From Russia to Central Asia, the climate for investigative journalism is deteriorating. But watchdog reporters have not given up, even if many now have to report from overseas.
For an investigation into misinformation on TikTok, the Documented team developed helpful methodologies for using AI to transcribe and analyze large amounts of downloaded videos.
Despite the challenges of reporting in wartime, Ukrainian journalists continue to uncover corruption — even while under attack from disinformation campaigns.
Files discovered at Syria’s intelligence directorate after the fall of the Assad regime detail an operation to surveil and investigate SIRAJ, a Syrian journalist collective.
Also featuring stories on dubious pension payments, sinking cities, and deforestation, here are our favorite stories from the Lusophone world this year.
Our annual round-up of compelling investigative audio stories, as reviewed by GIJN’s global team. Featuring stories from the US, Germany, Switzerland, El Salvador, Turkey, and Russia.
This encyclopedia from The Outlaw Ocean Project offers pointers for investigating ocean crimes and concerns.
How the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism looked into the opaque algorithm used by the ride-hailing company Grab.
Also featuring revelations about misuse of college scholarships for the needy in Ghana, a televangelist’s troubling empire in Nigeria, and a US charity’s luxury spending using funds intended for feeding the poor in Malawi.
Investigative journalism in Turkey faces many challenges and obstacles, but there are remarkable reporters digging into untold stories.
This year’s picks emphasize the region’s increasingly sophisticated cross-border crimes, but also how investigative journalists consistently expose them.
Also featuring reporting on an elaborate con on a Chinese dissident, an academic credentials scandal, and trekking with Chinese migrants to the US border.
Reporters from around the world will learn how to investigate the digital environment in order to understand and expose disinformation, online attacks, and manipulation.
Featuring stories from France to the Ivory Coast, Switzerland to Senegal, here are eight of the best investigations published in French this year.
GIJN calls for investigative journalists worldwide to unify and cooperate.
Highlights from a year of data journalism columns, from elections to the Olympics and the evolution of the love song.
Read our updated guide to reporting on health and medicine, featuring lessons learned from covering the coronavirus outbreak.
Featuring advice on fact checking, digital security tips, interview techniques, and guidelines for editors.
The global fight against climate change depends on the actions of individual nations — so national accountability is critical.
Featuring a broad array of tools, techniques, and resources to help watchdog reporters dig into almost any campaign or election.
The comprehensive guide offers detailed advice on managing the non-investigative aspects of collaborative projects.
Empower the World’s Watchdog Journalists
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Reuters Institute has published a round-up survey looking at expectations and predictions for the journalism industry about the coming year. Ominously, it found that 41% of media leaders are confident about the future of the press, a drop of nearly 20% from just three years earlier. This includes an expectation that referral traffic from most social media sites will continue to erode. Conversely, more than half — 56% — are optimistic about their site's business prospects for 2025. But worries about further demonization of the press and physical attacks still color much of the industry, especially with the arrival of several far right governments into power in Europe and US. Also, there's a concern over "AI slop" infecting the information environment and undermining the work of fact-based reporting.
Source: International Center for Journalists
The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is now accepting applications for its News Creator Award for Excellence in Independent Video Journalism. This honor, which will be given to eight winners at the 2025 International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, recognizes high-quality, digital-first video journalism from independent reporters around the world. The deadline for nominations is midnight US EST on January 15.
As part of its Earth Investigations Programme, Journalismfund Europe is offering another round of grants for cross-border teams of professional journalists. The funding, which totals €1.6 million (US$ 1.7 million) for the 2025 cohort, targets investigations into the environment in Europe (not just the EU) and is not limited to media organizations in Europe (although any final story or stories must be published by at least one Europe-based site). The grant can used by journalists to fund reporting time and logistics expenses as well as cover legal costs and investments in necessary technology or datasets. Deadline: January 23, 2025.
In the wake of the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, GIJN member SIRAJ has uncovered internal documents showing that the intelligence agencies were surveilling members of the site's staff and tracking their work. In a post on LinkedIn, SIRAJ founder Mohammad Bassiki detailed the revelations: "We now know there were a total of six former Assad's regime security branches secretly pursing us inside and outside Syria." However, this intense scrutiny, he noted, was proof of the power of accountability journalism, even when facing one of the most implacable totalitarian regimes. Bassiki promised a fuller account will be published soon on SIRAJ's site.
Source: Committee to Protect Journalists
At least 50 journalists have been injured by police in recent weeks while covering pro-EU demonstrations in Georgia. According to the CPJ, dozens of reporters covering the mass protests in Tbilisi and elsewhere in Georgia have been brutalized or unfairly detained while doing their jobs. While Georgia's Special Investigation Service said it will be looking into these assaults on the press, CPJ decried what it called a clear pattern of intimidation. “Georgian authorities must hold police officers to account for brutalizing members of the press and publicly commit to uphold journalist safety during the protests," said the CPJ's Gulnoza Said.
GIJN member Lighthouse Reports is holding workshops in Berlin in January 2025 for young Syrians and Afghans living in the EU who are interested in pursuing a career in OSINT and investigative journalism. The December 4 application deadline has been extended to Wednesday, December 11 for Syrian applicants. The workshop will “combine training, practical exercises and Q&As with expert guest speakers. Trainers will cover social media investigations, analyzing satellite imagery and plane and ship tracking, amongst other topics.” The workshop is open to students, recent graduates, or young professionals already based in the Schengen Area.
Source: European Federation of Journalists
The EFJ announced that it will soon stop publishing content on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. The EFJ, which represents nearly 300,000 journalists in 44 countries, said that it will no longer update its account with content from its members as of January 20, 2025. It joins the Guardian and other European media sites that have ceased updating their X accounts, citing numerous actions by new owner Elon Musk which includes downranking news links, ending free verification, and changing its algorithm to push right-wing content. The EFJ said that it can "no longer ethically participate in a social network that its owner has transformed into a machine of disinformation and propaganda."
Swedish journalist Kim Wall had an accomplished career as an international correspondent, reporting from Cuba, Kampala, and Sri Lanka. When she was killed while reporting a story, her family set up a memorial fund in her name, in co-ordination with the International Women's Media Foundation. Since 2018, the fund has awarded more than a dozen $5,000 reporting grants to women and nonbinary journalists "whose reporting carries forward Kim’s legacy." “We can never get Kim back, but we can see to it that her spirit and will live on, and inspire other young journalists to go out in the world and find the stories," her family said. Deadline: December 8.
Source: Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is offering its annual Rest & Resilience Fellowship to two journalists for a six-month period in Berlin, Germany. The program is for working journalists who reside in countries with onerous press freedom restrictions, who will be invited to Germany from May until October, giving them time to decompress from stressful conditions related to their reporting work. Fellows receive additional training through workshops and network with other international journalists. All travel, lodging, and other costs are covered by the program, which also includes a €1,000 (US$1,100) monthly stipend. Deadline: November 25.
The Pulitzer Center's Ocean Reporting Network has released a new study, Making Waves, that examines the state of ocean reporting. The project looks at initiatives for more impactful ocean storytelling and includes expert voices, opportunities to increase coverage, identifies key stakeholders and audiences, and offers advice on network building and better engagement. To learn more, there is also an upcoming webinar on the report hosted by Pulitzer Center Ocean Editor Jessica Aldred on December 3.
GIJN’s Benon Herbert Oluka talks to Golden Matonga, investigations director at the Platform for Investigative Journalism – Malawi, about his career uncovering corruption.
Investigative reporter Annie Hylton on her journey from law to journalism, overlooked stories, and advice for interviewing sources living with trauma.
Throughout her career, the trailblazing Sydney Morning Herald investigative journalist Kate McClymont has exposed graft, bribery, and misconduct.
GIJN spoke with the northern Gaza-based journalist about how he has managed to survive and work as a watchdog reporter under harrowing, life-threatening conditions.
Data journalism in Africa has made a powerful impact, from holding leaders accountable to refuting myths around domestic violence. But the field faces formidable challenges.
A recent investigation by Grist, a nonprofit independent media outlet, dug into federal datasets to uncover the extent of state trust lands on Indigenous reservations across the US.
NASA’s Worldview database is a valuable tool that journalists can use to find data and free graphics on a range of topics, like wildfires, floods, deforestation, and many more.
The data visualization expert and former academic stresses the importance of having an ‘interdisciplinary mindset’ when approaching data-driven stories.
Since its inception, the Cameroon-based journalism collective has had a double mission: first to train journalists, and then to encourage them to work together.
Launching as a digital outlet 25 years ago gave Malaysiakini’s founders the freedom to report on stories that others feared to cover.
As well as playing an outsize role in exposing state capture and toppling South Africa’s former president, this newsroom is a champion for investigative journalism in the region.
CLIP was founded by three leading journalists who shared the conviction that to mirror the transnational challenges journalists face in Latin America, the stories had to be cross-border too.
The second in our ongoing series of regional spotlight weeks examines the successes and challenges facing our members in Africa and others reporting from the continent. These articles tell the stories of growing journalistic collaboration, courage, and innovation in the face of repression, legal intimidation, lack of access to information, and even physical threats.
Our first regional spotlight series celebrates the achievements of our members in Latin America and others reporting from the region. These articles tell the stories of reporters across the continent, digging into the investigations that matter, and detailing how outlets are creating innovative reporting projects amid their own specific local challenges.
Global elections in 2024 will affect more citizens than in any previous year, and will likely reset humanity’s liberty compass for years ahead. This project features an elections reporting guide, stories on cutting-edge tools for investigating campaigns and candidates, and lessons learned from the best in local watchdog reporting from around the world.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, GIJN has published a series of stories and tipsheets for investigative journalists covering the war. This includes a wide range range of topics, from tracking Russian assets to investigating war crimes.
Despite the funding and sustainability challenges that watchdog reporting faces today, journalists across Africa are producing top-tier investigative stories.
How to cover illicit money flows, drug trafficking, and environmental crimes originating in Latin America but impacting communities worldwide.
This webinar was designed to equip investigative journalists with the knowledge and tools to enhance their watchdog reporting on Africa’s mining sector.
Three senior investigative journalists shared tips and tools on investigating the conflict in Gaza.
