News

Journalist Rescue Fund Could Protect Threatened Reporters, Promote Free Press

Over the past 22 years, 1,059 journalists have been killed. Worldwide, some 430 journalists are in exile from their home countries. Hundreds more are injured, persecuted, muzzled, and threatened, mostly by governments and sometimes by influential non-governmental forces, all interested in stifling a free, fearless press. Much of this happens in countries where autocratic regimes are the norm and press freedom is ignored.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot of lip service paid, often after the fact, to such threats. In December, for instance, the U.N.

How Reporters Can Ask the Right Questions of Databases

Investigative journalists often look to numbers to back up or fuel their reports, but the data they need can't always be found in a tidy spreadsheet or gathered straight from a source.

"As a journalist obviously your main tool is talking to people; it’s being able to ask the right questions of the right people," said ICFJ Knight Fellow Friedrich Lindenberg in a recent webinar on digital tools for investigative reporting.

“Hala Nigeria” Helps African Journalists Track Ebola Outbreak

“Hala Nigeria,” a program of ICFJ’s Knight International Journalism Fellowships, is helping Nigerian journalists do a better job of tracking the deadly Ebola virus. As a Knight Innovation Fellow in Nigeria, I am helping Vivienne Irikefe of Television Continental (TVC) to show how the virus is spreading across West Africa.

Irikefe won the story contest as part of the Hala Nigeria program (which means “Speak out, Nigeria” in pidgin English). The program is designed to spur better coverage of vital health issues and increase audience engagement in those stories.

Revamped Version of Reporting Tool Citizen Desk Focuses on Real-Time Verification

Last year, Mozambique’s Verdade newspaper put out a call for citizen reports to supplement its in-house reporting on the country's general election.

Through a new, open source toolkit called Citizen Desk, Verdade received on-the-ground reports, astute observations and...a lot of junk (especially misplaced orders for more mobile minutes).

Mobile News Service Created by Knight Fellow Featured on National Geographic

Mobile news service CGnet Swara was recently featured on National Geographic as part of its "Innovators Project" series, which profiles “people who are transforming their fields by creating, educating, provoking, and delighting.”

Developed by Knight Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary with help from Microsoft Research India, CGnet Swara (Voice of Chhattisgarh) gives people in remote areas of India the abil

InfoAmazonia Project is Creating Tools to Test and Report on Water Quality

In Brazil, rapid urbanization appears to be contaminating the water supply. It's an important story, but often there isn't much hard evidence available for journalists to report.

That's why they're starting to collect their own evidence, says data journalist Gustavo Faleiros.

HacksLabs announces Transparency & Accountability Challenge 2014 for Latin America

_Media entrepreneur Mariano Blejman founded HacksLabs, Latin America's first data journalism accelerator, earlier this year as part of his ICFJ Knight Fellowship. The idea for HacksLabs "came from years of frustration and wasted energy," Blejman wrote in April.

Tabeir Iraq aims to help journalists and bloggers stay safe

When I visited Iraq for the first time in October 2003, the country was one of the most dangerous places for journalists to work. Unfortunately, that reality has not changed. Since 2003, 102 journalists have been murdered in the country, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, and many more have been harmed or threatened.

As a reporter for the Mexican newspaper El Independiente, I spent two weeks in Iraq, covering the period when an international military coalition occupied the country.

ICFJ’s Ben Colmery participates in panel on data journalism for the developing world

Data journalism is having a powerful impact on the lives of citizens, especially in the developing world, according to a panel of media-development experts brought together on October 15 by the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA).

The discussion titled “How Data Journalism Drives Results in Developing Countries” touched on data initiatives around the world, with a focus on projects in Africa and Latin America.

How to Convince Journalists that Digital Security is for Them

The workshop had ended, but the attendees stayed glued to their seats and their laptop computers. For a few more minutes, nobody wanted to leave the room.