This week GIJN launches a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. And we need your help. We're raising funds to bring promising journalists from developing and transitioning countries to the Global Investigative Journalism Conference this October, where they'll get training in state-of-the-art investigative reporting, data journalism, and cross-border collaboration. This is a great way to help fight corruption and stand up for accountability and transparency around the world. You can read more about it on Indiegogo. And check out our campaign video, featuring investigative reporters on the front lines in Kenya, Macedonia, Pakistan, and Tunisia.

So how can you help? 

Donate: Please go to our campaign page and make a contribution. There are some nice perks to thank you for your support.

Share: Help us spread the word! Share this campaign on Twitter and Facebook. Write about it on your blog. Tell your friends and family by mail. Indiegogo has special tools for sharing, so it’s as easy as clicking a button.

Many thanks in advance!

The Global Investigative Journalism Conference is getting close! Today, exactly 45 days before the big event, we're launching a new website for GIJC13. 

You'll find the provisional program for the conference, packed with nearly 150 panels, workshops, and seminars. There's also a list of expected speakers, including Pulitzer Prize winners, top data journalism specialists, security experts, and reporters from the front lines in some of the toughest, most corrupt spots in the world. With our conference app Sched, you can log-on and create a personal agenda both on your desktop and mobile platforms.

Here are more highlights of the new site:

• Use our Community Directory to connect with the dozens of remarkable groups, projects, and people at GIJC13. If you want your group or project listed, send us an email to hello@gijn.org. Be sure to include the group’s name, contact person and email address, website, and logo or other image.
• First time in Rio? Check the "Getting Around" section, compiled by GIJN and our partners at Abraji in Rio, with plenty of tips on clubs, restaurants, tourist spots, transportation, security, and more.
• If you're in a hurry, use our FAQs, with quick tips on who we are, what's happening, and how to get there.
• Need a roommate? Rio hotels can be expensive, but we're doing our best to help everyone. Check out our roommate sign-up sheet on Google Docs, and the conference list of hotels.
• Collaboration workshops will bring together great journalists from around the world to work on projects together. There will be sign-up sheets, data sets, and documents.
• There are links to register (in three languages) and information on visas. Don't forget: citizens of many countries need visas to enter Brazil, and the process can take up to three weeks.

Again, bear in mind this is a provisional schedule, and we’ll be updating the site. But we're glad to share with you some of the work that's gone into GIJC13 by its three partners, the Global Investigative Journalism Network, the Brazilian Association for Investigative Journalism (ABRAJI), and the Institute for Press and Society (IPYS).

We're looking forward to seeing you in Rio!

Eight finalists have been selected for consideration in the fifth Global Shining Light Award, a unique prize which honors investigative journalism in a developing or transitioning country, done under threat, duress, or in the direst of conditions.

The award will be announced and presented at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference this October 14 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The winner will receive an honorary certificate and $1,000.

The Global Investigative Journalist Network, sponsor of the award, received 65 submissions from 28 countries. A winner will be chosen by a prestigious international panel of judges.

“The quality of entries this year was extraordinary,” said GIJN Director David E. Kaplan. “These stories demonstrate that quality investigative journalism has become a global phenomenon.” The finalists include investigative projects from Azerbaijan, China, India, Montenegro, Pakistan, and South Africa.

The finalists are:

• Khadija Ismayilova, Nushabe Fatullayeva, Pavla Holcova, and Jaromir Hason in a collaboration by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Radio Free Europe, and the Czech Center for Investigative Journalism for revealing questionable business dealings by the Azerbaijan president’s daughters. Ismayilova later received an anonymous letter containing images of her and her boyfriend having sex, and warning her to “behave.” Instead of bowing to blackmail, she went public with the threat and continued to uncover hidden business dealings of Azerbaijan’s First Family.
• Tan Xiao-mi (Fiona Tam) and the South China Morning Post for “Medicine's Wild East,” a two month investigation that exposed how China’s biggest military hospitals were cashing in on the government’s forced abortion law by injecting stem cells cultivated from aborted fetuses’ brains into the desperate and the dying, although such treatments are untested and unproved. The story involved undercover work at hospitals run by China’s politically powerful military.
• Shi Feike, Ji Tianqin, Zhou Zhimei, and others on an investigative team at the Southern Weekly in China for “Uncovering Wang Lijun.” Despite political pressure and heavy censorship, the team completed a 50,000-word, eight-part series reporting on one of China’s largest ever political scandals. The stories detailed murder, corruption, and how a feared police chief and rising Communist Party star purged dissidents and plundered private entrepreneurs.

• Gunjan Sharma from The Week magazine in India for his story “Mad, Bad World,” about how patients at state-run mental hospitals were deprived of basic human rights. The investigation exposed shocking, inhumane conditions in which patients were locked in dark, dingy four-by-five foot cells, with stinking toilets, often subject to beatings, denied food, and stripped and sprayed with insecticides to kill body lice.
• Miranda Patrucic, Valerie Hopkins, and Drew Sullivan from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project for “First Family, First Bank,” a two-year investigation into how Montenegro Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic exploited his control over the government to benefit himself, his siblings and friends, while depriving his country of some of its most valuable assets.

• Umar Cheema, from the Center for Investigative Reporting in Pakistan, for "Taxation without Representation." Cheema obtained and analyzed tax records of all 446 members of Pakistan’s parliament. His investigation revealed that nearly 70 percent of lawmakers didn’t file tax returns in a country with one of the world’s lowest rates of revenue collection. Cheema persevered, despite legal threats and his 2010 kidnapping and torture.
• Msindisi Fengu of The Daily Dispatch in South Africa, for “Hostels of Shame,” an investigation into the dire conditions at state-run boarding schools. A tip whispered during a local education meeting led Fengu on a two-month journey to 70 boarding schools across the Eastern Cape, during which he received death threats. His reporting found conditions so bad that “pupils live in conditions worse than those of prisons.”
• Stephan Hofstatter, Mzilikazi wa Afrika, and Rob Rose from the Sunday Times in South Africa for “Cato Manor: Inside a South African Police Death Squad.” The year-long investigation exposed how a police unit operated as a hit squad, executing crime suspects while claiming to act in self defense. The team braved death threats and physical attacks. The series resulted in senior police officials facing murder charges in court.

Ready for Rio? We've got more than 800 journalists from 75 countries descending on Rio de Janeiro in three weeks -- for the 8th Global Investigative Journalism Conference. Want to join us? There's still plenty of room, and registration is open.

You can register here.

And here's a link to the conference website.

On the site you'll find the program for the big event, packed with nearly 150 panels, workshops, and special events. Speakers include Pulitzer Prize winners, top data journalism specialists, security experts, and reporters from the front lines in some of the toughest, most corrupt spots in the world. Among the features:

• Be sure to sign up with Sched, our conference app, where you can create a personal agenda and post your bio -- both on desktop and mobile platforms.
• Get information on visas and getting into Brazil.
• Use our Networking directory to connect with the dozens of remarkable groups, projects, and people at GIJC13.
• Check the Getting Around section, with tips on clubs, restaurants, touring, transport, security -- even what electrical adapters and clothing to bring.
• Collaboration workshops will bring together great journalists from around the world to work on projects together.
• Special events include our awards ceremony at the beautiful Theatro Municipal, a big Saturday night cocktail reception, a documentary exhibition, and a rockin' blues party played by GIJN's own band.

Still got questions? Check out the FAQs on the conference site. And if you're still stumped, try us at hello@gijn.org. We'll see you in Rio!

The Steering Committee of the Global Investigative Journalism Network -- consisting of representatives of GIJN's member organizations -- will gather for its biennial meeting at the 8th Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Rio de Janeiro. The event takes place on Sunday evening, October 13, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm, in the RDC auditorium of the conference venue, the Pontifical Catholic University.

The meeting is open, but voting will be limited to a single representative from each of GIJN's member organizations.

GIJN's membership includes 91 nonprofits, NGOs, and educational institutions in 41 countries. Its missions include sponsoring global and regional conferences, training, and promoting best practices in investigative and data journalism.

GIJN was founded in 2003 when more than 300 journalists gathered for the second Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Copenhagen. In October 2011, at the 7th GIJC in Kiev, Ukraine, representatives unanimously approved creating a provisional secretariat to better manage the GIJN's activities. David Kaplan was approved as director of the new office, which was launched in February 2012, and the Volunteer Committee was elected to act as an informal board to oversee GIJN activities until the next conference in Rio.

The Volunteer Committee has met four times over Skype between the Kiev and Rio conferences. Since establishing the secretariat, GIJN has grown significantly in membership and reach, including extensive activities on its web site, in social media, conference planning, and responding to requests for assistance. A report on the secretariat's progress, Report to GIJN Steering Committee by Provisional Secretariat, is now available.

To address GIJN's growth and activities, the Volunteer Committee has voted to propose that the Steering Committee (which is composed of one representative from each member organization) consider a number of issues regarding GIJN:

• whether to make the secretariat permanent;
• create a new board structure and adopt by-laws;
• seek nonprofit registration;
• change the voting requirement from three-fourths majority to a simple majority;
• renew the director’s contract;
• decide where to hold the global conference for 2015;
• And, if the new board structure is approved, endorse the current Volunteer Committee plans to oversee an electronic election for the new board in November 2013. (Note: GIJN co-founder Nils Mulvad is accepting nominations for a potential new board, but there is no need to submit candidates until after the meeting, when GIJN decides on whether to adopt a new board structure.)

GIJN member groups not present in Rio may vote through a designated representative who will be present at the meeting (by "proxy"). Groups will be contacted by GIJN co-founder Nils Mulvad about who will represent them.

The Volunteer Committee drafted the following agenda for the Steering Committee Meeting:

MEMBERSHIP MEETING AGENDA, GIJC13

RIO DE JANEIRO, OCTOBER 13, 2013

• Call to Order.
• Roll Call.
• Review of Last Meeting Minutes.
• Proposal to change from three-quarters majority to majority rule (more than half) on approval of any action by the Steering Committee (representatives of GIJN member organizations).
• Proposal to approve Volunteer Committee recommendation to establish a permanent secretariat
• Proposal to approve Volunteer Committee recommendation of David Kaplan as executive director of the secretariat.
• Proposal to approve seeking nonprofit registration of GIJN, to be carried out by a new board,or, if a new board is not created, by the Volunteer Committee.
• Proposal to approve Volunteer Committee recommendation to create a nine-member board.
• (If previous proposal passes) Proposal to approve Volunteer Committee recommendation of how to elelect board members and how to implement the election online.
• Discussion and approval of next conference site.
• New business.
• Adjournment.

EXPLANATION OF GIJN AGENDA ITEMS

Proposal to change from three-fourths vote to a majority rule (more than half) on approval of any action by the Steering Committee (representatives of GIJN member organizations)

Background
GIJN’s founding document states that “The Global Investigative Journalism Network will be guided by a steering-committee composed of one representative from each participating organization. At all times, the network will attempt to work through consensus. If necessary, votes may be taken on decisions and those votes will require a three-fourths majority to prevail.”

To better manage GIJN, it is proposed that its voting be made similar to most nonprofit organizations, by requiring a simple majority vote.

Proposal to approve Volunteer Committee recommendation to establish a permanent secretariat

Background

In October 2011, at its previous meeting in Kiev, the Steering Committee unanimously approved creation of a provisional secretariat to better manage GIJN, and approved David Kaplan to manage the initiative. Approval was given for a six-month trial basis, to be renewed as appropriate by the Volunteer Committee. The provisional secretariat was launched in February 2012, and on August 27, 2012 the Volunteer Committee extended it through the GIJC in October 2013. It also named David Kaplan as director. At its April 17, 2013 meeting, the Volunteer Committee unanimously recommended to the Steering Committee that the provisional secretariat be made permanent.

Proposal to approve Volunteer Committee recommendation of David Kaplan as executive director of the secretariat.

Background
Since February 2012, David Kaplan has served as manager and then director of the GIJN secretariat. At its August 30, 2013 meeting, the Volunteer Committee unanimously recommended that Kaplan’s term be extended and he be made executive director. It is proposed that this be for a three-year period, with 90 day notification if either party wants to end the relationship. It is proposed that this be for a three-year period, with 90-day notification if either party wants to end the relationship. A memorandum of understanding would be drafted after such approval outlining the agreement.

Proposal to approve seeking non-profit registration for GIJN or identify a different form of organization -- to be carried out by a new board or, if a new board is not created, the Volunteer Committee.

Background
GIJN grew up as an informal network of organizations. It currently receives funding through the fiscal sponsorship of the Investigative News Network and through partnerships with member organizations. By registering as a nonprofit, GIJN would be able to directly receive funds and would be an independent legal entity with a formal board of directors. There is another proposal within the Volunteer Committee to keep GIJN informal and run by a rotating Secretariat which would receive funds on behalf of GIJN.

Proposal to approve Volunteer Committee recommendation to create a nine member board.

Background
At its April 17, 2013 meeting, the Volunteer Committee unanimously recommended that the Steering Committee approve the following proposal for a new nine-member board that ensures broad geographical representation, with four-year terms and elections held every two years:

(If previous proposal passes) Proposal to approve Volunteer Committee recommendation of how to elect board members and how to implement the election online.

Background
The Volunteer Committee has recommended that the Steering Committee approve an electronic election for the new board. GIJN co-founder and Volunteer Committee member Nils Mulvad has volunteered to supervise the election, overseen by a Volunteer Committee elections group. He will brief the Steering Committee on the online voting, which is planned, pending approval, for November 2013.

Discussion and approval of next conference site.

Background
At each GIJC, the Steering Committee votes on the site for the next Global Conference. There are three proposals submitted, from Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (Amman, Jordan); the International Reporting Program of the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada); and the Norwegian Association for a Critical and Investigative Press (SKUP) (Lillehammer, Norway). These proposals have been posted on the GIJN website since early September.

Denao in Flickr (CC License)

The Global Investigative Journalism Conference is getting close! We have more than 800 journalists from nearly 90 countries heading to Rio.

Joining us? Be sure to check our conference site, which is full of tips on everything from tourist spots to what clothes and adapters to bring. Here's a quick guide on what to expect on arrival, getting to the conference site, food, wifi, and more:

Transport

From the Airport: The International Airport Gaeão is a 20 km drive to central Rio. Taxi fare to the city costs from US$30 to US$50 depending on the taxi, traffic, and time of day.

To the Conference: There will be morning and late afternoon shuttle buses from the Royal Tulip, Marina Palace, and Everest hotels to the conference venue.

From Royal Tulip, Marina, and Everest to PUC: 8am and 10am (except Tues: only at 8am)

From PUC to Royal Tulip, Marina, and Everest: Oct 12, 8pm / Oct 13, 6pm / Oct 15, 1pm.

From PUC to Theatro Municipal: Oct 14, 5.30pm.

Tourists are advised not to use public vans. If you opt to try the public buses, watch your belongings and do not ride them after dark. When traveling by yellow taxi, use only cars that openly display company information and phone numbers as well as red license plates.

Conference Venue

The conference will be held at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s first private university. There are two entrances in the campus: r. Marquês de S. Vicente, 225 and Padre Leonel França, S/N. Note: The campus has open areas, so we recommend bringing an umbrella and wearing comfortable shoes.

Conference Schedule

The full schedule is available on our conference site. You can log-in to Sched, our conference app, and create your own agenda.

Registration

Registration will be available on site daily starting at 8am on October 12. To avoid delays we recommend you arrive before 9am.

Panels

GIJC panels are open and attendees are welcome to come and go as they choose. Panels will be filled on a first-come basis. Some Abraji panels may be closed once speaking begins. Pre-registration is required for Hack in Rio 2013.

Wi-Fi

There will be Wi-Fi available on campus.

• Network: wifi PUC
• Log-in: gijc2013
• Password: investigative

In case of any problem, there will be volunteers ready to help.

Food & Special Events

Lunch: Lunch is on your own. There are some good places near the venue (walking distance) listed here. You can also find them on this handy map (restaurants are in green). On October 14 there will be an special Lunch Showcase and sandwiches will be offered to attendees.

Reception: After our first day together, on Saturday, October 12, come meet your colleagues and network at a welcoming reception at 5:30pm. There will be drinks and snacks.

Don’t miss awards night at the extraordinary Theatro Municipal on Monday evening, October 14. Shuttle buses leaves at 5:30 from the conference venue. We’ll offer food on the buses. There will be with music by virtuoso guitarist Moacyr Luz and the dynamic rhythms of AfroReggae. Then, after the session, join us for some late night fun at a no-host party at nearby Brazooca Beer Bar, where a blues bash will be played by GIJN’s own all-journalist R&B band, The Muckrakers.

More about special events here.

Conference Certificate

It will be available on-site from Oct 13, at 3.30pm.

For More Information about GIJC13

• Full Schedule

• Tourist Information, Security and More

:: Conference Hashtag: #GIJC13 ::

:: Subscribe to GIJC13 Speakers Twitter List ::

:: Conference Website: http://gijc2013.org ::

Thank you for attending GIJC13. If you have any doubt please send an e-mail to hello@gijn.org.

Looking forward to seeing you in Rio!

More than 1300 journalists from 87 countries have flocked to Rio de Janeiro for the 8th Global Investigative Journalism Conference this weekend. This is the largest ever international gathering of investigative journalists, and there's lots of excitement, networking, and big stories in the air. For coverage of the 150 panels, workshops, and special events, check out our website, http://gijc2013.org/

Follow our news feed: http://gijc2013.org/category/news/

Livestreaming (click "TV ao vivo"): http://puc-riodigital.com.puc-rio.br/

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/gijn

Twitter hashtag: #GIJC13

GIJC13 Speakers on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gijn/lists/gijc13-speakers

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GlobalInvestigativeJournalismNetwork

Facebook photo gallery: https://www.facebook.com/GlobalInvestigativeJournalismNetwork/photos_albums

Tipsheets: http://gijc2013.org/tipsheets/

Speakers and Schedule: http://gijc2013.org/schedule/

The winners of the fifth Global Shining Light Award were announced and presented at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Rio de Janeiro on Monday night. The prize honors investigative journalism conducted in a developing or transitioning country, done under threat, duress, or in the direst of conditions.

The award drew 65 submissions from 28 countries. An international panel of judges considered eight finalists and selected this year’s winners, and found the competition extraordinary.

“The quality of entries this year shows how great investigative journalism has spread around the world,” noted David E. Kaplan, director of the award’s sponsor, the Global Investigative Journalism Network. “So keen was the competition that the judges for the first time opted to honor not one but three stories.”

First place was awarded to two series: “Cato Manor: Inside a South African Police Death Squad,” by a team from the Sunday Times; and “Azerbaijan Corruption” by Khadija Ismayalova, on the questionable financial dealings of the Azerbaijan president’s family. In addition, the judges in their discretion decided to honor a third series with a citation of excellence: “Taxation without Representation,” from the Center for Investigative Reporting in Pakistan.

The winners are:

Stephan Hofstatter, Mzilikazi wa Afrika and Rob Rose from the Sunday Times for “Cato Manor: Inside a South African Police Death Squad.” After more than a year cultivating sensitive sources and obtaining grizzly evidence in photo and print, the team exposed how a police unit operated as a hit squad by executing crime suspects while claiming to be acting in self-defense. “The team members received death threats and were physically attacked,” the judges noted, yet the reporters continued their work. “This was not a oneoff story. The Sunday Times kept going, continuing to report the story for months.” The series produced major impact, the judges found, prompting investigations and resulting in the unit being disbanded and 30 officers being charged, some with murder.

Khadija Ismayilova, Nushabe Fatullayeva, Pavla Holcova, and Jaromir Hason in a collaboration by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Radio Free Europe, and the Czech Center for Investigative Journalism for “Azerbaijan Corruption,” a series that bared the questionable business dealings of the president’s family. Ismayilova later received an anonymous letter with images of her having sex in her home, warning her to “behave” or face being defamed in conservative Azerbaijan. Instead of bowing to blackmail, she went public with the threat and continued to uncover hidden dealings of Azerbaijan’s First Family. “Ms. Ismayilova has exhibited rare bravery,” the judges said. “She is working in a dictatorship where her mission to uncover fraud and corruption can be life threatening. She has been a victim of a vicious state campaign to discredit her only for daring to speak out.”

A citation of excellence to:

Umar Cheema of the Center for Investigative Reporting in Pakistan, for Taxation without Representation. Cheema obtained and analyzed tax records of all 446 members of Pakistan’s parliament and the president. His investigation revealed that nearly 70 percent of lawmakers didn’t file tax returns. The story caused huge controversy and debate in Pakistan, a country that suffers from one of the world’s lowest rates of revenue collection. Cheema persevered in his reporting, despite legal threats and, for an earlier story, his kidnapping and torture in 2010.

This year’s judges were a prestigious group from five countries: Sheila Coronel, co-founder of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University in New York City; Oleg Khomenok, an investigative journalism trainer with Internews in Ukraine; Fernando Rodrigues, a veteran reporter with the daily Folha de S.Paulo in Brazil; Rana Sabbagh, executive director of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism in Jordan; and Jim Steele, an American investigative reporter and two-time Pulitzer-prize winner.

For more information contact: secretariat@gijn.org.

Journalists from across the Middle East and North Africa flocked to Rio for the Global Investigative Journalism Conference, joining more than than 1,300 colleagues from 92 countries.

Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), based in Amman, Jordan, was well represented, bringing its largest-ever delegation to the biennial global conference with 16 fellows and members. Since its humble beginnings in 2005, ARIJ has trained and supported hundreds of investigative reporters from Tunisia to Iraq in the vital skills needed to fight corruption, hold officials accountable, and encourage democracy.

At the Rio conference, ARIJ’s speakers highlighted how rapidly investigative work is progressing in the region, despite the many obstacles posed to fact-based, public interest, accountability journalism. Among the panelists: Yahia Ali Ghanem (Egypt), who spoke on coping with stress; Hamoud Al-Mahmoud (Syria) and Hanene Zbiss (Tunisia) on covering societies in conflict; Maiadah Daood  (Iraq), on terrorism; and Musab Shawabkeh (Jordan) on his undercover investigations. ARIJ’s executive director, Rana Sabbagh, spoke on a showcase panel on the state of investigative journalism in the Arab world.

Also at GIJC13 from ARIJ were its board chairman Daoud Kuttab (Palestine and Jordan) and board member Pia Thordsen (Denmark).

“One of the brightest stars in the GIJN universe is the extraordinary work being done by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism,” said David E. Kaplan, executive director of the Global Investigative Journalism Network, one of three co-sponsors of the conference. “Against obstacles of every sort — dictatorships, military rule, civil wars and revolutions, onerous laws and censorship — ARIJ has made enormous progress in building a culture and tradition of investigative journalism across the Middle East and North Africa.”

Other Arab countries represented at the conference included Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.

A version of this story in Arabic is available on the ARIJ website. 

Participants at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference last week got a preview of the newly redesigned Investigative Dashboard, a research tool to help journalists get access to business records around the world. Developed by GIJN member Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, this week OCCRP formally launched ID at the Conflict in a Connected World conference sponsored by Google Ideas, which has supported development of the new tool.

The Google summit also highlighted other tools worth checking out, including real-time mapping of computer intrusions around the world and a new online security tool call uProxy.

Investigative Dashboard features a crowd-sourced database, put together by dozens of reporters and civic hackers, which contains company registration records and other related public records, to map illicit activities. ID also serves as a portal to more than 400 online databases in 120 jurisdictions where you can search for information on individuals and corporations worldwide.

For those who need further assistance, ID now includes a help desk. Reporters can submit a request to ID’s researchers, who in turn can search external databases and official filings for evidence of corporate ownership, funds transfers, or property holdings that cross borders. Among the groups who have signed up to help with research: Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, the International Center for Journalists/Connectas, and the African Network of Centers for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR). Interested in signing up? Contact OCCRP's Miranda Patrucic (miranda at cin.ba).

Impunity is defined as "without punishment, without consequences." It has become a shorthand way to describe the thousands of attacks on journalists and freedom of expression around the world each year.

IFEX, the global network of 88 groups defending free expression, each year organizes an International Day to End Impunity. This year it takes place November 23, with events every day this month. November 23 is the anniversary of the 2009 Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines, when 58 people – including 32 journalists and media workers – were murdered.

None of the Maguindanao perpetrators have been brought to justice, according to IFEX. And that, unfortunately, is typical. Over the past ten years, more than 500 journalists have been killed, and in 9 of 10 cases their killers have escaped -- with impunity.

There are events scheduled worldwide. IFEX also prepared this infographic depicting how a culture of impunity fosters a climate of fear, apathy and suspicion.

Investigative stories are just a click away. But to find them, you need to look in the right place. Marty Steffens, from the University of Missouri, and Paul Radu, from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in Romania, presented some of the best search tools on the Internet other than Google at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference. They are often used as the starting point for almost all research on international business.

According to Steffens and Radu, the most important step is to make your own database. For that purpose Paul created the website Visual Investigative Scenarios, or VIS, where reporters can create "visual databases" for mapping personal and financial links. If two people add the same company or individual, both receive an alert. According to Radu, there are always links between the data.

Radu also runs the Investigative Dashboard, a collaborative web portal that helps journalists on their research about organized crime and corruption around the world. Here are eight other tools and sites presented by Marty and Paul​:

1. http://www.imf.org - The International Monetary Fund shows the financial activities of 188 countries.

2. http://iia-investigations.com - The International Investigation Agency is a business research and consulting website that specializes in financial investigations.

3. http://reporter.org/ - The Reporter was created by Investigative Reporters and Editors with the goal of providing more resources for journalists and specializes in helping journalist research people. This page gives an example of how search is conducted on the site. The service is paid.

4. http://publicrecords.searchsystems.net/ - Search Systems is another portal specialized in finding people. It holds over 55,000 databases divided by birth, death, marriages, licenses, deeds, mortgages, plus many other subdivisions. It is paid when certain level of research is reached, but many details are available for free.

5. http://www.zabasearch.com/ - Zaba Search is another paid tool that helps search for people and public information. However, Steffens researched his son's name to show that some information like his current address and previous cell phone appears for free.

6. http://www.interpol.int/ -  The Interpol's site itself is a great research tool. It provides a list of missing and wanted persons in various countries. Most of the profiles include pictures.

7. http://www.imo.org/Pages/home.aspx - Steffens explained that it is very important to have tools that track ships, a transport widely used for fraud, since airports are highly supervised. Using the International Maritime Organization's website, it is possible to track large ships around the world. In addition it's possible to contact the administrative areas of many of them.

8. http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/economic-crime-survey/index.jhtml - PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) is a consulting agency that works with companies on improving their corporate images. It also offers a survey of financial crimes.

Amanda Rocha is a journalism student in her 4th year at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. This story was originally published on the Global Investigative Journalism Conference Website in Portuguese, and has been translated to English and Spanish by the Journalism in the Americas blog. 

Today is International Day to End Impunity. IFEX, the global network of 88 groups defending free expression, is coordinating events worldwide calling for an end to attacks on journalists and others who speak out. Over the past ten years, more than 500 journalists have been killed, and in 9 of 10 cases their killers have escaped -- with impunity. Check out this map to see events scheduled worldwide.

The campaign asks you to take five minutes to support five people under threat for speaking out.

According to the International Press Institute (IPI), thousands of journalists have been killed for reporting on issues of public interest and social justice, including 97 media workers so far in 2013.

Our just-released newsletter, the Global Network News, includes highlights of the 8th Global Investigative Journalism Conference, as well as a big thanks to all of you who made it possible. You’ll also find an update on the big decisions that came from the Rio meeting of GIJN's Steering Committee, made up of our 90 member organizations. Among them: the 9th Global Investigative Journalism Conference will be held in Lillehammer, Norway, hosted by our friends at SKUP. And, as usual, you’ll find the latest resources in our toolbox section, and a calendar of upcoming events.

Finally, don't forget that GIJN needs your support. We're a not-for-profit group that relies on grants and donations for the critical work of training, advising, and getting tools to investigative journalists working on the front lines of corruption and crime. As 2013 nears an end, please consider making a donation if you can. (Note: Funds given in the United States are tax deductible by U.S. taxpayers.)

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Amid media crackdowns, civil war, and social unrest, 350 journalists from Tunisia to Iraq gathered in Jordan earlier this month for the annual conference of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ). Despite arduous conditions across much of the Middle East and North Africa, the conference provided strong evidence that the region's best journalists are continuing to fight the good fight -- pushing hard against censorship and bringing world-class investigative reporting to the Arab world. The event, ARIJ’s sixth annual gathering, took place in Amman from December 6-8.

This year's stories honored by ARIJ feature gutsy undercover work, dogged tracking of corruption, and careful documentation of pollution and health problems. "What amazed me is that despite the turmoil in the region, the quantity and quality of collaborators and stories keeps rising, the range gets wider," observed veteran journalism trainer Mark Hunter, author of Story-Based Inquiry: A Manual for Investigative Journalists. "This kind of work helps build a social base for investigative journalism, and connects Arab-language IJ to major trends elsewhere."

Here are the winners of the 2013 ARIJ investigative journalism awards:

PRINT

First place went to two stories:

Half-Billion Dollars in Annual Privileges Implicate Iraq’s Parliament in Biggest Corruption in the Middle East, by Mayada Daood (Iraq) with the Network of Iraqi Reporters for Investigative Journalism. The investigation bared how the Iraqi government lavishes $1.6 million on each member of parliament, while Baghdad can't maintain electricity for more than 12 hours a day. The investigation appeared in London's Al Hayat and 20 other news outlets.

Children of al-Qaeda Fighters in Iraq: Victims Without Identity Papers Threaten To Become Next Generation of Extremists, by Dlovan Barwari and Jihad Salam (Iraq) in London's Al-Hayat, for their investigation into al Qaeda fighters who marry local women and have children, but then leave their families with no legal rights. Some of the children later turn into suicide bombers.

Second prize went to Carcinogenic White Cheese Invades Egyptian Homes, by Hoda Zakaria (Egypt) in Youm7 daily, for her investigation documenting how thousands of illegal factories across Egypt produce local white cheese, some by adding as a preservative formaldehyde, which has been tied to cirrhosis of the liver, tumors, and kidney failure.

Third prize went to two stories:

Jordan's Raped Women Are Forced To Marry Their Rapists, by laywer/journalist Taghreed Al-Doghmi (Jordan) on Radio Al-Balad, for an investigation detailing how under article 308 of the country’s penal code, rapists can get all legal charges dropped in return for marrying their victims.

A One-Way Route to Heaven: Washrooms in Mosques Producing Disease, by Ghamdan Dqeimi (Yemen), Ma'areb Press, for a story revealing that ritual bathing at mosques in the capital Sanaa took place in waters rife with E-coli bacteria and other disease-causing bacteria.

TELEVISION

First prize went to Open Sesame: The Port Smugglers, by chief investigative reporter Riyad Kobeissi (Lebanon) of Al Jadeed TV, a 45-minute documentary that takes viewers inside widespread corruption and payoffs at the Port of Beirut.

Second prize went to When Doctors turn into Medical Brokers, by Mussab Shawabkeh (Jordan), chief investigative reporter for Radio Al-Balad, for his undercover segment revealing conflicts of interest among medical doctors in Jordan.

Third prize went to Shireen al Far (Palestine) of Wattan TV for The Middlemen, her investigation of how Palestinian middlemen exploit impoverished Palestinian women by securing them jobs on Israeli settlements at the expense of their legal labor rights and fair wages.

MULTIMEDIA

First prize went to Carcinogenic White Cheese Invades Egyptian Homes, by Hoda Zakaria (Egypt). The story has not yet been broadcast. (See print category for a description.)

Second prize went to Mechanic Shops Used for Arms Manufacture, by Wael Mamdouh (Egypt), an investigation into how since the January 25 revolution, Egyptian mechanic shops are increasingly being used to create homemade weapons.

There’s no shortage of challenges facing investigative journalists. Worldwide, our colleagues are beset by lawsuits, threats, lack of resources, and unsupportive bosses. So it’s good news when important voices like those of the United Nations endorse our work.

In the closing months of 2013, the UN passed two important measures in support of both journalist safety and investigative reporting. Journalists should take notice, particularly in places where the rule of law is weak. 

On December 18, the UN General Assembly adopted a Resolution on Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity. The landmark statement “condemns unequivocally all attacks and violence against journalists and media workers, such as torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention, as well as intimidation and harassment in both conflict and non-conflict situations.”

This is the first time that the UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution that directly addresses the urgent issues of impunity and journalist safety. With more than 600 journalists killed and thousands more injured over the past decade, and few prosecutions of those responsible, the resolution was high on the agenda of journalism NGOs like the International Federation of Journalists and Reporters without Borders. It is part of a broader multinational push to create a UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.

The Resolution also officially proclaimed November 2 as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.

“This latest Resolution is undoubtedly a new step in the right direction,” said Reporters Without Borders Secretary-General Christophe Deloire. “However, the problem that remains to be addressed is not a legal void but the lack of any verification of respect by member states for their obligations, in particular, their obligation to protect journalists, investigate all acts of violence and bring perpetrators to justice. That is why we are calling for effective monitoring of states’ respect for their obligations.”

UNESCO Backs Muckraking

Also noteworthy -- but little noticed -- was a resolution on freedom of information and privacy passed in November by UNESCO, which endorsed the importance of investigative journalism. The resolution is in support of a broader statement, Information and Knowledge For All, which grew out of the World Summit on the Information Society held in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005.

The resolution takes note that:

privacy is essential to protect journalistic sources, which enable a society to benefit from investigative journalism, to strengthen good governance and the rule of law

Sponsored by Brazil, the resolution was approved at the recent General Conference of the 195 UNESCO member states, where UNESCO’s program was decided for the next four years.

"This stance is as befits an agency within the UN family whose constitution commits
the Organization to advancing the free flow of information as fundamental value," says Guy Berger, Director of UNESCO’s Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development.

Will UN resolutions help journalists on the front lines, where powerful people feel they have impunity to withhold information and threaten the press? It can only help. As 2014 begins, it's good to know that the United Nations is on record endorsing both the importance of investigative reporting and the need to protect our colleagues around the world.

David E. Kaplan is executive director of the Global Investigative Journalism Network secretariat. He is former director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a senior editor at the Center for Investigative Reporting, and chief investigative correspondent for U.S. News & World Report. 

While most of the Christian West woke up on Christmas morning to messages of peace on earth and goodwill to mankind, events in Ukraine continued down a bloody and almost heathen, medieval path.

The physical assaults in the last month on journalists, activists, and EuroMaidan demonstrators (protesters demanding Ukraine lean towards the EU, not Russia) are too numerous to keep track of without a scorecard and a timeline.

But the trend is so clear that even the most witless criminal investigator can see the pattern.

People who support President Viktor Yanukovych and his allies are out to silence and intimidate his critics -- sometimes one-by-one, sometimes in groups and sometimes indiscriminately. They appear to be starting with the most vocal, the most effective or the easiest to reach.

I do not know whether the orgy of violence is being orchestrated by the administration and its law enforcement agencies or security services, as the political opposition claims. I would hope not because, if true, these criminal cases will never get solved with this regime in power -- or they will be closed with lower-level fall guys taking the rap, not the people who ordered the violence.

The start of the investigation into the Dec. 25 beating of journalist and opposition activist Tetyana Chornovol got off to its usual farcical start. When ruling Party of Regions lawmakers were pelted with snowballs last winter, police called it an attempt on their lives. When a gang of thugs smashed Chornovol's face to a pulp, causing a concussion, the police initially qualified it as an act of hooliganism and possibly a result of a traffic accident that she caused.

The fact that so many people think that the attacks are being directed from within the administration shows how little faith and support remains for the president. Yet the president still has his backers, among some leading oligarchs with their fortunes on the line, within his dependent ruling party and among a smaller -- though still sizable -- share of the public.

It strains the imagination to think that street thugs are targeting journalists and civic activists on their own. It's the EuroMaidan activists who are being attacked, smeared and having their property destroyed. And journalists who cover what is happening are inconveniently in the administration's way.

Either way, where does someone find such cold-blooded thugs? What kind of men exist who would -- either for pay or for hatred -- stop a woman on the roadside and start beating her repeatedly, leaving her unconscious and left to die in a ditch? How many such "men" exist in Ukraine and what more are they capable of doing? The prospects are truly alarming.

The violence will not end until the impunity ends.

The list of unpunished crimes with political connections goes back years and decades in Ukraine, from journalist Georgiy Gongadze in 2000, to pre-EuroMaidan acts of violence involving the beatings of FEMEN activists, force against imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and numerous other, heinous, unpunished crimes that received no proper investigation. At a minimum, the state's impotence in the face of barbarism cultivates the idea that such acts are permitted -- even desired -- as long as the violence is directed against enemies of the regime. These are merely the some of the cases of impunity involving violence. The list of financial crimes and high-level corruption is even longer.

Aside from the violent campaign under way, a non-violent one is taking aim at foreigners who support the anti-government EuroMaidan protests. Unlike the violent counterpart, the government's involvement in banning foreigners from entering Ukraine is certain.

The Security Service of Ukraine issued a Dec. 25 statement confirming that an unspecified number of foreigners are banned for national security reasons. The vagueness and timing, however, suggest that the actions are being taken for merely exercising free speech rights in sympathy or support of the EuroMaidan movement.

Still, the government's message -- and accompanying blacklist of 36 or 200 or whatever the number -- is well understood by all foreigners in Ukraine: You are a guest in this country and if you want to continue visiting, working or living here, don't join the civil uprising (or revolution) under way.

I don't think this threat will keep most expats I know from speaking their minds. But many will certainly be more careful about what they say and do, which is the whole idea behind the threats: to kill freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.

The civil conflict in Ukraine is certainly not yet to the point where people or investors or foreigners need to flee, nor do I ever imagine it sinking to such depths. But such an atmosphere will hardly lead to more tourists and investors in 2014.

Those perpetrating the recurring violence certainly are doing their best to keep civil unrest alive with their poorly timed actions.

The EuroMaidan protests would likely have fizzled out on Nov. 30, until riot police came in to smash heads. That set off weeks of anger, outrage and street demonstrations that may have drawn up to 1 million people at theirs peaks on Sunday.

Then people were hoping to take a brief respite during Christmas and New Year's holidays, only to be filled with moral outrage at the Christmas Day beating of Chornovol on a roadside in Kyiv Oblast.

Chornovol's case refocused attention -- and adrenaline -- on all the other cases of violence in the last month: the police beatings of dozens of demonstrators on Nov. 30; the assaults on more than 40 journalists covering the rallies on Dec. 1; the coordinated physical and other attacks on members of Road Control, the civic group that effectively exposes corruption among the road police; and the Dec. 24 attack on a EuroMaidan co-organizer in Kharkiv. This is not a complete list, but it is the bloodiest time in Ukraine in many years, mercifully stopping short at loss of life.

When will the violence end?

My answer is that, even if no one in the government has anything to do with the violence under way, government officials -- from the president to the parliament to the prosecutor and the law enforcement agencies -- have the power to stop it all by aggressively exposing and punishing those responsible for the bloodshed.

So far, though, there is no sign they are interested in doing so.

Brian Bonner has served as chief editor of the Kyiv Post since 2008. He is a veteran American journalist who spent most of his professional life with the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota. This story was reprinted with permission from the Kyiv Post. 

Paul Radu of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project gave an engaging talk at the recent TEDxBucharest gathering, looking at the globalization of crime and how investigation reporters and public-interest hackers can push back. Among the topics he covers: Russian money laundering, European horse meat, and Azerbaijan corruption. Says Radu: “In order to fight a network, you need to create a network.”

Interested in seeing more? Check out Romania's Radu with Mexican Pulitzer Prize winner Xanic von Bertrab and Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism founder Sheila Coronel on their panel, Covering 21st Century Corruption and Organized Crime, at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference last October.

A record 950 journalists, data experts, and students from 20 countries gathered last weekend for NICAR14, the annual data journalism conference organized by Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE). The five-day gathering, twice the size of last year’s conference, has tripled in size over the past five years.

“It shows the industry is waking up to the value and importance of data in every aspect of what we do,” said Mark Horvit, executive director of IRE. Horvit noted how diverse the attendees are this year. “There are teams from big media outlets, lots of students, and now small papers getting into it.” And lots of hiring, he added. Data is hot.

It's been a long road. NICAR -- the National Institute of Computer-Assisted Reporting -- which pioneered data journalism in the 1990s, was a modest project when first launched by IRE, and its annual gatherings seldom drew more than 300 people.

That's a far cry from the nearly thousand investigative reporters, data editors, journalists, programmers, web designers, hackers, and students who just descended on Baltimore, Maryland, from February 26 to March 3. NICAR14 presented a dizzying array of more than 150 sessions on cutting edge techniques to gather, analyze, visualize, and present data.

More than 100 of the attendees came from outside the United States, and nearly half of those from Scandinavia.

“The size, the sophistication, the level is something you don’t see at other conferences,” said Nils Mulvad of Kaas & Mulvad, a Denmark-based consultancy that specializes in data journalism. Mulvad was named European Journalist of the Year in 2006 for his work on EU subsidy data. He and partner Tommy Kaas brought a delegation of 15 Danish journalists to the conference.

“It’s a large group of people who have been working with these techniques for many years,” he said of the conference. “You can follow data journalism elsewhere but this is the main event right now.” Mulvad has been coming to NICAR gatherings for more than a decade, and he particularly appreciates the ethic of sharing that permeates the conference. “You see all these skills being pulled together. People want to use this for great investigative journalism. They’re so happy to share, you can see it when you walk around.”

Another who makes the annual pilgrimage to the NICAR conference is Helena Bengtsson, the database editor for news and current affairs at SVT, the Swedish Public Broadcasting network. “This is the one week of the year where I can talk about my job, while the rest of the year I have to explain my job,” she says. “I think that’s true even for the Americans who come here, because we’re still in the minority in the newsroom. But there are more and more of us. Danish Public Broadcasting now has a data person, Finnish Public Broadcasting has two, and we have five people at SVT.”

Bengstsson has been coming to NICAR since 1997, and she, too, finds it like no other gathering. “NICAR doesn’t shy away from the complicated and difficult when it comes to technical matters,” she says. “The focus is on the people who know this and want to learn more. The way they’re teaching advance technical programming tools like JavaScript or D3 is something I haven’t seen before. You can’t come here and slouch – you have to concentrate.”

This is the tenth NICAR conference for John Bones, the veteran Norwegian data journalist. “In the beginning I came to learn new skills,” he says. “I was primarily going to hands-on sessions. Now I’m going to get inspiration and to meet people.”

“More and more editors realize they need to know about these techniques,” adds Bones, a senior staff writer at the daily Verdens Gang. “It’s been a long road, but it’s changing. They realize data journalism is giving the media exclusive stories.”

With more than 5,000 members, GIJN-member IRE is the world's largest and oldest association of investigative journalists. IRE's next big event will be its annual conference in San Francisco this June, with plenty of data sessions. Want to know more? Check out NICAR14's tip sheets and tutorials.