Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://archive.gijn.org/tag/terrorism/)
Geographical diversity, the stories’ impact and uniqueness, the risks taken, and the techniques used were some of our criteria for selecting the strongest French language investigations of the year, selected by GIJN French Editor Alcyone Wemaëre, GIJN Francophone Africa Editor Maxime Domegni, GIJN French Assistant Editor Moran Kerinec, and Africa Assistant Editor Aïssatou Fofana.
Armed rebellions, coups, and civil wars have ravaged many parts of Africa for decades. Rebel leaders, warlords, and notorious figures wage wars against governments they felt disfranchised their supporters. In the last 15 years, violent, armed jihadist groups have joined this troubling picture.
Organized crime is a global phenomenon. But Africa, with its deep-seated corruption and “resource curse,” is particularly hard hit. We at GIJN are firmly convinced that watchdog journalists have a critical role to play here but only if they are well-equipped — and this guide is intended to arm investigators with the tools, resources, and case studies they need.
Ten years ago, terror attacks in Norway claimed the lives of 77 people and seriously injured at least 40. Our NodeXL mapping from July 5 to 11 found an interactive timeline piece by Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang telling the story of a tragic event that impacted an entire nation. In this edition, we also feature an investigation by Reuters into a Chinese company harvesting genetic data from pregnant women, a series on gun violence in Chicago by The Trace, and a look at “silent” Russian politicians by IStories.
Last year The New York Times published an interactive article on white extremist killings from New Zealand to Norway to the United States. Using maps and a timeline to plot the data, the project revealed the troubling frequency and, in some cases, strange connections between the events. Here graphic designer Weiyi Cai explains how they obtained the data for project and the decisions they made about visualizing it.
Gone are the days of complaints about information operations and psychological operations (PSYOPS) undermining media development being pursued by USAID and its contractors. But those have been replaced by broader concerns that the U.S government overall may now be too focused on counter-messaging at the expense of independent media development. “We are concerned that there is an increasing shift away from supporting genuinely independent media towards what might be termed counter-propaganda and promoting counter narratives,” says James Deane, director of policy and learning at BBC Media Action.
Doing good journalism in the Middle East and North African region is no easy feat. But since 2014, the journalists at Tunisia’s Inkyfada have been doing crucial investigative stories, supported by compelling visual storytelling and interactive reading experiences.
For the last three years Gavin Chait has been fighting — and winning — multiple freedom of information cases to unlock data on vacant properties. Here are the lengths he took to disprove the City of London’s excuse for not publishing information on unoccupied commercial properties.
What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from March 26 to April 1 finds @washingtonpost on fatal police shootings, @decodeurs mapping Europe’s terrorist attacks, @DagmedyaVeri’s open data resources for Turkey and an undated chart of shrinking donut holes from the @smithsonian archives.
Two new resources for accessing open data begin this Research Desk update. We’ve also included data-rich resources on migration and a special section on terrorism.