Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://archive.gijn.org/tag/rohingya/)
In this excerpt from GIJN’s Reporter’s Guide to Investigating War Crimes, Burmese journalist Thu Thu Aung discusses methods for tracking down suspected war criminals.
In this second installment of GIJN’s reporting guide for investigating war crimes, experts offer practical tips and tools for covering attacks on civilians on the battlefield and interviewing non-combatant survivors of armed conflict.
Over the last 12 months investigative journalists in Bangladesh uncovered cases of corruption, abuse of power, money laundering, and institutional negligence. The biggest topic last year, as in previous years, was corruption. But in picking the top stories of 2021, we also considered significance and novelty, the diversity of issues covered, impact, and a focus on the vulnerable and marginalized sectors of society as much as the depth and techniques used in any investigation.
Even after the coup in Myanmar, Frontier Myanmar has continued reporting on socio-economic issues. Publishing deeply reported pieces has made them popular among their readers. However, the entire website is now behind a paywall and available only to paying members — rates that are high for an average news consumer within a country where roughly 37% of the people live below the poverty line.
The democratization of satellite technology and the entry of private companies into the field of space means it’s now possible to have access to high spatio-temporal data at a very minimal cost, leading to interesting investigative stories. In the coming years as the democratization of satellite technology gathers pace, more and more cases that had been undocumented or unreported will see the light of the day.
A documentary producer, a BBC reporter, and a human rights researcher shared eight steps toward gathering and using user-generated content for investigations at the recent Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Hamburg. Here’s Charlotte Alfred for GIJN on how it’s done.
When monks in Myanmar threatened to kill Min Min for his reporting on Buddhist nationalism, they had hoped to scare him into silence. Instead, the experience inspired him to start his own news organization.