial killing has drawn global media […]
Football (soccer to Americans) is the world’s most popular sport and the World Cup one of its highlights, anticipated by millions, even billions around the globe. The next World Cup takes place in November-December this year in Qatar, based on a decision made in 2010 by football’s governing body, FIFA (the International Federation of Football […]
We need to talk about Google! The world’s most popular search engine tries to please as many people as possible. But for journalists, the quality of results has rapidly declined. What is the issue and what can investigators do about it? GIJN is pleased to announce a hands-on session with search guru Henk van Ess, […]
Once a $30 billion global bluechip financial services and tech company, Germany’s Wirecard filed for insolvency in 2021 in what is one of the biggest corporate frauds of the modern era. The tenacious and prolonged investigative reporting by the Financial Times, helped to uncover widespread fraud, malpractice and negligence. Dan McCrum, a senior Financial Times […]
The state of democracy is at its lowest point in decades. Around the world, free and fair elections face growing threats from disinformation campaigns, foreign interference, voter suppression, campaign corruption, violence, intimidation, and more. Covering elections as a political “horse race” has never been enough. This approach to campaign reporting is even more inadequate today, […]
The illegal trafficking of wild animals and plants is damaging biodiversity worldwide and spreading diseases. It’s an international story, with great opportunities for investigations in virtually every country. GIJN’s new guide encourages deep reporting about the subject with tips and tools for covering a global trade.
In GIJN’s Tip of the Day, Kaas & Mulvad editor Nils Mulvad talks about the basics of data journalism. For the full video on Effective Use of Data, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcE81ekvvHk&list=PLrCL-ZiCvKYtgT7nymTez7p_E_9thEH7E&index=3 Visit GIJN’s resource page on Data Journalism: https://helpdesk.gijn.org/support/solutions/articles/14000036505-data-journalism More from Nils Mulvad: https://www.kaasogmulvad.dk/ https://gijn.org/2016/05/06/25-tips-for-everyday-digging/ https://gijn.org/2015/02/25/drilling-down-a-quick-guide-to-free-and-inexpensive-data-tools/ https://gijn.org/2014/07/18/nils-mulvad-data-journalism-is-the-punk-of-our-times/ GIJN’s Global Guide to FOI here: https://gijn.org/2017/09/04/tips-and-resources-for-setting-information-free-gijns-new-global-guide/ Global Investigative […]
Carbon offsets are truly an international climate change story. This short version of our GIJN guide helps reporters understand, research, and investigate the global players.
Carbon offsets are truly an international climate change story with potential for cross-border collaboration between journalists.
Although there has been progress on the development of affordable green energy, global greenhouse gas emissions are rising inexorably, according to one of the world’s leading authorities, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate change is global, but the causes are not: fossil fuels — largely coal, oil, and gas — account for more than […]
In this abridged version, GIJN offers tips from our latest reporting guide, on how journalists can investigate their country’s climate change pledges and hold governments accountable.
The global fight against climate change depends on the actions of individual nations — so national accountability is critical.
For journalists, explaining the causes and consequences of rising sea levels is a critical and challenging assignment.
Reducing methane emissions is the single fastest way to fight climate change, according to climate scientists. In this guide, identify specific sources of methane and hold companies and countries accountable.
This guide was written by Toby McIntosh, senior advisor to GIJN’s Resource Center. Editing was by Reed Richardson and Laura Dixon. Illustrations were created by Marcelle Louw.
This GIJN resource page aims to encourage more investigative reporting about the climate crisis. In Part 1, we begin with articles that provide concrete suggestions for investigative projects. In Part 2, we have collected challenging commentaries on how the media has handled climate change and what it should be doing better. In Part 3, we […]
With an estimated 257 million migrants in the world, migration has emerged as one of the most contentious national and international issues. GIJN has gathered resources on this topic, including: Useful sources of factual information Reporting guidelines and media criticism Information on journalism prizes (and the winners) concerning migration Examples of recent and varied stories […]
Investigations into what happens on, under, and around the ocean can often be answered thanks to the vast amount of data available online.
Knowing where to look for data — and accessing it via scraping data from websites — can be a powerful force multiplier for investigative journalists.
In this edition of GIJN Toolbox, we examine the latest advancements from the IRE22 conference on data extraction and optical character recognition (OCR) tools for turning unwieldy documents into searchable spreadsheets.
At the NICAR22 conference in Atlanta, Georgia, journalism trainer MaryJo Webster offered a series of basic tips for editors who have little to no data analysis skills.
Since her arrival at Runrun.es, Lisseth Boon has conducted investigations on human rights violations, gold trafficking, illegal mining, and environmental crimes, many of them recognized with national and international awards. Her team has also worked with media platforms both inside and outside of Venezuela such as Consejo de Redacción and Connectas in Colombia, Convoca in Perú, and Mongabay. It has also participated in transnational collaborative projects such as the Panama Papers, Fincen Files, Swiss Connection, Lava Jato (Operation Car Wash), Vigila La Pandemia, and Tierra de Resistencia.
Our curation of the most prominent data centers in Africa.
Looking to learn a new programming language or improve your spreadsheet skills? These online vendors offer free or low-cost online courses and video tutorials on a variety of topics and languages. Check GIJN’s YouTube page for the free webinars. The Social Data School, led by Cambridge Digital Humanities in association with the Minderoo Centre for […]
There are a plethora of programs available for data visualization. Some are very simple to use and require no coding, while others are more difficult to learn but offer greater flexibility and interactivity. Here are some of the most popular options for journalists. ArcGIS online is a tool from Esri to create and share online […]
Once you’ve done your analysis, you may want to create graphs, charts, or maps to display your results. Here are some resources to help you display your data in visually appealing, reader-friendly formats. Flowing Data offers a plethora of tutorials that will help you visualize your data. You’ll learn how to make cartograms, upset plots, […]
R is a popular programming language most commonly used for data cleaning, statistics, and data visualization. Both the R program and R-Studio are open source. Below are some books and online resources to get you started. Many of the online vendors listed under “Training Courses” offer free or low-cost classes in R. Datajournalism.com offers this […]
If you have a dataset involving geographic locations, these tools and tipsheets can help you analyze your data using maps. The most commonly used mapping programs in newsrooms are ArcGIS from Esri (which has free options for journalists) and the open-source program QGIS. Some also are useful for visualizing, but we’ve added a separate list […]
Python is one of the most popular programming languages for data journalists, and it is useful for scraping websites as well as cleaning and analyzing data. Here are some resources for learning to code in Python. A Byte of Python is an online book dedicated to the basics of Python. It is targeted at those […]
This database is maintained by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and is one of many resources available at our Resource Center. Scroll cursor left and right to see entire table.
This database is maintained by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and is one of many resources available at our Resource Center. Scroll cursor left and right to see entire table.
This database is maintained by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and is one of many resources available at our Resource Center. Scroll cursor left and right to see entire table.
This database is maintained by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and is one of many resources available at our Resource Center. Scroll cursor left and right to see entire table.
This database is maintained by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and is one of many resources available at our Resource Center. Scroll cursor left and right to see entire table.
This database is maintained by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and is one of many resources available at our Resource Center. Scroll cursor left and right to see entire table.
This database is maintained by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and is one of many resources available at our Resource Center. Scroll cursor left and right to see entire table.
This database is maintained by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and is one of many resources available at our Resource Center. Scroll cursor left and right to see entire table.
This database includes key resources, watchdog groups, and case studies for investigating the carbon offsets market.
This database is maintained by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and is one of many resources available at our Resource Center. Scroll cursor left and right to see entire table.
This database is maintained by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and is one of many resources available at our Resource Center. Scroll cursor left and right to see entire table.
This database is maintained by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and is one of many resources available at our Resource Center. Scroll cursor left and right to see entire table.
In order to break through the noisy internet landscape, you need to put in the work to build a long-term relationship with your readers, so that they remember your name and keep coming back. But what are the best platforms for you to use? And how can media organizations choose the apps that best reach their audiences? GIJN’s Rossalyn Warren has some tips.
Freelance journalists are often on their own when it comes to security, both physical and digital, but there are many helpful resources. Help on many topics is available in the resources listed below, and even more are included in these GIJN resource pages: Safety and Security Digital Security Legal Defense Emergency Aid for Journalists Working […]
Collaborations on investigative projects are increasingly popular. Working together with partners can multiply and maximize reporting resources and increase readership. Special skills can be acquired, such as analyzing data, creating visualizations, or preparing multimedia elements. There is a steadily growing amount of literature on how to do collaborative investigations — how to build trust, create […]
There are a growing number of sites that help writers earn money while self-publishing. Whether these are right for you will require research. In this section, we are not exploring the many places that help create websites, newsletters and blogs, or looking into the plug-ins that permit sales and subscriptions. Nor are we getting into […]
Freelance investigative journalists should seriously consider having insurance to protect against the risk of being sued. “Media liability” policies are shields against the financial costs of litigation over libel, slander, defamation, invasion of privacy, plagiarism, copyright infringement and more. Insurance can cover potentially very large legal bills and monetary damages due to adverse court judgments […]
Having insurance while on risky assignments may be a prudent investment and less expensive than you fear. Get the publisher to pay for it if possible. What to insure for? Classic travel problems: missed flights, lost documents, etc. Medical issues: sickness, injury, etc. (COVID-19 coverage is excluded.) Evacuation, if necessary. Kidnapping. Disability insurance. Repatriation of […]
Contractual Considerations Contract negotiations for investigative articles should cover several issues that aren’t as relevant for, say, a feature about cute kittens. There are some fairly universal points on which to concentrate, including: A definition of the scope of work and how changes will be handled. The terms of payment. Who owns the rights. For […]
There are no platforms designed specifically for journalists to sell investigative story ideas, but a few websites may prove useful. To find a publisher for an investigative idea, most reporters suggest alternative routes, such as doing research on possible outlets and making personal contacts. (See more about networking in the section on pitching stories.) However, […]
Selling freelance investigative journalism proposals is a lot like selling other stories, but harder. There just aren’t enough media outlets willing to engage in watchdog reporting. For more on Distribution, Promotion, and Freelancing, see our GIJN Guide. And pitching investigations which may have uncertain and controversial outcomes is especially challenging, requiring the establishment of mutual trust. […]
Seeking a chance to improve your skills and expand your world? Tired of the everyday routine in your newsroom? We regularly update our guide to grants and fellowships. These are programs of special interest to investigative journalists around the world. There are plenty of short-term and long-term opportunities, both for staff and freelance reporters. Follow […]
Nonprofit organizations dedicated to offering grants in support of investigative journalism in Africa.
Growing your major gifts program — or getting one started in the first place — can feel like an overwhelming responsibility. The philanthropic landscape is extremely competitive, and the prospect of identifying and soliciting prospective donors can seem cumbersome and intimidating. While the non-profit journalism landscape has flourished, opening up new revenue streams and business […]
GIJN’s research provides tips on how to plan and carry out a crowdfunding campaign, names of national and regional crowdfunding sites, suggestions of useful tools to use. And some stories from those who have done it. At GIJN’s 2019 Hamburg conference, Tamas Bodoky of Atlatszo in Hungary, elaborated on seven suggestions (see his tipsheet): Establish […]
Raising money to build and scale up a nonprofit investigative journalism organization is challenging. Grants and donations from philanthropic organizations and individuals are one source of funding. Here are tips and ideas from fundraising experts: NEW: MediaDev Fundraising Guide (2021) Tipsheet: Fundraising Research Resources, by Bridget Gallagher, from a presentation at GIJC19. Inside Philanthropy: Who’s […]
Media philanthropy in Germany on the rise ‘When money is offered, we listen’: foundation funding and nonprofit journalism Fundraising like reporting: How eight nonprofit newsrooms majorly increased their major gifts Journalism Funders Confidential: Monthly newsletter with insights into some of the major forces currently shaping philanthropy and journalism in Europe 50,000 first-time donors? Here’s how […]
At a time when the media is struggling to support serious journalism, investigative reporters increasingly are turning to crowdfunding. The field is growing quickly and success stories abound, but the challenges are many. For our latest resource page, GIJN has gathered tips and strategies from the best sites and blogs, and done a guide to global and regional crowdfunding sites most suited for journalists. Let us know what we’ve missed!
How Germany’s Journalists Built a Crowdfunding Campaign to Save Russia’s Meduza, GIJN Crowdfunding Campaigns Give Boost to Independent Czech Media, GIJN Behind Journalism’s Top Crowdfunding Campaign, GIJN How the Correspondent crowdfunded $2.5m in 29 days Engaged Journalism Journalism crowdfunding platform PressPatron named hottest media industry tech start-up by NZ Marketing Magazine New Zealand Herald Platform […]
Whistleblowers – insiders who expose corrupt or illegal activities – are an important source of information for journalists everywhere. From their position inside governments, companies, and other organizations, they can provide crucial leads, evidence, and sometimes “smoking guns” that expose everything from fraud and waste to criminal conspiracies and war crimes. It’s important for journalists […]
How to hire staff and plan out your shoots to tips for better photography and helpful case studies.
Bulletproofing your story demands much more than getting the facts right. It requires a meticulous approach from the start in order to pass quality control.
The practice of independent journalism is facing enormous challenges, ranging from authoritarian regimes implementing regressive laws that stifle speech to journalists being unable to make a living from their work. In order to meet those challenges, journalists can benefit from understanding the protections provided by international law.
Whether investigating human rights abuses, money laundering, or even public officials’ conflicts of interests, reporters are increasingly developing their own databases for investigative projects. Here are a series of tips drawn from the experiences of a number of international journalists and from the author’s personal experience gathering and creating data sets for investigative stories.
Investigative Journalism Data Journalism Teaching and Training Other Useful Guides Spanish Only Looking for tips, tools, and tutorials? The below guides focus on investigative journalism and provide case studies and examples from around the world. Most are available for free, unless indicated otherwise. You can also find our guide to the guides in Chinese and […]
Citizens can investigate, and they do — all over the world. Today we’re launching a new GIJN guide to help non-journalists investigate even more. It’s full of techniques used by investigative journalists that will be helpful to citizen investigators, too. These include searching the internet, finding out who owns corporations, investigating politicians, and much more.
More than 115 countries worldwide have laws that require officials to turn over public records.
Advice on the subject of interviewing comes in many flavors — not only for investigative journalists, but for police officers, employers, lawyers, social workers, and others. What’s clear is that the interview is one of the most trusted and effective tools in the investigator’s toolbox. GIJN has prepared a sampling, mainly from journalists, but with […]
Crafting Investigative Reportage Into Dramatic Narratives, by Vinod K Jose, Executive Editor of The Caravan, India’s premier magazine for narrative and investigatory journalism. This GIJC19 presentation discusses “ideation,” editorial entry points and reportorial conduct. Also see PowerPoint that includes examples. Using Story-Based Inquiry to Focus, Manage and Build was the topic at GIJC17 for Mark […]
Looking for sources? Finding experts in a particular field is a good place to start for many stories. GIJN took a look at various guides to expert sources. After cutting those that are outdated, too specialized, or tools of the PR industry, we found a handful worth consulting. Here are six services with functioning, reliable databases used by journalists searching for expert sources.
For a look at current trends, see also The Future of Investigative Journalism. While definitions of investigative reporting vary, among professional journalism groups there is broad agreement of its major components: systematic, in-depth, and original research and reporting, often involving the unearthing of secrets. Others note that its practice often involves heavy use of public […]
How to hire staff and plan out your shoots to tips for better photography and helpful case studies.
In a GIJC21 session on investigative podcasts, journalists and producers who have created award-winning podcasts shared ideas on how to leverage this audio storytelling technique to better connect with the audience and tell impactful stories.
This guide was produced thanks to support from the Google News Initiative. It was researched and written by Talya Cooper, a researcher based in New York who has worked as the archivist of the Edward Snowden archive at The Intercept and as archive manager at StoryCorps. She is the co-author, with Alison Macrina, of “Anonymity,” a […]
COVID-19 Update: Reporting during the pandemic poses some new risks. Here are some relevant resources. Marc Settle, a BBC Academy smartphone trainer, prepared this article: Coronavirus’ impact on mobile journalism Nico Piro, mobile journalism trainer and special correspondent at Italy’s RAI, shared lessons here: Lessons from Italy: best practices for field reporting during the coronavirus […]
Turbulent with a chance of data: Journalism’s drone-powered futures: A guide to storytelling with UAVs, by Monika Sengul-Jones in datajournalism.com. Tips on Drone Journalism by Raffy Tima, a senior news producer and news anchor with GMA Network Manila, Philippines, as presented during GIJC17. Six Tips for Succeeding at Drone Journalism, a guide prepared by Johnny […]
There’s nothing like a good photographer to bring alive an investigative story. One of the worst crimes that investigative journalists commit is spending months on a great story, and then only minutes on the presentation. Working with photojournalists who know their craft (along with designers and graphic artists) can be one of the real pleasures of putting a big project together. We’re fortunate that a new handbook on using photography for investigations was just published: Investigative Photography: Supporting a Story with Pictures, by CJ Clarke, Damien Spleeters, and Juliet Ferguson.
This comprehensive guide includes expert advice from more than two dozen specialists and journalists.
In this reporting guide we’ve included some of the various definitions of disability, important resources, and key issues for journalists to investigate.
This guide offers a broad array of tools, techniques, and resources — beyond the primary local sources you find — to help watchdog reporters dig into almost any election.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, GIJN has published a series of stories and tipsheets for investigative journalists covering the war.
This updated and expanded guide was written in cooperation with Migrant-Rights.org. Illustrations are by Marcelle Louw. The project manager was Majdoleen Hasan. Editing by Reed Richardson.
Data on the gap between rich and poor, privileged and marginalized, tends to be nuanced or hard to find. But amid warnings that the COVID-19 pandemic will accelerate the gap between rich and poor, investigative reporters need new tools to show the scale and implications of these gaps. From audiographs to drone imagery, and featuring tips from South Africa and Brazil, we share some of these methods here.
In a RightsCon session hosted by GIJN, three editors shared survival strategies for independent newsrooms in authoritarian nations, as threats to the press, and institutions of accountability, grow around the world. They described a form of journalistic judo, where journalists can find advantages in the very tactics used to repress them.
Femicide — the intentional murder of women because they are women — is a global problem. According to the UN’s latest estimates, 50,000 women and girls are killed each year by intimate partners or other family members. GIJN’s latest resource aims to help journalists understand what femicide is, find and understand the data available, and suggest which experts to interview.
The subject of sexual violence remains a sensitive if not taboo subject in much of the world and often goes unreported. Watchdog journalism has started digging deeper into sexual violence, but these investigations are still few relative to the estimated number of cases worldwide.
Millions of people disappear every year, according to the International Commission on Missing People, and organized crime is involved in many of these cases. The violence associated with drug trafficking in particular, but also wildlife smuggling, resource theft, human trafficking, and other criminal rackets, plays a key role in many of the disappearances. Journalists act […]
At the 2023 Global Investigative Journalism Conference, we held a panel on indigenous investigations. According to the UN, over 476 million indigenous people are living in 90 countries. Many are on the front lines defending their lands and cultures, and they have become minorities in their own homes. Here are Indigenous journalists from Canada, Taiwan, […]
The areas for journalistic inquiry into LGBTQ issues are as broad as the communities themselves, ranging from shifting demographics and healthcare to hate crimes and discrimination. To help boost investigative reporting on these pressing issues, GIJN has assembled a list of key resources for journalists worldwide.
This updated and expanded guide was written in cooperation with Migrant-Rights.org. Illustrations are by Marcelle Louw. The project manager was Majdoleen Hasan. Editing by Reed Richardson.
Human trafficking is a persistent and pervasive crime around the world, and a critical and impactful area for journalists to investigate. In this GIJN Original, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Martha Mendoza gives her tips for digging into the subject.
Full guide here. العربية Below we profile 10 stories of trafficking and forced labor common throughout the countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council region, which includes the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Domestic Workers: Trafficking and Unscrupulous Recruitment Indian Women Duped by Recruiters. Indian women are regularly trafficked through the United Arab […]
Researchers estimate 40 million people exist in some form of slavery today, ranging from debt bondage and false contracts to sex trafficking, forced marriage and child labor. To help journalists cover human trafficking and slavery, GIJN has created this collection of resources including documents and reports, places to find expertise and advice on best practices in reporting and investigation.
This resource was last updated in 2023 by GIJN’s Toby McIntosh and Emily O’Sullivan. Investigative journalists play a crucial role in holding corporations to account, and have revealed labor abuses, environmental violations, corporate impunity and other instances of malpractice through deep-dives into companies and their owners. However, government records on corporations often reveal only the […]
This comprehensive guide includes expert advice from more than two dozen specialists and journalists.
The global fight against climate change depends on the actions of individual nations — so national accountability is critical.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, GIJN has published a series of stories and tipsheets for investigative journalists covering the war.
In June, a French court indicted executives from two surveillance companies on charges of complicity in torture in Libya and Egypt, following revelations by journalists about their alleged technology sales to repressive regimes. In a series of interviews, investigative reporters shared tips and tools that newsrooms around the world can use to uncover the spyware and monitoring systems their governments are buying.
A GIJN GUIDE Investigating Health & Medicine In this era of the pandemic, journalists worldwide suddenly find themselves on the health beat, trying to make sense of competing claims, varied specialists, and a science that seems to change by the day. Here’s an antidote: a comprehensive, global guide to investigative reporting on health and medicine. […]
Update: In 2022, GIJN published an elections guide with four chapters. You can read it here. It’s fair to say that the United States has never seen an election quite like this one. On November 3, Americans will vote to elect a president, members of the US Senate and House of Representatives, and thousands of […]
More than 115 countries worldwide have laws that require officials to turn over public records.
Supply chains are networks between companies and their suppliers that produce and distribute a specific product. They may include providers of raw material, firms that convert the material into products, storage facilities and distribution centers, and retailers who bring the ultimate product to consumers. The products are as varied as the marketplace: clothing, electronics, vehicles, […]
The extractive industries –the development and exploitation of oil, gas, and mining resources — is a critical topic for investigative journalists, particularly in developing countries. Revenues from natural resource extraction contribute substantially to GDP and in many cases make up the bulk of government revenue. The companies in the extractive sector are large and influential. How […]
Carbon offsets are truly an international climate change story. This short version of our GIJN guide helps reporters understand, research, and investigate the global players.
Experts agree that AI-driven audio deepfakes could pose a significant threat to democracy and fair elections in 2024.
Online research expert Henk van Ess has created a seven-chapter guide that offers reporters step-by-step instructions on how to use social media search to perform investigations of people and subjects and he’s also created a detailed tutorial on using facial recognition technology and best practices for putting these tools together in verifying claims online.
Satellite images are powerful tools for discovery and analysis, plus provide vivid illustrations. Discover GIJN’s favorite resources.
Based on an interview with Wayback Machine’s director, Mark Graham, ProPublica’s Craig Silverman shares more essential tips on using it, including how to bulk archive pages, compare changes, and see when elements of a page were archived.
Investigative journalists have long used information about airplanes to uncover corruption, follow wars, track government officials, and point out the levels of greenhouse gases emitted. GIJN has now revised and updated its reporting guide to planespotting and tracking flights around the world.
Shayan Sardarizadeh, a reporter who covers online misinformation for BBC Monitoring, offers several tips for verifying or debunking suspect Twitter screenshots.
In countries without public record transparency rules or strong source protection laws, going undercover can be one of the few tools reporters have to reveal public interest stories.
At a recent GIJN online workshop, open source research expert Henk van Ess offered key tips and techniques for optimizing the use of Google search in your investigations.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, GIJN has published a series of stories and tipsheets for investigative journalists covering the war.
Bulletproofing your story demands much more than getting the facts right. It requires a meticulous approach from the start in order to pass quality control.
Organized crime is a global phenomenon. But Africa, with its deep-seated corruption and “resource curse,” is particularly hard hit.
Organized crime and corruption are widespread, deeply rooted and growing in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region with some of the world’s highest rates of poverty and inequality. Powerful criminal groups operate with the help of politicians, government officials and a “criminal services industry”, including corrupt banks. They make their money through the illegal narcotics trade, human […]
The Golden Triangle, where the borders of Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos intersect, is one of the world’s renowned centers of criminal activity. The region’s underworld economy turns over billions of dollars annually in narcotics production, human trafficking, wildlife smuggling, illegal mining, and more. Its cross-border illicit networks have global impact, working with criminal groups across […]
Tps and best practices for covering drug trafficking, money laundering, official corruption, other illicit activity in the region.
To share investigative best practices and other lessons learned from our most recent conference, GIJC21, we are releasing a series of videos from the event’s many seminars, panels, and workshops. The first installment in this series focuses on how investigative reporters can better dig into organized crime and corruption around the world.
For details on this guide’s chapter authors, see the Acknowledgments page. Illustrations are by Ann Kiernan. Editing by Laura Dixon, Tanya Pampalone, and Reed Richardson. Andrea Arzaba was the project manager.
Millions of people disappear every year, according to the International Commission on Missing People, and organized crime is involved in many of these cases. The violence associated with drug trafficking in particular, but also wildlife smuggling, resource theft, human trafficking, and other criminal rackets, plays a key role in many of the disappearances. Journalists act […]
Researchers estimate 40 million people exist in some form of slavery today, ranging from debt bondage and false contracts to sex trafficking, forced marriage and child labor. To help journalists cover human trafficking and slavery, GIJN has created this collection of resources including documents and reports, places to find expertise and advice on best practices in reporting and investigation.
Investigations into what happens on, under, and around the ocean can often be answered thanks to the vast amount of data available online.
Experts agree that AI-driven audio deepfakes could pose a significant threat to democracy and fair elections in 2024.
Featuring a broad array of tools, techniques, and resources to help watchdog reporters dig into almost any campaign or election.
People with disabilities are the largest intersectional minority group, according to the UN, and virtually every reporting beat has a disability angle.
This resource was last updated in 2023 by GIJN’s Toby McIntosh and Emily O’Sullivan. Investigative journalists play a crucial role in holding corporations to account, and have revealed labor abuses, environmental violations, corporate impunity and other instances of malpractice through deep-dives into companies and their owners. However, government records on corporations often reveal only the […]
Open source information can be a valuable method of reporting when investigating violations of international humanitarian law or war crimes.
A quick reference guide to reporting on attacks on civilians during armed conflicts as part of investigations into war crimes.
An accurate understanding of the applicable laws by journalists can ensure and improve credible reporting, and raise awareness of potential violations.
Online research expert Henk van Ess has created a seven-chapter guide that offers reporters step-by-step instructions on how to use social media search to perform investigations of people and subjects and he’s also created a detailed tutorial on using facial recognition technology and best practices for putting these tools together in verifying claims online.
Satellite images are powerful tools for discovery and analysis, plus provide vivid illustrations. Discover GIJN’s favorite resources.
In this abridged version, GIJN offers tips from our latest reporting guide, on how journalists can investigate their country’s climate change pledges and hold governments accountable.
Based on an interview with Wayback Machine’s director, Mark Graham, ProPublica’s Craig Silverman shares more essential tips on using it, including how to bulk archive pages, compare changes, and see when elements of a page were archived.
The figures are grim for our colleagues around the world. Since 1992, 978 journalists have been killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. More than 60 percent have been murdered with impunity; that is, no killer was ever brought to justice. And today, 232 journalists are in prison worldwide, many for doing what would […]
There is no way for investigative journalists to completely eliminate the risk of being tracked through metadata, but in an interview with Reporters Without Borders, technology expert Benjamin Finn offers a series of tips on how to protect both your sources and yourself.
Increasingly, investigative journalists are being hacked, doxxed, harassed, and assaulted by external threats, so GIJN — with generous support from the Ford Foundation — is proud to launch a first-of-its-kind safety guide for newsrooms at GIJC21: the Journalist Security Assessment Tool (JSAT).
In an effort to help journalists and others trying to leave Afghanistan, GIJN has put together this list of resources for emergency evacuation and asylum processes.
Journalism is by definition investigative. However, the depth and scope of possibilities to unearth and bring to light wrongdoings of public interest has increased manifold, thanks to the way the Internet has been evolving in the last decade. To be a true investigative reporter today, it is indispensable to fine-tune the old philosophy with three new practices: be Open, Systematic and Safe.
Digital self-defense is becoming an important part of the journalistic toolkit. Beyond risks to everyone’s digital lives—webcam hacking, email breaches, identity theft—people who work in newsrooms have even more at stake. Newsrooms are some of the biggest targets in the world for state-sponsored digital attacks, as well as more routine threats.
Covering street protests involves risks that every journalist should be prepared for. Knowledge, experience, and planning can help reduce these risks. Our colleagues at Abraji (The Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism) have particular experience with this — between May 2013 and May 2014, there were at least 171 cases of violations against media staff covering […]
Covering street protests involves risks that every journalist should be prepared for. Knowledge, experience and planning can help reduce these risks. To help journalists worldwide, Abraji has developed a guide, packed with tips and anecdotes from professionals who have experienced risky incidents while covering protests. Here’s an excerpt, covering how to prepare and how to act during the event.
Español Journalists are being strongly urged to protect their communications and information from growing threats. Yet several studies show that most of us in the media, despite believing the danger is real, are not adopting basic protections. The Rory Peck Foundation issued a Digital Security Guide aimed at freelancers, stressing that “even taking small, simple […]
The figures are grim for our colleagues around the world. Since 1992, more than 1,400 journalists have been killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Well over 890 of them have been murdered with impunity; that is, no killer was ever brought to justice. And today, more than 274 journalists are in prison worldwide, […]
A new generation of intrepid news organizations is rising across Europe – one that is strongly committed to serving its audience and democracy alike through public interest journalism. A new report by Netzwerk Recherche outlines this emerging innovative media scene and takes a closer look at how this New Sector reclaims journalistic terrain that traditional media has abandoned.
American Press Institute Metrics for News Gauging the Global Impacts of the ‘Panama Papers’ Three Years Later How to build a metrics-savvy newsroom Big Impact: A Pocket-Guide to the Financial Benefits of Major Investigations How an impact and reach scorecard helps Carolina Public Press gut-check its journalism What Makes a Good Metric? Media change deniers: […]
Investigative journalism shines a light into dark corners of human, corporate and government behaviour and prompts corrective action and so, better societies. Yet it is hard to prove this impact – increasingly necessary as donors want to know the impact of the work they sponsor. Here are ways to show and measure your value, and […]
The media and the Blockchain – hype or hope? Can Blockchain Save Journalism? Civil to sell millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency to fund a global network of newsrooms Blockchain – it’s early days but never too early for publishers to get involved Goodbye, Denver Post. Hello, Blockchain Blockchain: What’s in it for the news […]
Why micropayments aren’t dead … yet How to make your digital readers want to pay — from micropayments to social media subscriptions Global Editors Network In Winnipeg, micropayments aren’t generating big money, but they’re serving as a top-of-the-funnel strategy Like the changing of the seasons, publishers (again) turn to micropayments
8 ways publishers are making money from podcasts The Publisher’s Guide to Podcasting: Report Download Radio & Audio Grantmaking: Reaching New Audiences Through Old Platforms The Future of Podcasting is Subscription — Lessons from the History of Media How the Guardian is making podcasts pay off With Big Stars and Paid Subscriptions, Luminary Aims to […]
Investigative journalism startup uses mobile gaming to finance its future The News Industry Could Learn a Thing or Two from Netflix CIR began pitching investigative stories to newspapers. It’s working on Hollywood now, too 101 Reporters connects journalists across India with media organizations that need their stories BuzzFeed has a new business model, so it’s […]
The art of hosting meaningful engagement events Todd Milbourn and Lisa Heyamoto Tips on Holding Live Events That Support Journalism How to Launch a Successful Events Business How To Use Community Media And Storytelling Events To Attract Donors To Your Nonprofit The New York Times is ramping up conference calls for subscribers that are run […]
To keep readers after COVID publishers see hope in newsletters and podcasts How Indiegraaf helped launch 6 local news outlets during COVID-19 Newsletters Are Crucial for Reader Loyalty. Here’s How to Make the Most of Them. Not a newsletter monthly guide Newsletter Strategy Positioning Brief How newsletter innovations are driving publisher revenue What’s News in […]
Broken internet ad system makes it easy to earn money with plagiarism US digital advertising exceeded $100B in 2018 Tech Crunch Exploring alternative funding models for the web Mozilla Guide to Advertising Technology Tow Center Journalists are rightly suspicious of ad tech. They also depend on it. CJR What’s New in Publishing 50 ideas for making […]
Why The Information’s paywall strategy is so successful How many paying subscribers do you need to keep a money-losing magazine afloat? Arkansas Life finds out Nieman Lab What Product-Market Fit in Subscription Journalism Looks Like The Ken 2018 has been a record-breaking year for journalism Kickstarters (though only about 1 in 5 actually get funded) Nieman […]
7 ways COVID has impacted subscription strategies How to build a good reader revenue model: lessons from Spain and the UK “Not only can membership save journalism, but will do so by helping it evolve”: Why publishers are looking beyond subscriptions Why the subscription model may not work for you How The Economist has tripled […]
Investigative Journalism Data Journalism Teaching and Training Other Useful Guides Spanish Only Looking for tips, tools, and tutorials? The below guides focus on investigative journalism and provide case studies and examples from around the world. Most are available for free, unless indicated otherwise. You can also find our guide to the guides in Chinese and […]
Online research is often a challenge for traditional investigative reporters, journalism lecturers and students. Information from the web can be fake, biased, incomplete or all of the above. Offline, too, there is no happy hunting ground with unbiased people or completely honest governments. In the end, it all boils down to asking the right questions, digital or not. This chapter gives you some strategic advice and tools for digitizing three of the biggest questions in journalism: who, where and when?
The Research Desk with Gary Price is back, with its second installment, featuring a roundup of new tools — the WHO’s MiNDBANK database, with documents from 170 countries; ePSIplatform, on open data in the EU & worldwide; new UN report on wastewater; NATO archives expand; and the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names.
Covering street protests involves risks that every journalist should be prepared for. Knowledge, experience and planning can help reduce these risks. To help journalists worldwide, Abraji has developed a guide, packed with tips and anecdotes from professionals who have experienced risky incidents while covering protests. Here’s an excerpt, covering how to prepare and how to act during the event.
There are a lot of websites out there that can help you find hidden information. But there are also software applications and browser plug-ins that can be of use to investigative journalists. Created by up-and-coming developers and enthusiasts on a budget, many of these programmes are rather unsophisticated, so don’t expect slick interfaces and 24-hour help desks. That said, if you can get past the jargon and rough-and-ready feel, you’ll find nifty little apps that can help you discover nuggets of information which would be unavailable through conventional means.
Whistleblowers – insiders who expose corrupt or illegal activities – are an important source of information for journalists everywhere. From their position inside governments, companies, and other organizations, they can provide crucial leads, evidence, and sometimes “smoking guns” that expose everything from fraud and waste to criminal conspiracies and war crimes. It’s important for journalists […]
A guide to prominent journalism awards and competitions of special interest to investigative journalists.
Our colleagues are under threat around the world. Since 1992, more than a thousand journalists have been killed, and thousands more are victims of assault, intimidation, imprisonment, and persecution. A number of organizations provide emergency support to journalists in danger. Assistance ranges from medical and legal aid to moving a targeted journalist out of the country. If you are in genuine danger, don’t hesitate to reach out — there is help available.
Seeking a chance to improve your skills and expand your world? Tired of the everyday routine in your newsroom? We regularly update our guide to grants and fellowships. These are programs of special interest to investigative journalists around the world. There are plenty of short-term and long-term opportunities, both for staff and freelance reporters. Follow […]
The practice of independent journalism is facing enormous challenges, ranging from authoritarian regimes implementing regressive laws that stifle speech to journalists being unable to make a living from their work. In order to meet those challenges, journalists can benefit from understanding the protections provided by international law.
Femicide — the intentional murder of women because they are women — is a global problem. According to the UN’s latest estimates, 50,000 women and girls are killed each year by intimate partners or other family members. GIJN’s latest resource aims to help journalists understand what femicide is, find and understand the data available, and suggest which experts to interview.
The subject of sexual violence remains a sensitive if not taboo subject in much of the world and often goes unreported. Watchdog journalism has started digging deeper into sexual violence, but these investigations are still few relative to the estimated number of cases worldwide.
Nonprofit organizations dedicated to offering grants in support of investigative journalism in Africa.
Looking for sources? Finding experts in a particular field is a good place to start for many stories. GIJN took a look at various guides to expert sources. After cutting those that are outdated, too specialized, or tools of the PR industry, we found a handful worth consulting. Here are six services with functioning, reliable databases used by journalists searching for expert sources.
Here are nonprofit and related organizations worldwide that work in support of investigative journalism, listed by region. It is a diverse group that includes nonprofit newsrooms, online publishers, professional associations, NGOs, training institutes, and academic centers in nearly 50 countries. For inclusion, GIJN applied the following criteria: the group is structured as a nonprofit or […]
