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Global Conference, Global Network

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As we gather for the second Asian Investigative Journalism Conference, this seems a good time to share again with our colleagues where the Global Investigative Journalism Network and its conferences come from. It was a simple idea at the end of the 20th century — to gather the world’s investigative journalists to share their knowledge with each other — that gave birth to GIJN, which has now grown to 138 member organizations in 62 countries. 

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Nils Mulvad (middle) and Brant Houston (left) pondering the world of investigative journalism.

Enjoying a glass of wine at his modest home in Aarhus, Denmark, Nils Mulvad and guest Brant Houston were celebrating the latest gathering of reporters they had brought together. It was the spring of 2000, and they had just hosted nearly a hundred journalists to talk about investigative techniques, with special focus on the fast-growing field of computer-assisted reporting (CAR).

Houston had pioneered CAR back home in Missouri, where he ran Investigative Reporters and Editors, the big U.S.-based association of investigative journalists. IRE’s National Institute of Computer-Assisted Reporting – NICAR — was attracting international interest. Indeed, after Mulvad attended an IRE “boot camp” in 1996, he was bitten by the CAR bug. Returning home, he founded DICAR — the Danish International Center for Analytical Reporting – and was busy introducing data journalism to colleagues across Europe. His annual events were now attracting journalists from a half-dozen countries, and he and Houston were thinking about the future.

“Why don’t we invite the world next time?” Houston asked.

The ground was fertile for such an undertaking. Propelled by globalization, investigative reporting was spreading worldwide, boosted by the Internet, mobile phones, and the end of the Cold War. There was, as yet, no real hub, no central gathering point, for the growing global community of muckrakers. But Houston and Mulvad had no idea if journalists – notorious for being competitive and lone wolves — would even respond to such a call.

Backed by DICAR, IRE, and the Danish Association of Investigative Journalists, Mulvad in 2001 booked Copenhagen’s most famous hotel for an April weekend and hoped for the best. “We figured some people would come, but we really didn’t know,” Houston recalls. “It turned out to be the right event at the right time.”

In all, more than 300 journalists from 40 countries descended upon Copenhagen that weekend, looking for tips, tools, and kindred souls. The atmosphere at times resembled a religious revival, as hard-boiled muckrakers discovered that they were not alone in the world. “Investigative journalists are so much alike, no matter where they’re from and where they work,” says Houston. “There was immediate understanding and immediate bonding. For many, there was a surprise that first day how openly people shared their knowledge. By the second day, it was an accepted practice.”

Those humble beginnings were the start of the Global Investigative Journalism Conference, which will be held for its tenth time next year in Johannesburg, South Africa. Over the years, the conferences have brought together and trained more than 5,000 journalists from 100 countries. In the process, they have played a key role in the rapid spread of investigative and data journalism around the world, raising skill levels, sparking extraordinary collaborations, and helping start dozens of investigative journalism organizations.

““I never imagined it would develop into what it is today,” Mulvad says. “This ended up being the most important thing I’ve contributed to in my career. We didn’t know it at the time. It’s just what happened.”

Two years after that first conference, the team held a second global gathering, again in Copenhagen. The 9/11 attacks and a global security crackdown put a damper on participation, making travel difficult, but still some 300 came, and the excitement remained. Houston and Mulvad were convinced that what they were seeing – the skills sharing, the hunger for training, the collaborative spirit — was no accident. “Everybody wanted to stay in touch between conferences,” Houston says, “and we wanted to make sure we had an ongoing network.” They drafted a statement of principles and convened a meeting at the conference to launch an informal association.

The organizing statement was simple and straightforward: They would form a network “of independent journalism organizations that support the training and sharing of information among journalists in investigative and computer-assisted reporting.” The goals of the new group: to organize conferences and workshops; help form and sustain investigative and data journalism organizations; support and promote best practices; help ensure access to public documents and data; and provide resources and networking services for investigative journalists worldwide.

Membership was limited to nonprofit organizations or their equivalent around the world. The reason: While commercial media certainly have played an important role in investigative reporting, it is the nonprofits that have done much of the training, teaching, mentoring, and skills-sharing that have spread it around the world.

In all, 35 organizations from 22 countries signed the founding document. More than two-thirds were from Europe, but the list included groups pioneering investigative journalism around the world: associations in Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, South Africa, and the United States, and reporting centers in Ghana, the Philippines, Nepal, and Romania. There were a handful of schools and training institutes, a media development NGO, and a then-little-known cross-border consortium called ICIJ. IRE contributed a listserv (which remains a vital link in our community) but there was no funding and no central organization.

They called themselves the Global Investigative Journalism Network, or GIJN.

GIJN squareGIJN functioned as a loose-knit support system to the global conferences, which, starting with Amsterdam in 2005, would be held every 18 to 24 months. Sponsored by VVOJ, the Dutch-Flemish Association of Investigative Journalists, the Amsterdam event again attracted hundreds of journalists from around the world. That was followed by successful conferences in Toronto in 2007, organized by the Canadian Association of Journalists; in Lillehammer in 2008, by SKUP, Norway’s investigative journalism association; and in Geneva in 2010, by the Swiss Investigative Reporters Network.

cima-surveyBy the sixth conference in Geneva, it was clear the events had grown in size and sophistication. More than 500 journalists from 80 countries now flocked to the big gatherings, many for their third or fourth time. The incipient global community that Houston and Mulvad had foreseen now stretched literally around the world. As commercial media suffered under the double blows of lost advertising and recession, the nonprofits that formed GIJN’s backbone became a model emulated around the world. In 2007, a survey by the Center for International Media Assistance identified 39 nonprofit investigative journalism centers in 26 countries, and that number would double over the next five years.

In 2010, Houston and Mulvad set up an informal board for GIJN, the Volunteer Group, to help deal with growing demands on the loose-knit network. Conference organizers needed help fundraising and finding great journalists. As stories increasingly led across borders, reporters wanted to know how to reach colleagues on other continents. Frustrated editors wanted to know how to set up their own nonprofits. Others wanted workshops and the latest tips and techniques. And data journalism, once an innovative sideshow, had become red hot; the Global Conferences’ trainers had produced a generation of computer-literate reporters now in high demand.

It was increasingly clear to veterans of the global conferences that more structure would benefit both the global conferences and the global network. In 2011, with the support of Houston, Mulvad, and others, I proposed the formation of a secretariat to manage the many requests coming to GIJN, to support the global conferences, and to further GIJN’s core mission of strengthening investigative journalism around the world. In October 2011, at the seventh global conference in Kiev, Ukraine, representatives of GIJN’s membership held a robust debate and approved setting up a provisional secretariat, which was launched in February 2012.

2013 GIJC participants listening attentively on day 2 of the conference in Rio de Janeiro.

A record crowd in Rio: Some of 1350 participants at GIJC13 in Rio de Janeiro, done with Abraji and IPYS.

I was privileged to be made director of this new initiative. With US$35,000 in seed funding from the Adessium and Open Society foundations, we spent a year laying the groundwork: creating a website with extensive resources, a global calendar, and news on investigative journalism around the world; setting up multiple networking and social media platforms; and launching an ambitious plan to transform GIJN from a largely European and North American network into a truly global one. Our efforts received a big boost with the 2013 Global Conference in Rio de Janeiro, in which the new secretariat partnered with Abraji, Brazil’s dynamic investigative journalism association, to hold the first Global Conference in the developing world. We combined our conference with both Abraji’s annual congress and COLPIN, the Latin American Investigative Journalism Conference. The impact surprised us all. Hoping for a thousand attendees, the Rio conference attracted a record 1350 people from 93 countries.

In Rio, the GIJN membership gave a ringing endorsement to our efforts and, in near-unanimous votes, decided to make the secretariat permanent, to keep the secretariat in one place (voting down a rival proposal to rotate its office), and to appoint me to a three-year term as GIJN’s first executive director.

articles-of-incorporationThen in May 2014, following a debate on GIJN’s future, members again overwhelmingly endorsed measures giving GIJN more structure and formal legal status. By then, GIJN had grown to 98 member organizations in 44 countries. In an online election, the members voted by margins of more than 90% to make the Global Network a registered nonprofit in the United States and to create an elected board of directors that ensures geographic representation from six regions. A subsequent vote was held to create GIJN’s first elected board of directors, giving the network a formal governing body with 15 journalists from 11 countries.

Today, GIJN has a paid staff of six people and is publishing regularly in English, Chinese, and Spanish. We have nearly 100,000 followers on social media, and a lively website viewed by readers in 90 countries a day. Our membership has nearly tripled to 138 groups in 62 countries. Since setting up the secretariat, we have responded to nearly 3,000 requests for assistance from around the world. In 2014, we co-sponsored Asia’s first Investigative Journalism Conference, attracting 300 journalists from Japan to Pakistan. In 2015 we joined Norway’s SKUP to attract nearly 1,000 journalists to the 9th Global Conference – GIJC15 – attracting attendees from a record 120 countries.

What’s in the future? We are working hard to further internationalize GIJN’s membership. We have initiatives to build up networks tying together journalists worldwide with resources, capacity, and each other. We’re working to strengthen investigative journalism groups across the globe; expand GIJN’s online resource center; increase our capacity to respond to requests for help; and train investigative groups in business skills, fundraising, and revenue diversification.

Our second regional conference in Asia, which takes place this week, is attracting lots of attention as it brings GIJN and the global muckraking movement for the first time to South Asia. With the majority of the world’s population, and dynamic investigative journalists at work from Seoul to Mumbai, Asia has enormous potential for watchdog journalism.

We also are excited by what’s happening in Africa, a fact underscored by our membership voting decisively to hold GIJC17 — the next global conference — in Johannesburg, South Africa. Above all, we are excited about the contribution GIJN and the Global Conferences are making around the world. Every day, we see first-hand the impact our colleagues have by exposing corruption, abuse of power, and lack of accountability. For that, we are grateful to two pioneers who, over a glass of wine a decade ago, had the vision to see what was possible.

“We’ve moved to the next stage,” reflects Brant Houston. “You know you’ve reached the next stage when it’s hard for people to imagine you not existing.”

 


logo-300x300This story first appeared in the magazine of the ninth Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Lillehammer, Norway. Thanks to our partners at SKUP, the Norwegian Association of Investigative Journalists, for originally publishing this.

 

Kaplan2David E. Kaplan is executive director of the Global Investigative Journalism Network. He previously served as director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and chief investigative correspondent at U.S. News & World Report. He has reported from two dozen countries and won or shared more than 25 awards.


“My Killers Are Still Free”— Ending Impunity for Crimes Against Media

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Editor’s Note: Today, November 2, marks International Day to End Impunity. Since 2014, the United Nations and press freedom groups have commemorated the day to spotlight the glaring number of unresolved journalists’ murders and the lack of punishment for their perpetrators around the world. This year’s awareness campaign is aptly titled “My Killers Are Still Free.” More than 25 events are taking place to encourage stronger monitoring and and responses to these crimes. As part of a series to mark the occasion, GIJN is pleased to publish the following excerpt from UNESCO’s just-released report, The Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity

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“End Impunity” events around the world.


Impunity for crimes against journalists fuels and perpetuates a cycle of violence that silences media and stifles public debate. It impedes the free flow of information that is vital for sustainable development, peace building, and the social welfare of humankind. Hence, it is essential to end impunity to ensure public access to information and fundamental freedoms.

One Journalist Killed Every Five Days

At least 827 journalists were killed in the past decade. On average, this means one victim every five days. And only 63 cases (8 per cent) have been resolved so far. The full name list of 827 victims is available here.

This number does not even include numerous other violations suffered by journalists, such as kidnappings, arbitrary detention, torture, intimidation, online as well as offline harassment, and seizure of destruction of material.

Journalists Killed by Region

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Source: UNESCO

2015 was the second deadliest year for journalists in the last ten years, with 115 journalists killed. It was also marked by a single, unprecedented attack against a media outlet, Charlie Hebdo, which was deliberately targeted resulting in the death of eight journalists.

In terms of regional breakdown, the Arab States has the highest level of killings at 35 per cent. It had a sharp increase after a significant decline in killings between 2008 and 2011, which is largely due to the ongoing conflict situations in the Syrian Arab Republic, Iraq, Yemen and Libya. Asia and the Pacific comes in second at 210 deaths (25 per cent) while Latin America and the Caribbean is third with 176 victims (21 per cent).

Category of Journalists Killed

type-killed

Source: UNESCO

The category of journalists most targeted by killings over the last decade have been print media journalists; in 2014-2015, however, the majority of journalists killed were television journalists. There was a sharp increase of the number of online journalists killed in 2015, with 21 cases, compared to 2 in 2014. Almost half of these were Syrian journalists and bloggers covering the conflict in Syria.

staffvsfreelanceAlmost 95 per cent of the victims are local journalists, versus 5 per cent foreign correspondents. Freelance journalists, who work independently and often without adequate protections, are widely considered the most vulnerable group in the media sector. Forty journalists who were freelancers or citizen journalists operating online were killed in 2014-2015, representing 19 per cent of all cases.

Slight Rise in Female Journalists Killed

gender-killings

Source: UNESCO

An increase in the number of female journalists killed was observed in 2014 and 2015. Between 2006 and 2013, an average of four females journalists were killed every year. In both 2014 and 2015, nine were killed per year.

Responsiveness of Member States

UNESCO’s Director-General sends out annual requests to member states for information on the status of judicial follow-ups on the killings of journalists condemned by UNESCO. Of the 62 member states contacted this year, 40 provided a response. 32 were concrete information, 8 were just acknowledgments of receipt or indication that the matter had been transferred to competent authorities.

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Source: UNESCO


Excerpted from the highlights of the UNESCO Director-General’s 2016 Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity. For part one of this week’s series, see The Assault on Reporting by David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression. 

250 Gather in Joburg for African Investigative Conference

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This year’s African Investigative Journalism Conference, boasting about 250 attendees from 28 countries, concluded an enthusiastic three days of workshops and presentations on Wednesday in Johannesburg, South Africa.

power-reporting-2016-banner-2-e1476810777924Now in its eleventh year, the AIJC is the largest gathering of investigative journalists in Africa. The conference, previously called Power Reporting, has adopted the new name to reflect the host of countries it aims to represent and serve.

Anton Harber, adjunct professor at the host Journalism Programme at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits), who was instrumental in founding the conference, said the event has impact beyond just reporting: “We felt that this could be our contribution to build up our democracy by encouraging probing, passionate investigative journalism.”

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Among the conference’s 70 sessions were data and security workshops, bulletproofing stories, following the money, and managing projects. Photo: Leon Sadiki.

Candy Store for Journalists

Enthusiasm was high among the 250 participants. With 70 sessions, the conference was, as one attendee put it, “a candy store for journalists.”

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Inspiring collaboration: AIJC co-founder Anton Harber. Photo: Safeeyah Kharsany.

Laura Ranca, a program officer at the Open Society Foundations, an AIJC donor, noted a unique energy and desire for knowledge among the participants. “It inspired collaboration and thirst for new stories, new investigative techniques, and more courage to uncover massive wrongdoings across Africa,” she said.

The AIJC aims to fill a gap in African journalism, helping to arm journalists with the best investigative tools as they operate in an increasingly digital sphere, while also helping to set standards for the profession.

Khadija Sharife, Africa coordinator for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), stressed the importance of bringing enterprising journalists from across Africa to one place. “Africa isn’t a country,” she said. “It’s a broad continent where many countries are frequently left off the ‘networking’ map. The AIJC allows for people to spark off each other, listen and learn from one another, and in so doing, lay the groundwork for future collaborations.”

Elles van Gelder, who put together the conference program, was most struck by the diversity of work presented. “We had stories from journalists covering terrorism in Africa, journalists who are trying to dig deep into the poaching of rhino horn in Namibia, and a journalist who looked into the trade of conflict diamonds in Cameroon,” she said.

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Safety workshops were a highlight of the conference. Photo: Leon Sadiki.

Other sessions featured financial investigations, a popular topic. “We all know that when you follow the money you undercover great stories,” Van Gelder added.

The sessions generated a dozen tips sheets, from data journalism basics to social media search tools.

As at other conferences, data journalism workshops were popular. Indeed, for Zimbabwean journalist Byron Mutingwende, they were the highlight of the conference. “The art of analyzing data equips journalists with investigative skills,” he said.

Also on the program: tips on legally “bulletproofing” your stories, the ABC’s of putting together a hard-hitting investigation, cyber-security, and practical lessons on how to protect yourself when covering demonstrations and riots. Among the presenters were veteran journalists from The New York Times, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ), South Africa’s amaBhungane and Sunday Times, The Namibian, Africa Check, Nigeria’s The Cable, Botswana’s INK Centre, Kenya’s Africa Uncensored, Senegal’s Ouestaf News, and the Global Investigative Journalism Network.

Journalist under Threat

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Fleeing Burundi: Bob Rugurika of Radio Publique Africaine. Photo: Leon Sadiki.

The AIJC features the Carlos Cardoso Memorial Lecture, an annual university event in memory of slain Mozambican investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso. This year it was presented by exiled Burundian journalist Bob Rugurika of Radio Publique Africaine.

Rugurika’s talk was a highlight of the conference but almost did not happen when the Burundian government issued a warrant for his arrest and extradition. All was resolved swiftly, however, as South Africa does not have an extradition treaty with Burundi and was therefore not compelled to hand him over.

Rugurika detailed the dangers of working in Burundi, saying that more than a 100 journalists have been exiled and more than 2000 people killed in the recent conflict. The news media, he said was under particular threat. He spoke of how Radio Publique Africaine is circumventing a government crackdown on the media by broadcasting via shortwave.

“I am convinced that if journalists do their job well, we can make world better,” he said.

“Global Conference, African Flavor”

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Mohammed Ali showcased Africa Uncensored’s documentary Killing Kenya. Photo: Leon Sadiki.

Next year, the AIJC will be integrated with the 10th Global Investigative Journalism Conference, the first time the international gathering will be held in Africa. Co-hosts Wits University Journalism and the Global Investigative Journalism Network will be bringing in journalists from across the globe from November 16-19, 2017.

“It is very important to bring the GIJC to Africa,” said Wits Journalism’s Harber. Having the global conference in the region, he explained, will help encourage investigative journalism in places where it is most needed, highlight and encourage the work being done in Africa, and to take it to a global stage.

The #GIJC17 team is already at work planning what should be a seminal event. Says Harber: “Delegates attending the GIJC can look forward to a global conference with an African flavor.”


To find out more about sessions and training that took place at the African Investigative Journalism Conference, go to @AIJC_Conference, @gijnAfrica, and GIJNAfrica’s Facebook page. Conference tip sheets are available here

safeeyahSafeeyah Kharsany is GIJN’s Africa Editor, based in Johannesburg. She (@safeeyah) has worked in Qatar at Al Jazeera English, in Italy at United Colors of Benetton’s Colors magazine, and in South Africa at Media24. At Al Jazeera she co-headed a project to create a platform for African coverage and worked as an online producer for the AJE English website.

Global Conference: Call for Research Papers/Abstracts (Closed)

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Deadline to submit research papers/abstracts was May 15, 2017. Submissions are now closed. Decisions will be made by June 15, 2017.
Final papers will be due Sept. 15, 2017.

The 10th Global Investigative Journalism Conference, to be held this November 16-19 in Johannesburg, South Africa, will again feature an academic research track, highlighting trends, challenges, teaching methodologies, and best practices in investigative journalism. Here is the call for papers that went out to journalism professors worldwide:


CALL FOR RESEARCH PAPERS/ABSTRACTS

Investigative and Computer-Assisted Reporting Pedagogical Skills and Techniques

To be presented at the 2017 Global Investigative Journalism Conference at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa.

This is a call for submission of abstracts by May 15, 2017, of no more than 300 words for a short paper and panel presentation at Global Investigative Journalism Conference. Abstracts and papers should be sent to research.papers@gijn.org.

Decisions will be made by June 15, 2017.
Final papers will be due Sept. 15, 2017.

The papers will be compiled in a digital publication for the conference and accepted proposals and presenters will receive invitations to attend the conference.

Topics considered although not limited to:

– Trends in investigative reporting

– Trends in computer-assisted reporting and data journalism

– Challenges in doing investigative reporting depending on country or culture

– Successful methods of teaching investigative, computer-assisted and data journalism

– Adapting investigative journalism to new technologies

Submission Requirements:

Proposals should present original research into any aspect of the aforementioned topics. Papers must follow APA style. If abstract is accepted, paper length is no more than 15 pages (excluding references, tables and appendices).

Papers should not have been published or presented at a prior conference.

Instructions:

* Paper must be written in English.

* Paper must be in the format of Microsoft Word (.doc). No other formats will be accepted.

* If abstract is accepted, paper must be formatted to APA style and no longer than 15 pages (excluding references, tables, appendices)

* Papers should be sent with the title, but papers sent with author’s identifying information displayed will automatically be disqualified. Please send a separate title page with the authors’ contact information.

If you experience any problems in submitting your paper or have any questions, please contact Brant Houston at brant.houston@gmail.com or Jelter Meers at jelter.meers@ijec.org.

Guest Editors Include:

Steve Doig, Arizona State University

Anton Harber, University of the Witwatersrand

Brant Houston, University of Illinois

Amy Schmitz Weiss, San Diego State University

Sheila Coronel, Columbia University

Ying Chan, Hong Kong University

World Press Freedom Day: Critical Minds, Critical Times

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Every year on 3rd May, we celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom, evaluate the state of press freedom worldwide, defend our colleagues from attacks on their independence, and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of their work.

This year World Press Freedom Day‘s theme “Critical Minds for Critical Times: Media’s role in advancing peaceful, just and inclusive societies” drives home the need for everyone to sharpen their minds to defend the freedoms — free, independent, and pluralistic media — that are essential for justice and peace.

In an op-ed to commemorate the annual event, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova stressed that journalism plays a vital role for society, in bringing verifiable news and informed comment to the public. Today, however, news producers are facing the problem of fake news overshadowing in-depth and fact-checked news in a supersonic digital journalism era.

Where does the responsibility lie for ensuring that fact-based debate is not stifled? Whose duty is it to strengthen the media’s potential to foster a better future for all?

Bokova believes the answer is that we must all look to ourselves as agents of change – whether we are government actors, civil society members, business people, academics, or members of the media.

“Without audiences demanding well-researched and conflict-sensitive narratives, critical reporting will be increasingly side-lined,” Bokova states. “Every citizen has a direct stake in the quality of the information environment.”

What happens to journalists and to journalism is a symbol of how society respects the fundamental freedoms of expression and access to information. Society suffers whenever a journalist falls victim, whether to threats, harassment or murder. It affects us all when press freedom is curbed by censorship or political interference, or is contaminated by manipulation and made-up content.

“The stakes are clear.” Bokova states in her World Press Freedom Day message. “We need original, critical, and well-researched journalism, guided by high professional, ethical standards and a quality media education, combined with audiences that have the right media and information literacy skills.”

This year’s main event is held in Jakarta from May 1-4, 2017. This evening, Bokova will award the 2017 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize to Dawit Isaak, the imprisoned Eritrean-born journalist who will be represented by his daughter, Bethelem Isaak, during a ceremony that will be hosted by Joko Widodo, the President of Indonesia.

Tomorrow (4 May), will be dedicated to a second plenary session entitled Spotlight on Investigative Journalism: Perspectives from Southeast Asia and Beyond. It will be followed by six parallel sessions on subjects including the impact of fake news on journalism, journalists’ safety and internet universality.

About 80 other Press Freedom events are being organized worldwide. Leading news organizations including Al Jazeera, El Pais, and Rappler will host dedicated blogs and feature special content for #WPFD2017.

To mark World Press Freedom Day 2017, UNESCO and Cartooning for Peace, an international organization founded by Kofi Annan, the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former United Nations Secretary-General, and editorial cartoonist Plantu, have curated a selection of press cartoons that can be viewed here. You can also find a collection of press freedom quotes from past UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize awardees here.

GIJN Honored with Freedom of Expression Award

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Today, on World Press Freedom Day, GIJN was honored with its first award, the Difference Day Honorary Title for Freedom of Expression. Awarded by two prominent Brussels universities, VUB and ULB, the Honorary Title is given annually “to a journalist, writer, artist, cultural thinker or any other person, association or institution that has made a vital contribution to protect and promote freedom of thinking and expression in an ever changing, democratic society.”

At a gala event this evening at Brussels’ prestigious BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, GIJN Board Vice-chair Margo Smit accepted the award on behalf of GIJN’s membership, board, and staff. “With this award you are sending a message to our global network that we are not alone, that the forces working toward press freedom, independent media, and accountability are still alive and fighting back,” Smit told the crowd. “And for that we are deeply grateful.”

Past Winners: In 2015 the Difference Day Honorary Title went to imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi. Last year, Algerian writer Djamila Benhabib and Charlie Hebdo journalist Zineb El Rhazoui were awarded for “their important contribution to the safeguarding and promotion of the freedom of thought and speech in a democratic world in constant evolution.”

For the GIJN award, go to the last quarter of the video and start at 1:37:18.

(Photo Credit: Ides Debruyne)

The post GIJN Honored with Freedom of Expression Award appeared first on Global Investigative Journalism Network.

Global IJ Conference Program Released

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We are happy to share the full schedule for the Global Investigative Journalism Conference, now just six weeks away. We’re still tinkering with it, but you’ll find over 150 events. Thanks to journalists and supporters worldwide, this conference keeps growing: we now expect over 900 participants from 100 countries. There’s still room if you want to join what will be the muckraking event of the year.

This gathering of investigative reporters and editors, tech and security experts, publishers and broadcasters, donors and NGOs, takes place this November 16-19 in Johannesburg, South Africa. We at the Global Investigative Journalism Network are co-hosting it with the Wits University Journalism Programme. You can follow the big event with the hashtag #gijc17. 

The post Global IJ Conference Program Released appeared first on Global Investigative Journalism Network.

Brazil’s Journalists Seek Solutions to Fake News

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Across the globe, the public’s trust in the news media continues to decline. According to the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer, 82 percent of 28 countries surveyed registered a decrease of trust in media from 2016 to 2017. Just 43 percent of those surveyed said they trust the media, down from 48 percent in 2016.

“It is up to the press to reflect on this [distrust],” explained Sérgio Dávila, executive editor at Folha de S.Paulo, one of Brazil’s biggest newspapers, during a panel about the “post-truth era” at the 12th Congress of Investigative Journalism in São Paulo this summer. “We are not immune to making mistakes, but we cannot be immune to self-criticism.”

To recover that trust, news organizations have to invest even more in investigative journalism and transparency, the panel agreed. Folha de S.Paulo, for example, employs an ombudsman who reads and critiques the paper, with her corrections and fact-checks occupying as much space as the articles themselves.

The Washington Post is taking this one step further by explaining to their audience how some stories are written. The Post’s editor-in-chief, Martin Baron, said we have to distinguish fake news from mere journalistic mistakes.

“It is important to define what fake news is: it is false facts deliberately published; conspiracy theories with no bases,” Baron said. “It is not a mistake. Having defined that, fake news is a challenge to [the free press], to democracy and civil society. In a democratic society, we should disagree about some analyses, about some political issues, but we cannot disagree about facts. Fake news represents a serious threat.”

Fake news is not new in journalism, but thanks to social media, its impact is stronger than ever. With 2 billion users, Facebook is by far the largest social network — and the company is now collaborating with news outlets and organizations like First Draft News to minimize its role in proliferating fake news.

Luis Olivaldes, head of Latin American Media Partnerships at Facebook, explained the company will soon launch a tool that helps users improve their news literacy and better detect false articles.

“We are releasing a tool that helps train users to be more aware in their news consumption,” he said. “It is important that users can identify what is opinion, what is news, what is [satire]. We are building critical user sense.”

Later this year, Folha also plans to launch an educational digital platform to cultivate this same critical sense among its readers.

“We don’t know the exact format yet … but we will do more than launch a campaign about accurate journalism,” said Dávila. “We will [work] to teach people about how to get information on the internet, which sources are reliable, etc.”

When citizens have little trust in the media, press freedom is often more likely to erode. The panel maintained that press freedom is a necessary component of any democracy, helping to ensure that those in power are held accountable for their actions.

Operation Car Wash

Rodrigo Janot, Brazil’s former prosecutor general who is the main prosecutor in Operation Car Wash, an ongoing criminal investigation into corruption throughout the Brazilian government, reaffirmed press freedom’s importance. At the conference, he explained that a Brazilian investigative journalist tipped him off to some information that incriminated Eduardo Cunha, a former lower house speaker who was arrested last October.

“Without this journalist, we wouldn’t [have been] able to catch him,” Janot said. “Close that window, and you’re going to see damage to democracy. That is press freedom.”

According to Article 19, an NGO that advocates for freedom of expression, 105 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000. Laura Castellanos, a Mexican investigative journalist who received the Latin American Award for Investigative Journalism for “Fueron los Federales (It was the Federal Police),” an article about the execution of 16 civilians in Apatzingan, Mexico, described the bleak landscape for Mexican journalists.

“In my country there is no democracy, it is not possible to change the institutions because it is a structural issue,” explained Castellanos. “It is systematic; it is a government that keeps its power through violence. And the violence is not just physical, but also includes preventing access to a good education, health care, housing … and investigative journalism has the job of showing that violence.”

While the current state of journalism may be bleak, she said she sees the hunger for change in young journalists.

“We need the young views, young committed people who want to do investigative journalism, to know the background of our country to understand how we got here,” Castellanos said. “Many journalism students come to me and I trust in them, I support them, because we need many voices to cover all of it.”


This post first appeared on the IJNet website and is cross posted with permission.

Jéssica Cruz is a freelance journalist based in São Paulo, Brazil. She previously worked for Nine News Australia, Cidade Ocupada, and BBC World Service.

The post Brazil’s Journalists Seek Solutions to Fake News appeared first on Global Investigative Journalism Network.


Today’s the Day: End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists

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Every four days, a journalist is killed somewhere in the world. This data comes from UNESCO, which estimates that between 2006 and 2016, 930 journalists were killed worldwide. But despite those chilling figures, their research found that only one in 10 crimes committed against journalists over the past 11 years has been resolved.

In 2013, the UN proclaimed November 2 as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, a resolution which condemns attacks and violence against journalists and media workers and calls upon states to promote a safe and enabling environment for journalists to perform their work independently and without undue interference.

“Impunity often leads to more murders and can signal the breakdown of judicial systems, the rule of law and democracy,” said UNESCO’s Frank La Rue.

La Rue encouraged journalists from various media houses to publish stories on the killings of colleagues in their country where the perpetrator has gone unpunished. “Such cases should be thoroughly investigated and prominently published and broadcast,” he said. “This can be a powerful means to denounce these crimes.”

Global Impunity Index

The Committee to Protect Journalists released their 10th annual Global Impunity Index,  a ranking of countries where journalists are murdered and their killers go free. These include Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Mexico, Pakistan, BrazilRussiaBangladeshNigeria, South Sudan, The Philippines and India.

Seven countries on this year’s index have been listed every year since the index launched a decade ago — including Somalia, which is the worst country for unsolved murders for the third year in a row. Other findings include:

  • The 12 countries on the index account for nearly 80 percent of the unsolved murders that took place worldwide during the 10-year period ending August 31, 2017.
  • Four countries on this year’s index — India, Mexico, Nigeria and the Philippines — are on the governing council of the Community of Democracies, a coalition dedicated to upholding and strengthening democratic norms.
  • In five countries listed on the index, new murders took place over the past year.
  • Political groups, including the Islamic State and other extremist organizations, are the suspected perpetrators in one third of murder cases. Government and military officials are considered the leading suspects in about a quarter of the murders.
  • About 93 percent of murder victims are local reporters. The majority cover politics and corruption in their home countries.
  • In at least 40 percent of cases, murder victims reported receiving threats before they were killed.
  • In only 4 percent of total murder cases has there been full justice, including prosecution of those who commissioned the crime.
  • In the past 10 years, around 30 percent of murdered journalists were first taken captive — higher than the historical average of 22 percent since CPJ began tracking in 1992. The majority of those taken captive are tortured.

#EndImpunity

This UNESCO page is dedicated to journalists around the world who were killed in the exercise of their profession. It remembers their contribution to freedom of expression, democracy and peace.

The hashtags for the day are #EndImpunity and #JournoSafe. An additional social media campaign #MyFightAgainstImpunity features six stories from six different continents about inspiring journalists, human rights activists and relatives of killed journalists who fight impunity.

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World Press Freedom Day —“No Democracy without Investigative Journalism”

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At a time when the news media is under unprecedented attack, and the need for watchdog reporting has never been greater, we hope you will join GIJN today in marking World Press Freedom Day (#WorldPressFreedomDay). This is the 25th celebration of WPFD, but despite the years of meetings and proclamations by its sponsors UNESCO and others, conditions are getting worse, not better, for journalists around the world. 

This year’s WPFD theme is “Keeping Power in Check: Media, Justice and The Rule of Law,” a fitting topic for a time when the rule of law is failing in much of the world, censors rule the airwaves, and oligarchs seek “state capture” of major media.

Still, we’re not dead and finished — far from it. Seen from GIJN’s perspective, we have more journalists digging harder in more places with better tools than ever before. No wonder we’re under attack when autocrats find there’s a watchdog media exposing their offshore investments, wasteful spending, and abuses of power. This may explain the backlash we’re facing in so many countries — even those in which we thought we were relatively safe. Serious, watchdog reporting has spread far and wide, from Peru and Pakistan to Uganda and Ukraine.

Here’s a quick sampler of what’s happening with WPFD this week:

  • More than 30 events are scheduled around the world, led by a UNESCO-sponsored conference in Acra, Ghana. On the schedule is announcement of the annual UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. Created in 1997, the award is named in honor of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist assassinated in front of his newspaper El Espectador in Bogotá in 1986.
  • Freedom of expression rapporteurs from major international bodies issued a “Joint Declaration on Media Independence and Diversity in the Digital Age.” The six-page document provides a robust defense of a free press, including support of freedom of information laws, an end to criminal libel, and the strict limiting of laws aimed at constraining or putting political pressure on digital communications and content. Among the signatories: The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Representative on Freedom of the Media, the Organization of American States (OAS) Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information. Available in English, Arabic and Spanish.
  • Danish filmmaker Tom Heinemann’s documentary, Courage: Journalism is Not a Crime, is being released today. The film looks at investigative journalists under attack around the world, and includes interviews with GIJN’s director and leaders of several of GIJN member organizations and partners. 
  • UNESCO released 25 Seconds for Press Freedom, a series of moving statements on video by renowned journalists, artists and press freedom advocates.
  • In a public statement, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay noted: “Any state under the rule of law that respects individual freedoms, and particularly the freedoms of opinion, conscience and expression, relies on a free, independent press that is safe from censorship or coercion.” Let’s hope someone is listening.
  • But perhaps Harlem Desir put it best. Mr. Desir was recently appointed Representative on Freedom of the Media for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. In a video to commemorate WPFD, Desir said simply: “There is no democracy without the free press, without investigative journalism and without safety of journalists.”

The 2018 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, finds “a climate of hatred” fueling growing hostility towards journalists — one “openly encouraged by political leaders.”

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Political Cartoonist Zunar to Keynote IJAsia18 in Seoul

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Famed Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar will keynote the 3rd Asian Investigative Journalism Conference this October 6 in Seoul, South Korea. A cartoonist since 1973, Zunar (Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque) has attracted international attention for his sharp satirical humor. The cartoonist brings the heart of an investigative journalist to his craft, digging into the corrupt acts of senior officials and other abuses of power.

Until the change in government this year, Zunar had faced a decade of persecution. Malaysian authorities charged him with nine counts of sedition, threatening him with over 40 years in prison. They have twice imprisoned him, banned him from traveling abroad, raided his office and harassed his staff, printers, vendors, and bookstores. Officials banned five of his cartoon books on grounds that they were “detrimental to public order.”

All that changed in May this year, when Malaysians voted out of office the ruling party and a reformist government took over — one of the few bright spots in a world losing ground to autocracy and censorship. Sedition charges were dropped in July and the travel ban is now gone.

Zunar’s frequent targets have included powerful government officials, including now-former Prime Minister Najib Razak, who notoriously could not explain how nearly $700 million of the country’s sovereign wealth fund — 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB — wound up in his personal bank accounts.

For his years of standing up to authorities, Zunar has been honored with the International Press Freedom Award by the Committee to Protect Journalists in 2015, the Human Rights Watch Hellman/Hammett Award in 2011 and 2015, and the “Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award 2011” by Cartoonists Rights Network International. “They can ban my books, they can ban my cartoon, but they cannot ban my mind,” Zunar is fond of saying. “I will keep drawing until the last drop of my ink.”

The Asian Investigative Journalism Conference (#IJAsia18) takes place October 5-7 in Seoul, South Korea. The largest assembly of investigative and data journalists in Asia, the event is co-hosted by the Global Investigative Journalism Network, Newstapa, and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. For more information, see the conference website.

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#TruthNeverDies: International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists

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Over the past 12 years, close to 1,010 journalists have been killed for reporting the news and bringing information to the public. On average, this constitutes one death every four days. In nine out of 10 cases the killers go unpunished.

Impunity leads to more killings and is often a symptom of worsening conflict and the breakdown of law and judicial systems. Impunity damages whole societies by covering up serious human rights abuses, corruption and crime.

On International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, we remember fearless investigative journalists who were murdered for doing their jobs, including Daphne Caruana Galizia, Miroslava Breach, Pavel Sheremet, Mohammed Al-Absi, Javier Valdez, Jan Kuciak, and many more who have given or are risking their lives in pursuit of the truth.

It is in recognition of the far-reaching consequences of impunity, especially of crimes against journalists, that the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/68/163 at its 68th session in 2013 which proclaimed November 2 as International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. The date was chosen in commemoration of the assassination of two French journalists in Mali on November 2 2013.

The Resolution urged Member States to implement measures countering the present culture of impunity. Governments, civil society, the media and everyone concerned with upholding the rule of law are asked to join in the global efforts to end impunity. You can join in these commemoration events around the world.

#TruthNeverDies

To increase public awareness of the issue, UNESCO has launched the #TruthNeverDies campaign, to encourage the publication of articles written by, or in tribute to, journalists killed for doing their job.

UNESCO also has released a Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Dangers of Impunity, which highlights the increase in the number of journalists killed outside of armed conflict zones in recent years. Indeed, last year, a majority of slain journalists (55 percent) were not killed in conflict zones — many were reporting on topics tied to corruption, crime and political wrongdoing.

As Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO director-general, said in her message: “The fight against impunity is inseparable from the defense of fundamental freedoms such as freedom of expression, freedom of the press and freedom of access to information. It is our responsibility to ensure that crimes against journalists do not go unpunished. We must see to it that journalists can work in safe conditions which allow a free and pluralistic press to flourish.”

Global Impunity Index

The Committee to Protect Journalists also released its annual Global Impunity Index, which calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population, ranking each country. This year’s top 10 offenders, in order, are:  Somalia, Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Philippines, Afghanistan, Mexico, Colombia, Pakistan and Brazil.

Somalia tops the list for the fourth year in a row and two countries rejoin the list of offenders, including Afghanistan where a suicide bomb targeted a group of journalists in Kabul, killing nine. Colombia also reappeared on the ranks after a breakaway faction of a guerrilla group with alleged ties to drug trafficking kidnapped an Ecuadoran news crew near the border and murdered them in Colombian territory. Both nations had fallen off the index in recent years as violent conflict receded.


This was adapted from highlights of the UNESCO’s International Day to End Impunity commemorations in 2018 and the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Global Impunity Index report.

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The 11th Global Investigative Journalism Conference — A Sneak Preview

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العربية | বাংলা | 中文 | FrançaisDeutsch | 日本語 | Português | Русский | Español

The Global Investigative Journalism Conference is the world’s largest international gathering of investigative and data journalists. Called “The World Expo of Muckraking,” the conferences have brought together over 7,000 of the globe’s most enterprising people in media since 2001.

Held only once every two years, the conferences are widely credited with playing a key role in the rapid global expansion of investigative and data journalism. #GIJC19 — scheduled for this September 26-29 in Hamburg, Germany — will be our 11th conference. We expect over a thousand journalists from 130 countries. Travel fellowships are available for journalists from developing and transitioning countries.

The conference — designed by journalists for journalists — is famous for its focus on practical, advanced reporting techniques. Our speakers are the best in the business — winners of the Pulitzer Prize and other top awards, pioneers of data journalism and fearless investigators who have exposed corruption and abuses of power almost everywhere.

Check back later for the full program, but here’s a sneak preview of what we’re planning:

  • Over 150 panels, workshops and special sessions on all aspects of investigative and data journalism;
  • A robust data track, with dozens of sessions ranging from analyzing, visualizing and mapping to basic spreadsheets and scraping, with data labs, how-to seminars and mentoring;
  • Experts on using satellite imagery, forensic video analysis, sensor deployment, going undercover and going mobile;
  • New online research techniques to track people, companies and money around the world;
  • The latest on cross-border collaborations, local reporting, verification techniques, covering the environment, religion and conflict, health, crime and corruption;
  • Networking meet-ups on a dozen topics, where you can brainstorm, collaborate and get inspired;
  • A track on business survival strategies: new models and nonprofits, revenue diversification, freelance tips, fundraising advice and more;
  • A broadcast track: going from print to video; documentaries; investigative radio and podcasts;
  • Workshops for journalists from exiled media, indigenous peoples, LGBTQ communities and citizen investigators;
  • A legal clinic, a digital safety clinic and expert advice on protecting yourself from harassment online and off;
  • An academic track for professors and scholars, with new papers and talks on the latest trends, challenges and best practices.

And, of course, some of the best action will take place in the hallways and the bars, where you just might find the next Panama Papers being planned.

This year’s Global Conference is brought to you by the Global Investigative Journalism Network, Netzwerk Recherche and the Interlink Academy.

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Présentation de la 11e Conférence internationale sur le journalisme d’investigation

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La Conférence internationale sur le journalisme d’investigation est le plus important rassemblement de data journalistes et de journalistes d’investigation au monde. Depuis 2001, ces conférences ont réuni depuis plus de 7.000 professionnels provenant de toute la planète.

Organisées une fois tous les deux ans, ces conférences jouent un rôle clé dans la rapide expansion au niveau international du journalisme d’investigation et du data journalisme. #GIJC19, qui aura lieu du 26 au 29 septembre à Hambourg en Allemagne, est la 11e conférence que nous organisons.  Un millier de journalistes provenant de 130 pays différents devraient y être présents. Des bourses sont prévues pour permettre aux journalistes vivant dans des pays en développement d’y assister.

La conférence — conçue par des journalistes pour des journalistes — se focalise sur les techniques d’enquête les plus avancées. Nos intervenants comptent parmi les meilleurs professionnels: lauréats du Prix Pulitzer, pionniers du data journalisme et courageux enquêteurs ayant révélé corruption et abus de pouvoir aux quatre coins de la planète.

Vous pourrez consulter par la suite le programme complet mais en attendant vous pouvez trouvez ci-dessous un aperçu que ce que nous prévoyons:

  • Plus de 150 panels, workshops et sessions spécifiques sur tous les aspects du journalisme d’investigation et du data journalisme;
  • Un pôle data, avec des dizaines de sessions allant de l’analyse, de la visualisation et de la cartographie aux bases du tableur et du scraping, avec des data labs, des séminaires pratiques et des programmes de mentoring;
  • Des experts de l’usage d’images satellites, l’analyse scientifique de vidéos, des techniques sensorielles, du travail en infiltré ou du journalisme mobile;
  • De nouvelles techniques de recherches en ligne pour traquer personnes, entreprises et flux financiers à travers le monde;
  • Des sessions sur les dernières collaborations journalistiques transnationales, l’enquête au niveau local, les techniques de vérification, la couverture du changement climatique, de la religion, des conflits, de la santé, des crimes et de la corruption;
  • Des réunions de réseautage sur des dizaines de sujets pour échanger des idées, collaborer et trouver de l’inspiration;
  • Un pôle sur les stratégies économiques des médias: les nouveaux modèles économiques, les médias à but non lucratifs, la diversification des revenus, des conseils pour les journalistes freelance, pour la levée de fonds…;
  • Un pôle audiovisuel : comment passer de l’écrit à la vidéo ou au documentaire, comment réaliser des enquêtes audio pour la radio ou sous forme de podcasts;
  • Des workshops pour les journalistes travaillant dans des médias en exil, pour les journalistes indigènes, pour les professionnels provenant de communautés LGBTQ et les journalistes d’investigation citoyens;
  • Une consultation sur les questions juridiques, sur la sécurité numérique et des conseils d’expert pour se protéger contre le harcèlement en ligne et dans la vie réelle;
  • Un pôle académique pour les professeurs et les universitaires avec la présentation de nouvelles recherches et des débats sur les dernières tendances, défis et les bonnes pratiques de notre profession.

Et, bien sûr, certaines des meilleures initiatives auront lieu dans les corridors et les bars, où, qui sait, le prochain Panama Papers pourrait naître.

Cette année, la Conférence Internationale est organisée par Global Investigative Journalism Network, Netzwerk Recherche et Interlink Academy.

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Fellowships To Attend the 11th Global Investigative Journalism Conference

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The Global Investigative Journalism Conference (GIJC) is the premier international gathering of investigative and data journalists, held once every two years. This year, the 11th conference will be held in Hamburg, Germany, from September 26 to 29, and is being co-hosted by the Global Investigative Journalism Network, Netzwerk Recherche and Interlink Academy.

GIJC19 will feature over 150 exciting panels, workshops, and networking sessions, ranging from cross-border collaboration and corruption to advanced data analysis. We will have special tracks on documentaries, sustainability strategies, safety and security, and more. Here’s a chance to learn from the best in the field and enhance your skills with the latest tips and tools.

With the support of our sponsors, the conference is offering more than 200 fellowships to both established and young promising journalists in developing and transitioning countries, and for journalists from specific communities such as indigenous peoples, to participate in this prestigious event. Competition is keen so you need to convince us that you will make great use of the training GIJC19 offers.

To stay up-to-date on the fellowships, the global conference, and other opportunities from GIJN, you can subscribe to the GIJN Bulletin.

Eligibility

+ Open to full-time print, online, television, video, radio, documentary and multimedia journalists in developing or transitioning countries;

+ Experience in investigative or data journalism a plus;

+ Special categories for journalists from indigenous communities, citizen investigators, and journalists exiled from their homelands;

+ Sorry, Western journalists based overseas are not eligible.

Fellowship Requirement

Following the conference, fellows are required to either produce a story directly related to #GIJC19 or give a presentation of the knowledge you have gained at #GIJC19 in your home country to other colleagues or the journalism community at-large. Examples here.

GIJC19 Fellowship Includes

+ Round-trip airfare to Hamburg, Germany
+ Hotel room for four nights
+ Transport between Hamburg airport and the conference hotel
+ Breakfast and lunch on conference days
+ Award ceremony banquet dinner
+ Conference fee

NOTE: The fellowship does not include a per diem, visa fees, or transport to and from your home country airport. This is a training conference, and fellows are expected to pay for these costs.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: May 5, 2019. Successful fellows will be notified via email by June 30, 2019.

Application Form

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A 11ª Conferência Global de Jornalismo Investigativo: um aperitivo

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English

A Conferência Global de Jornalismo Investigativo é o maior encontro mundial de jornalistas investigativos e de dados. Conhecida como “The World Expo of Muckracking”, as conferências já reuniram mais de 7.000 das pessoas mais ativas do mundo da mídia desde 2001.

Realizada bienalmente, as conferências são amplamente reconhecidas como peça fundamental na rápida expansão global do jornalismo de dados e do jornalismo investigativo. #GIJC19 – marcada para os dias 26 a 29 de setembro, em Hamburgo, na Alemanha, será nossa 11ª conferência. Nós esperamos a presença de mais de mil jornalistas de 130 países. Bolsas para a viagem estão disponíveis para jornalistas de países em desenvolvimento e em transição.

A conferência – planejada para jornalistas por jornalistas – é famosa por seu foco em técnicas práticas e avançadas de reportagem. Nossos palestrantes são os melhores no ramo – vencedores de prêmios Pulitzer e outros prêmios importantes, pioneiros em jornalismo de dados e investigadores destemidos que expuseram corrupção e abuso de poder em vários lugares.

Em breve divulgaremos informações sobre a programação completa, mas aqui vai um aperitivo do que estamos preparando:

  • Mais de 150 painéis, workshops e sessões especiais sobre todos os aspectos do jornalismo investigativo e do jornalismo de dados;
  • Uma programação robusta na área de dados, com dezenas de sessões, desde análise, visualização e mapping até planilhas básicas e raspagem de dados, com laboratórios de dados, seminários sobre como fazer e mentorias;
  • Especialistas no uso de imagens de satélite, análise forense de vídeos, infiltração jornalística e adaptação para o jornalismo mobile;
  • Novas técnicas online de pesquisas sobre rastrear pessoas, empresas e dinheiro ao redor do mundo;
  • As últimas novidades em colaborações transnacionais, reportagens locais, técnicas de verificação, cobertura de meio ambiente, religião e conflitos, saúde, crime e corrupção;
  • Encontros para networking com uma dezena de tópicos, onde você pode fazer brainstorm, colaborar e se inspirar;
  • Sessões especiais em estratégias de sobrevivência para negócios em jornalismo: novos modelos e soluções sem fins lucrativos, diversificação de receitas, dicas para freelances, conselhos para arrecadação de recursos e mais;
  • Na área audiovisual: saindo do impresso para o vídeo; documentários; podcasts investigativos;
  • Workshops para jornalistas de veículos exilados, povos indígenas, comunidades LGBTQ e investigadores-cidadãos;
  • Um painel sobre aspectos legais e segurança digital, e conselhos de especialistas, sobre como se proteger de assédio online e offline;
  • Uma linha de paineis voltados para acadêmicos, com novas pesquisas e palestras sobre as últimas tendências, desafios e práticas.

E, é claro, alguns dos melhores momentos acontecerão nos corredores e bares, onde você poderá encontrar o próximo Panama Papers sendo planejado.

A Conferência Global deste ano é oferecida pela Global Investigative Journalism Network, Netzwerk Recherche e Interlink Academy.

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After Hamburg: Call for Proposals for GIJC 2021

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The Global Investigative Journalism Conference is the world’s premier international gathering of investigative and data journalists. Held every two years, the conferences have trained more than 7,000 journalists, sparked hundreds of investigations and collaborative projects, and played a key role in the global spread of investigative and data journalism since our first gathering in 2001. With a focus on training and networking, the GIJC attracts over 1,000 reporters and editors from 100 countries each time.

Producing the event requires intense planning, fundraising, and operational skills by its hosts, but the effort is worth it because of the high standards of GIJC speakers and sessions, its global impact, and the way it raises the profile and stature of the organizers. The next global conference will be an especially significant event as the GIJC will celebrate its 20th anniversary.

The Global Investigative Journalism Network, which oversees the conferences, is now accepting proposals to be the local host for the 12th Global Investigative Journalism Conference, to be held in 2021.

Potential hosts must be a GIJN member.

If your organization would like to host the next GIJC after this year’s conference in Hamburg, Germany, now is the time to assemble and submit a proposal.

Deadline to submit a proposal is June 30, 2019.

The decision on the 2021 conference will be made by GIJN’s 177 member organizations. (Each organization gets a single vote.) Voting will held electronically following presentations at the GIJN members meeting at GIJC19 in Hamburg this September.

Proposals will be public and posted on the GIJN.org website.

The hosting organization will team up with the GIJN Secretariat, GIJN member groups and partners to finance and organize the conference. We recommend detailed proposals of at least eight pages (in PDF) that discuss:

  • Fundraising strategy, including the host organization’s ability to find funding and sponsorships. (The cost of a GIJC ranges from US$500,000 to US$900,000.)
  • Ability of the host organization to obtain local support.
  • Host organization’s experience at organizing conferences.
  • Host organization’s experience in management.
  • Advantages of holding the GIJC in the suggested city, including environment, transportation, logistics, security, visas, and cost.
  • Estimated budget for the conference.
  • A description of the potential venue (hotel, conference center, university) for the conference.
  • Suggested focus and structure of conference panels, workshops, and other events.
  • Ability to work with the GIJN Secretariat on planning, programming, fundraising, and logistics.

Proposal Submission Guidelines

  1. Fill in the form embedded below
  2. Download this spreadsheet and prepare a detailed budget
  3. Prepare all the proposal information (submitted in the embedded form) with relevant images of the potential conference venue in PDF format
  4. Email both budget spreadsheet and PDF to secretariat@gijn.org

Please let us know if you have any questions or need any clarifications on requirements by contacting us. Inquiries and proposals should be sent to secretariat@gijn.org.

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How Perugia (Almost) Broke My Heart

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The winding queues on the Piazza IV Novembre at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy. Photo: Bartolomelo Rosso

It started off at the session on education.

Last week, in a corner room just off the Piazza IV Novembre, in the charming medieval town of Perugia, Italy, Alice Ross, a young journalist working for Greenpeace UK’s Unearthed bemoaned the cost of her fancy investigative journalism degree at City, University of London. The total for her year-long course? A whopping 9,000 pounds (more than $11,500). Ross likened it to a pay-to-play scheme that landed her a plum job, but effectively keeps out those who can’t afford to pony up thousands or puts them in a not-so-privileged place on the fringes of the industry.

Granted, it’s not likely Ross is sailing on her yacht with hedge fund managers in her free time. But the fact that she could – and did – pay for a pricey education bothered her enough to say so in front of a whole bunch of journalists at the International Journalism Festival, where she participated in the panel “From Zero to Hero: Can Investigative Journalism Be Taught?”

Her former professor Heather Brooke, whose impressive work was the catalyst of the 2009 British Parliamentary expenses scandal, rung in. Many of the skills she and others are teaching in those top journalism schools used to be learned in the newsroom, she said. Not so much anymore.

I couldn’t decide what was more worrying – that the field has become a pay-to-play scenario, particularly on the elite frontlines of Western journalism, or the gut-wrenching fact that alongside our broken business model that is limping along in a dystopian world of authoritarian governments and unchecked tech behemoths, we have slaughtered the industry vets who might have helped to save us. It’s no wonder we’re bumbling around in the dark with our caps in hand, many tipped toward the very industry which has stripped the cash right out from under us.

As we waited in the line to see some journalism rock stars preaching from their well-endowed ivory towers (Jeff Jarvis and Jay Rosen spoke alongside Stuttgarter Zeitung’s Swantje Dake and Tanit Koch from RTL about the “The Spiegel Scandal and the Seduction of Storytelling”), I told Brooke my worries. She commiserated, admitting that many of her senior journalist friends have taken refuge in academia or are working for nonprofits, while others have taken PR jobs. Those experienced journalists with institutional memory, who have crafted hundreds of stories, developed sources for dozens of years, honed their techniques and helped to shape the field are just not affordable to newsrooms around the world that have been stripped bare.

It didn’t take long for my furrowed brow to find proof right there in Perugia’s big tech-sponsored pudding. While navigating the patchwork red bricked roads the next day with my Google Maps, sipping the free cappuccinos Facebook was handing out, I met an investigative reporter whose byline I recognized from the nineties. He worked at top publications in the United States doing some of the most important stories of his generation. He’s now closing in on 60 and is unemployed, hustling to nail his next gig. I know he won’t easily find a new home.

After all, as Brooke tells her students when they ask her about their job prospects in the precarious muckraking ranks: “You’re fine until you are about 35.”

I sighed as I made my way through a fraction of the 280 or so panels with more than 650 speakers talking metrics, #MeToo, migrancy, media capture, membership, MoJo, AI, VR, OSINT, propaganda, totalitarianism, climate change, whistleblowing, organized crime, deep fakes, fake news, verification, innovation, click bubbles, podcasts, engagement, local journalism, data journalism, solutions journalism, slow journalism, parachute journalism, collaborative journalism, investigative journalism, and the hard truths of business models, fundraising, crowdfunding, donors and sustainability.

At “Fighting for Survival: Media Start-ups in the Global South,” Mada Masr’s Lina Attalah, 7iber.com’s Lina Ejeilat’s, the Outrider Network’s Alicja Peszkowska’s, Finance Uncovered’s Nick Mathiason and The Conversation Australia’s Misha Ketchell joined Columbia University’s Anya Schiffrin to talk about the issues which came out in her latest report that underscored the reality for start-up sustainability, particularly in the South: long-haul donor-funded journalism.

But Ketchell, whose group is backed in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said that’s not always the loveliest of solutions. He shared an anecdote about Australian media mogul Kerry Packer who had kidney failure, later donating millions to the hospital that saved him.

“Which is terrific, right?” Ketchell said. “But do you really want to have a rich person have kidney failure every time you want to do a particular story?”

Julia Angwin talked with Dan Gillmor about her $20 million Craig Newmark-funded Markup. Photo: Diego Figone

Meanwhile, under the grand painted ceilings of the Palazzo dei Priori, journalist Julia Angwin talked on the big screen about her new start-up, the $20 million Craig Newmark-bankrolled Markup. Angwin paid her dues at San Francisco Chronicle, where she was covering the tech industry before Facebook was a glimmer in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye and Google was not yet evil, spending 20 years at The Wall Street Journal before moving over to do gob-smacking investigations at ProPublica. With all that cash coming down the pipeline, she’s certain to continue to do important work, keeping much needed tabs on the tech industry.

But tell that to the dozens of others clamoring for tiny percentages of that kind of cash. They packed into the room at the “Funders Confidential” session on Saturday morning, trying to shove their cards in the direction of representatives from the Gates Foundation, Luminate, Open Society Foundations and the Rudolf Augstein Foundation. 

One journalist friend, who is lucky enough to run one of those generously funded media nonprofits and does some of the most important media work in her region, spends a disproportionate amount of her time working at the business of keeping her team afloat.

“It isn’t that they don’t give us enough money,” she told me as we squatted on the carpeted steps inside the Palazzo Cesaroni, waiting to hear Alan Rusbridger talk about how “Radical Change in the World Calls for Radical Changes in Journalism.” “But they want us to diversify our funding. In my contract it says I have to find money from four other donors. But those other donors probably won’t have the same objective. At the same time, they are telling us we have to show in our reporting that we are having a bigger impact. And we have to crowdfund in between. It is just not sustainable.”

Those sorts of issues were on the minds of the journalists who gathered for the panel on “The Business of Investigative Journalism: Best Practices for Sustainable Newsrooms.” After Hong Kong University’s Ross Settles doled out practical business advice and fundraising consultant Bridget Gallagher talked about how to refine your donor search, GIJN’s fundraiser Caroline Jarboe suggested ways investigative journalism units can tell their own stories and the Membership Puzzle Project’s Emily Goligoski discussed membership models.

When the speakers finished up, Megan Lucero from the United Kingdom’s Bureau Local raised her hand, asking the question that struck to the core of it all: How do we go beyond saving ourselves? she asked. How do we go about saving journalism?

And there it was, the elephant in the newsroom. I needed a nap.

The next morning, as I wallowed in my machine-generated cappuccino, I managed to get some inspiration.

Over breakfast, GIJN’s David Kaplan and co-founder Brant Houston talked me through the early days of the US-based Investigative Reporters and Editors, which was formed in 1975. Days before the first IRE meeting in 1976, Don Bolles, an investigative journalist for The Arizona Republic, was killed by a car bomb. Apparently the mafia didn’t take kindly to his kind of journalism. The United States was just a few years out of Watergate and the country was well aware of the power of investigative journalism to change the course of history. So, what did the ragtag group of 40 or so IRE journalists do? They reported. The result was the Arizona Project, a 23-part series which continued Bolles’s work.

That morning, Kaplan reminded me there was a Renaissance happening in investigative journalism around the world. At GIJN, we see it every day with the small units we work with: groups like Hungary’s Direkt36, Rappler and PCIJ in the Philippines, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism in the Middle East, Korea’s Newstapa, and IDL Reporteros in Peru.

Matthew Caruana Galizia — whose journalist mother, Daphne, was murdered in Malta — spoke about his family’s work in keeping her story alive. Photo: Francesco Ascanio Pepe

Back in Johannesburg, I had a front row seat as amaBhungane’s founders Sam Sole and Stefaans Brümmer doggedly pursued “Zuma Inc” – President Jacob Zuma’s associated business tentacles that had wrapped themselves around government agencies – for years. Their stories reached a crescendo in the massive email leak that Branko Brkic – who had only recently created the investigative journalism unit at South Africa’s Daily Maverick – got a hold of, collaborating with his colleagues at amaBhungane and News24 so they could all dig into the #GuptaLeaks muck together. After years of no-holds-barred corruption, Zuma finally stepped down.

For now, I suppose we have to hold tight and keep talking about how we’re going to get ourselves out of this mess. But there is something important about remembering that we can save ourselves by doing what we do best.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and Forbidden Stories have kept the work of murdered journalists Jan Kuciak and Daphne Caruana Galizia – whose son Matthew spoke in Perugia – very much alive. We owe it to them and reporters like Don Bolles to continue fighting the good fight.

Here’s to journalism.


Tanya Pampalone is GIJN’s managing editor. A founding partner of the Media Hack Collective, she is the former executive editor of the Mail & Guardian, managing editor of Maverick magazine (now Daily Maverick) and head of strategic partnerships and audience development for The Conversation Africa. Her most recent book, I Want To Go Home Forever: Stories of Becoming and Belonging in South Africa’s Great Metropolis, was published by Wits Press in September 2018. 

The post How Perugia (Almost) Broke My Heart appeared first on Global Investigative Journalism Network.

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