The 14th edition of BIRN’s Summer School will bring together scholars, investigative journalists, data experts, mindfulness practitioners and other renowned professionals. From August 19 to 24 in Mlini, Croatia, the school will equip journalists with the skills they need to address the challenges of investigative journalism today.
WHO’S THE LEAD:
The Summer School will unfold over six days, allowing participants time to pitch and develop their own investigative stories. Blake Morrison will lead the participants through five days of sessions focused on generating story ideas, interview techniques, refining story ideas and honing pitches. Morrison, an acclaimed New York-based investigative journalist for Reuters, has overseen and edited three projects that were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.
REPORTING FROM AUTHORITARIAN COUNTRIES:
Elena Kostyuchenko, a Russian independent journalist, will join us on day one. After the closure of Novaya Gazeta due to pressure from the Russian authorities, Kostyuchenko was forced to leave the newspaper she had reported for over 17 years. She now reports for the exiled media outlet Meduza and is the author of an award-winning book, I Love Russia, named Book of the Year by The New Yorker and TIME. Her session will focus on how to report while resisting government pressure, countering propaganda, and verifying information.
WHAT ABOUT SECURITY:
As part of its broader mission to protect and promote human rights and non-violent communication both offline and online through its Digital Rights Programme, BIRN is equipping journalists and media professionals with skills to monitor and respond to digital incidents. Monika Kutri, a project manager and journalist safety specialist at the Croatian Journalists’ Association, will lead a session dedicated to digital security using Virtual Reality (VR) and Tabletop Exercises (TTX). She will instruct participants on how to identify and mitigate digital threats in real-world scenarios.
AND MENTAL HEALTH:
The safety of journalists also encompasses mental health. A.X. Mina, Program Director at The Self-Investigation, will teach techniques on managing burnout, stress, and other practices to support mental health and mindfulness in a digitally prioritised environment.
COMBINING DATA AND FIELDWORK:
Two journalists from Swedish public television’s (SVT) current affairs program, “Mission Investigate” (Uppdrag Granskning), Maria Georgieva and Ali Fegan, will deepen our understanding of combining database research with classic fieldwork to create impactful investigative journalism. They will showcase their joint work uncovering Vladimir Putin’s intelligence operations in Scandinavia, titled “Putin’s Shadow War.”
Leading techniques in today’s journalism often include dealing with data and technology. Jakub Górnicki and Anna Górnicka, reporters and co-founders of Outriders, will lead a session on visual storytelling. Jonathan Soma, Knight Chair in Data Journalism at Columbia University Journalism School (CUJUS), will lead a session on data journalism and navigating challenges posed by AI. Soma’s training will include scraping and browser automation in Python and leveraging AI responsibly in data investigation. They will be complemented by Boris Budini and Redon Skikuli, Digital Infrastructure Experts at CryptoParty in Tirana, who will explore the intersection of tech and journalism.
MEASURING SUCCESS AND IMPACT:
Apostolis Fotiadis, BIRN’s Investigations Editor, will explain the skills required for an investigative journalist to achieve success post-publication. Fotiadis, who covers EU policy issues and is a cooperative member of Solomon, will discuss how to organise the rollout of an investigation to maximise its impact after publication.
MORE BIRN EXPERTS:
BIRN trainers Kreshnik Gashi and Ivana Jeremić will explore investigating gender-based violence online and reporting for impact. Jeremić is currently Digital Rights Programme Content Lead and Gashi is Head of the Planning Desk and Managing Editor at Kallxo.com. They will be joined by Besar Likmeta, Editor-in-Chief of BIRN Albania, whose session will focus on techniques and methods used when reporting about environmental corruption. Finally, BIRN BiH director Denis Dzidic will focus on investigating war crimes and their legacies.
ABOUT:
The Summer School of Investigative Reporting is a BIRN program that enhances the reporting skills and journalistic standards of journalists from the Balkans and beyond. BIRN is providing 30 full scholarships for selected Balkan and international journalists. This year, journalists are joining from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
BIRN’s Summer School is organised in cooperation with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung’s Media Program – South East Europe, and supported by the Austrian Development Agency, the European Union, Internews and the United States Agency for International Development, the European Climate Foundation, the ERSTE Foundation, the Foreign Ministry of the Czech Republic and Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.