Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://archive.gijn.org/category/profiles/page/9/)
Two French investigative journalists are launching Disclose, a nonprofit newsroom which plans to produce investigative reports free of commercial pressures – and generate the impetus for meaningful change. Olivier Holmey writes about the new media group on the block for GIJN.
After an incorrect report spread on WhatsApp, a mob lynched two men in Acatlán de Osorio, Mexico. Fact-checkers came in and tried to uncover the truth of what happened. Here’s their story.
Mauri König is a Brazilian investigative reporter. Last October, at the Global Investigative Conference in Lillehammer, König shared first place in the Global Shining Light Awards for his investigation “Empire of Ashes” on tobacco smuggling in Latin America. In this interview, Konig shares his views on what it’s like to uncover illicit interests involving the president of a country while working in a highly dangerous environment.
Access to public information, accountability and participatory democracy may have been a reality in many countries for some time — but in Spain they sounded like a utopia. Entrepreneur Jacobo Elosua and computer technician David Cabo decided that this had to change. Their brainchild, Civio, was just recognized with the Gabriel Garcia Marquez award in innovative journalism for its Medicamentalia investigation.
GIJN’s Leonie Kijewski sat down with NAJA president Tristan Ahtone to speak about stereotypes journalists fall for when reporting on Indigenous affairs, how to avoid them, and how to diversify the entire news industry.
When reporters for Puerto Rico’s Centro de Periodismo Investigativo — its Center for Investigative Journalism — first published hundreds of pages of a leaked Telegram chat involving high-ranking officials, they had no idea this would lead to massive street protests and end in the governor’s resignation. This huge story followed the Center’s award-winning work exposing how the death toll from Hurricane Maria in 2017 was far in excess of what officials admitted. GIJN’s Gaelle Faure spoke to CPI’s executive editor Carla Minet to find out what’s next for her team.
Venezuelan investigative website Armando.info, which is a member of GIJN, is going through difficult times. Its core team has been working in exile for more than a year, and their staff continue to receive serious threats — not only against their reporters working in Venezuela, but also against those who have found refuge in neighboring Colombia.
Hicham Mansouri, who co-founded the Moroccan Association of Investigative Journalists, had to flee his country after he was jailed for 10 months. Now exiled in France, he still faces pending charges of threatening state security in Morocco.
Despite increasing state-control, violence against journalists and other threats to press freedom, Southeast Asian journalists are increasingly delving into data journalism and other forms of innovative storytelling and creating a greater impact than ever before — thanks in no small part to Malaysian data journalist Kuang Keng Kuek Ser. GIJN in Chinese editor Siran Liang talked ho him about the rise of data journalism in the region.
When faced with data journalism, journalists often say “Oh, I can’t do that, it’s too complicated” [or] “I hated math in school, I really can’t take the time to learn how to do this”. However, data expert Helena Bengtsson stresses that data journalism is not that hard, and insists that every journalist should have basic knowledge of how to sort and filter a spreadsheet, and do simple calculations.