ICFJ Programs in Investigative

  • Chile: Expand Poderopedia, a Site Linking Business and Politics, Across the Region

    In Partnership With: 
    Poderomedia
    In Partnership With: 
    Hacks/Hackers Chile

    Knight International Journalism Fellow Miguel Paz will speed the development and use of the Knight News Challenge-winning platform Poderopedia, which reveals links among business and political leaders. He will bring Poderopedia to Venezuela and to other nations, creating a cross-border community that uses the platform. He will introduce customized versions of Poderopedia in newsrooms and civic media projects.

  • Argentina: Launch an Innovation Challenge to Promote the Development of Digital Media in Latin America

    In Partnership With: 
    Hacks/Hackers Buenos Aires

    Knight International Journalism Fellow Mariano Blejman is creating the first news innovation contest in Latin America. Modeled on the African News Innovation Challenge, the contest will spur new technology that improves access to quality news and information. Blejman will upgrade the Hacks/Hackers network by running data boot camps and hackathons.

  • Fortalecimiento de periodismo de investigación y transparencia en México y Centroamérica

    ICFJ anuncia iniciativa de periodismo de investigación y seguridad para México y Centroamérica

    Los periodistas participantes deben tener un fuerte compromiso con el periodismo de investigación y deben estar dispuestos a trabajar en equipos a través de fronteras. Los periodistas que trabajan en México o Centroamérica en medios en línea, impresos, radio o televisión son elegibles para participar en este programa destinado a mejorar las habilidades del periodismo de investigación y fortalecer la seguridad de los periodistas en la región.

  • Strengthening Investigative Reporting and Transparency in Mexico and Central America

    ICFJ announces an investigative reporting initiative for Mexico and Central America.

    Participating journalists should have a strong commitment to investigative reporting and should be willing to work in teams across borders. Journalists working in Mexico or Central America for online, print or broadcast media are welcome to apply.

  • Beyond the Border: Covering the Immigration Phenomenon through Digital Media

    In Partnership With: 
    Scripps Howard Foundation

    The Scripps Howard Immigration reporting training program brings together journalists from the U.S. Spanish and English-language media for a week-long training on how to cover immigration issues using multimedia tools.

    ICFJ is currently seeking applicants for the 2012 Scripps immigration reporting program. The program is scheduled to take place Sunday July 15, 2012 through Sunday July 22, 2012 in Washington, D.C.

    The application deadline is Monday May 28, 2012.

    The 2012 program will have a special focus on the U.S. 2012 presidential election and immigration.

  • Brazil: Launch a Digital Map That Uses Open Data to Monitor the Amazon

    In Partnership With: 
    Folha de Sao Paulo
    In Partnership With: 
    ABRAJI

    Gustavo Faleiros is a Knight International Journalism Fellow based in Brazil who has created a comprehensive online map that makes extensive use of data to track the deteriorating environment of the nine-country Amazon region. The map—a mash-up of existing technologies such as satellite images, open data and media and social-media feeds—is hosted by partner O Eco, an environmental news site, and supported by a grant from Internews.

  • Argentina: Create Tools to Collect, Analyze and Visualize Data for Investigative Stories

    In Partnership With: 
    La Nación
    In Partnership With: 
    Foro de Periodismo Argentino (FOPEA)

    At La Nación, one of Argentina’s leading daily newspapers, Knight International Journalism Fellow Sandra Crucianelli is creating the first team of investigative journalists who can track tax revenues earmarked for the country’s crumbling public services. She is creating a team of data journalists who can extract and analyze information for investigative stories. And as part of this effort, she helped La Nación launch Argentina’s first data blog, where journalists post data-driven stories and invite the public to respond and engage.

  • The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)

    In Partnership With: 
    Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project

    One OCCRP project, The Big Bet, examines the criminal elements behind Eastern Europe’s thriving gambling industry.

    This program challenges the development community to build citizen demand to reduce corruption, fraud, and other criminal activities through increased exposure to professionally-produced investigative journalism.

  • Unilever Journalism Exchange Program for Journalists from Ghana

    In Partnership With: 
    Unilever USA

    Samuel Kwaku Agyemang of Metropolitan Television (Metro TV) in Accra participated in the 2011 Unilever Journalism Exchange Program for journalists from Ghana. Agyemang was named the Best Journalist of the Year in Ghana in 2009.

  • Middle East: Start Up Investigative Reporting Teams at Major News Outlets

    In Partnership With: 
    Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ)

    At a pivotal time for the Middle East, Knight International Journalism Fellow Amr El-Kahky is launching teams of investigative reporters at news organizations across the region. His efforts have helped journalists gain more access to government documents than ever before, particularly in Jordan and the West Bank. His investigative unit in Jordan uncovered a vote-buying scheme ahead of the November 2010 parliamentary elections. Jordanian reporters also tackled the issue of childhood alcohol addiction—a controversial topic never covered in the past.

  • Haiti: Track Aid Funds to Ensure a Strong Recovery

    In Partnership With: 
    Radio Metropole
    In Partnership With: 
    Le Nouvelliste
    In Partnership With: 
    Nat'l Assn. of Haitian Media
    In Partnership With: 
    Assn. of Haitian Journalists

    Haitian journalists work in a makeshift newsroom at Le Nouvelliste. Their old building was destroyed in the January 2010 earthquake.

    Knight International Journalism Fellow Klarreich established an investigative team at Le Nouvelliste, Haiti’s leading newspaper, which regularly produces stories on the misuse of aid sent to Haiti after the catastrophic January 2010 earthquake. The team has broken stories about a land dispute that stopped work at a critically important sanitation plant near a refugee camp. After reading these reports, Haitian President Michel Joseph Martelly intervened and construction resumed.

  • Panama: Develop a New System to Map and Investigate Crime and Corruption

    In Partnership With: 
    Ushahidi
    In Partnership With: 
    Transparency International Panama
    In Partnership With: 
    Forum of Journalists

    Citizens can use the map to report a wide range of crimes, giving details about the time and location of each incident.

    Jorge Luis Sierra developed a successful digital mapping platform called Mi Panama Transparente that uses crowd sourcing to pinpoint instances of crime and corruption in Panama. Now, Sierra is launching the digital map in Mexico and working closely with a Knight Fellow in Colombia to do the same.

    As in Panama, Sierra has put together a strong coalition of partners in Mexico.

  • India: Make Government Data More Accessible to Journalists

    In Partnership With: 
    AOL India

    Kannaiah Venkatesh's new association, Journalists for eGovernance and Transparency, helps reporters and freedom-of-information activists use the 2005 Right to Information (RTI) Act to produce investigative stories. The association protects the identity of journalists and activists seeking information by submitting RTI requests on their behalf, critically important in the region.

  • Brazil: Tapping the Power of Citizen Journalists to Increase Coverage of Poverty

    In Partnership With: 
    ABRAJI

    Bruno Garcez is helping Brazil’s top media outlets to include multimedia reports from citizen journalists on important issues such as land reform and pollution prior to presidential and general elections in October.

    Garcez is partnering with ABRAJI, the leading investigative journalism association, and the daily Folha de Sao Paulo to incorporate reports produced by trained citizen journalists. Already, 20 citizen reporters in Sao Paolo are producing stories and posting them on a common blog, Mural Brasil.

  • The Philippines: Tracking Government Efforts to Reduce Poverty

    In Partnership With: 
    The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

    In the Philippines, Knight International helped journalists investigate the effectiveness of government programs designed to reduce poverty. With officials up for reelection in 2010, Knight Fellow Alex Tizon worked with The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) to determine whether the government delivered on promises to improve conditions. Tizon introduced new digital techniques that will enable major media outlets to gather better information from the poorest provinces.

  • Investigative Journalism and Citizen Journalism For Russia

    The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) will present a training program for working professional journalists as well as “citizen journalists” or bloggers in Russia. Working in three cities in diverse regions of Russia – Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok – ICFJ will undertake this work in cooperation with its Russian partner, the Glasnost Defense Foundation (GDF) of Moscow.

  • Mexico: Defend Free Expression

    In Partnership With: 
    Fundación para la Libertad de Expresión

    Knight International helped launch a foundation to protect journalists and promote freedom of the press in a country where reporters are increasingly in danger. Knight Fellow Benjamín Fernández educated journalists on how to take advantage of freedom of information laws and counseled them on their own legal rights. Fernandez also created a group of media lawyers willing to defend journalists under threat.

  • Investigative Journalism: A Training Program for Egyptian Journalists

    In Partnership With: 
    Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism

    The Investigative Journalism project trained 40 Egyptian journalists in investigative reporting skills through a unique hands-on/online mentoring program that pairs Egypt’s top journalists with younger Egyptian journalists. The focus was to train journalists how to produce and disseminate investigative reports through computer- assisted reporting, and by linking to one another through a “virtual newsroom” online platform.

  • The Balkans: Tracking Corruption

    In Partnership With: 
    Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism

    Knight International developed a comprehensive database and guide for journalists to investigate and expose corruption in the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

  • Liberia: Bolstering Coverage of the Courts in Post-Conflict Era

    In Partnership With: 
    AllAfrica

    Marquita Smith is a Knight International Journalism Fellow who helped launch the Judicial Reporters Network in Liberia. Smith formed this association and trained its members to cover the country’s fledgling legal system. Inspired by Smith, Ora Garway, a journalist in the association, launched a newspaper called The Punch that focuses on legal reporting. Garway was the country’s first woman managing editor. Smith returned to Liberia in June 2010 to help Garway develop a business plan for the new newspaper and create a website featuring coverage of the justice system.

  • Egypt: Mentoring Investigative Journalists

    In Partnership With: 
    American University in Cairo

    Knight International has paired veteran Arabic-speaking journalists to mentor young colleagues in investigative journalism. Ten seasoned news professionals coached the junior reporters as they developed stories on everything from Egypt's Jewish communities to food safety to medical waste. Knight Fellow Roderick Craig started the program.

    HIGHLIGHTS

    • Visited Amman, Jordan, for hands-on training and to create networks with counterparts there.
    • Best stories received awards.
    • Linked Egyptian investigative journalists with journalists and media organizations in the region.

  • Mexico: Improved Access to Information for Investigative Broadcast Journalists

    In Partnership With: 
    Televisa

    Susana Seijas helped journalists to use Mexico’s access to information law to improve the quality and increase the quantity of investigative and in-depth reports produced for the country's largest TV network and its website.

    At her suggestion, the partner organization Televisa revamped a one-hour weekly news show called Reporteros, which showcased the work of the investigative team. As a result of a Televisa series on prison corruption, the Mexican Human Rights Commission issued recommendations to all prisons to combat the problem.

  • Mexico: New Investigative Journalism Unit Exposes Corruption

    In Partnership With: 
    El Universal

    Knight Fellow Ana Arana worked with reporters and editors at the daily El Universal and the magazines Gatopardo and Expansión. She helped them build a new joint investigative unit and databases to produce exposes such as a story on illegal land transfers.

    HIGHLIGHTS

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  • At El Universal, reporters produced a series on corruption in soccer club management.