Category: News and Events

On Thursday, sessions on investigative podcasts started the fourth day of the BIRN’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Michael Montgomery, a senior reporter and producer for Reveal, talked about the fundamentals of investigative podcasts. Podcasts are getting more popular every year, with more than half lasting over 30 minutes.

Podcasts are visually powerful forms of audio that tell big, sometimes emotionally complex stories and offer clarity in chaos. “For many podcasts, the central framing device is a question,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery talked about the old dramatic principle, the three-act story structure that divides a story into setup, confrontation and resolution.

“The work we do with podcasts is very emotional. It’s very important to master the three-act story structure if you want to do investigative podcasts,” he advised.

Taja Topolovec, Co-Founder and CEO of podcrto.si, said that a podcast is much more intimate than just reading an article. “It’s like someone talking directly into your ear. People are waiting for the next episode to come out,” Topolovec said.

“For us, podcasting was a way to connect more with an international audience, to get more international context. In the last few years, podcasting has become a very important product,” the Slovenian podcaster said.

Sandrine Rigaud, editor of Forbidden Stories, spoke about the four essential characteristics of cross-border journalism. Journalists from different countries decide on an idea of mutual interest, gather and share material, and then publish the story for their audience.

“The challenges include cultural differences, different practices and standards, the timing of publication, and allocation of time resources,” Rigaud told the participants.

“Sharing is one of the golden rules of collaboration. We share findings, interview notes, documents, and plans so we do not duplicate. We don’t have to share the identity of confidential sources, but we share quotes, off-the-record information,” the French journalist said.

The Summer School continues on Friday with investigating migration and human rights abuses and an introduction to data journalism.

On Wednesday, sessions on digital security kicked off the third day of the BIRN’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Milica Stojanovic, BIRN journalist and digital security trainer, explained the importance of cyber security. “You are responsible for yourself, your colleagues and your sources,” she told the participants.

“Digital security is a habit, like locking the door when you leave home,” Stojanovic said. She walked participants through the most secure applications and offered tips on setting the best passwords.

“Passwords must be at least 16 characters long and must be changed every six months. Have a different password for each account,” Stojanovic advised.

Co-founder of The Self-Investigation Mar Cabra spoke about mental health and the problem of burnout. “I believe the journalism industry is broken. We need to make it healthier,” Cabra said.

Last year, 60 per cent of journalists worldwide reported high levels of anxiety, and one in five showed signs of depression, according to reports. 

“Never fail to ask yourself how you are doing,” Cabra advised. She explained that ignoring our body’s signals, doing work not aligned with our values, and lacking hobbies can all lead to burnout.

The Summer School continues on Thursday with an introduction to investigative podcasts and cross-border journalism.


The second day of BIRN’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting in Thessaloniki, Greece on Tuesday started with a session on open-source investigations entitled How to Expose Police Violence.

Marija Ristic, manager at Amnesty International’s Evidence Lab, explained how open-source elements and information can be used to analyse policing weapons and equipment.

Ristic also talked about journalists in demonstrations. “Journalists should be considered bystanders at protests. Any attack on them is generally not allowed,“ Ristic said.

Sam Joiner, visual stories editor at the Financial Times, talked about how to take a complex story and make it digestible.
“Visuals have to carry you through the story. Visual journalism allows you to understand stories differently. It requires lots of people to think outside the box,” Joiner told participants.

“There are two types of projects. Stories that use visuals to explain topics and themes that transcend the daily news agenda. And there are visual investigations, public interest journalism using visual evidence to break stories of global significance,” Joiner said before presenting the FT’s visual investigation into North Korean oil-smuggling.

The general secretary of the European Federation of Journalists, Ricardo Gutierrez, spoke about helping journalists in exile.
After Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, “our first reaction was to try to evacuate colleagues from Ukraine. But they wanted to stay. So we changed our plans and provided them with safety equipment so they could continue their work,” Gutierrez said.

“We have a programme in Kosovo. We convinced the government to offer shelter to 20 Ukrainian journalists in exile. We launched the programme in March 2022, and the first journalists arrived the following month,” he continued.

The European Federation of Journalists doesn’t have comprehensive European data on journalists in exile, partly because many don’t want to be put on a list, Gutierrez explained. Most of the Russian journalists who fled to the EU now live in Germany or the Netherlands, he added.

Journalist and researcher Hanna Liubakova left Belarus after the presidential elections in 2020, when the government intensified its crackdown on independent journalism.

Liubakova said she fled after she was put under surveillance. “For security reasons, I had to change my location every few days. Then I received a signal that it was better for me to leave the country,” she said.
She told participants that Belarusians are still interested in independent news and use social media such as TikTok as well as websites to follow what is happening in the country.

The Summer School continues on Wednesday with digital security training and a workshop about mental health and burnout.

This year’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting started on Monday in Thessaloniki, Greece.

During the week-long programme, journalists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey, Georgia and Uzbekistan will master their investigative skills and techniques and learn from Pulitzer and European Press Prize winners.

Regional Director of BIRN HUB Milka Domanovic welcomed the participants to one of BIRN’s flagship programmes. “We hope that you will be able to implement the knowledge you gain here and connect even after the course is finished,” Domanovic said.

Ivana Nikolic, Programme Manager at BIRN’s Investigative Reporting Initiative Programme, presented the agenda to participants selected from a record-breaking number of applications – more than 220 this year.

“We are very proud to have had this amazing number of applications, and to be honest, it was very hard to select the best ones,” Nikolic said.
During the week, participants will learn about basics of investigative reporting; OSINT; visual investigations; how to stay digitally secure while working on a story; essentials of cross-border reporting; how to avoid burnout in journalism; how to master data journalism, etc.

In addition, there will be two panel discussions: one dedicated to “journalism in exile”, that is, reporting about one’s country from afar, and one dedicated to investigating the migrant crisis in Greece. The full programme can be found here.
The first day started with Michael Montgomery, a senior reporter and producer for Reveal. He talked about the fundamentals of investigative reporting. “It’s less often than not that you will come up with a completely new story. A new angle on a story that’s been covered can be even more impactful,” Montgomery said, advising participants to follow their passion and check their sense of outrage when choosing a story.

“It’s always easier to get someone to confirm something you already know or think you know than to get them to volunteer information you do not possess. That’s super important, to get people to talk. Most people don’t like to think they are spilling secrets,” Montgomery told participants.

Marija Ristic, Manager at Amnesty International’s Evidence Lab, introduced Open Source Investigations.
“Open-source researchers expose themselves and the subjects of the information they collect to various digital threats. Understanding how to protect yourself and the data generated during your research from threats is essential knowledge for digital investigators,” she said.

The first day ended with a workshop on story pitching, with journalists sharing ideas.

The 12th annual BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting ended on August 27with 30 participants from SEE, CE, Ukraine and Finland pitching their investigative story proposals to BIRN editors.

A total of 11 pitches were presented; some focus on country-based issues while the majority are of a cross-border nature. BIRN editors will choose the best pitches, whose owners will receive funding, editorial support and mentoring from BIRN.

Proposed stories look into environmental issues, corruption allegations, reproductive rights and the ongoing war in Ukraine, to name a few.

Ivana Nikolic, in charge of BIRN’s Investigative Reporting Initiative, thanked all the participants for their motivation and hard work during the past week and urged them to keep in touch and collaborate.

“Summer School is not only about learning innovative skills and techniques; it is also about networking, making friends and finding partners for your next cross-border story,”Nikolic said.

During the week, 30 participants selected from a record-breaking 180 candidates learned about OSINT, database search, digital security, visual storytelling, and financial journalism from award-winning journalists from Germany, the UK, the US and the Balkans.

They also attended a panel discussion about war reporting, giving them a unique opportunity to hear different perspectives and experiences of journalists and filmmakers from Ukraine, Palestine and Serbia. More information about lectures and panels can be found here (https://birnsummerschool.org/)

The fifth day of BIRN’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting started with Meg Kelly and Sarah Cahlan, visual forensics reporters at the Washington Post, talking about how they use visual evidence in their work.

Cahlan and Kelly explained how they obtain information by submitting a public records request, speaking to witnesses, scrubbing social media, searching Google using all sorts of tools, monitoring satellite imagery, asking photographers to share photos and searching mapping software.

Trying to find where a video was recorded, a journalist should examine the visual and look for landmarks, signs, clothes, environmental features and shop names, the two visual forensics reporters advised. When reverse image searching, it’s important to use multiple engines (Google, Bing, Yandex) as they often provide different results, they added.

Cahlan and Kelly also discussed the basics of open source research and presented how they reported on the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, American weapons in Yemen and the January 6, 2021 mob attack on the US Capitol building.

The day ended with the journalists working on pitching cross-border investigative stories, which they will present on the sixth and final day of BIRN’s Summer School on Saturday.

The fourth day of BIRN’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting was about visual storytelling. Alexandra Heal, a visual journalism reporter at the Financial Times, talked about her experience of how to combine various sources and visual elements into a multimedia story.

“Just like some of the best investigations start with a simple fact, visuals can be simple, too. They don’t have to be something extraordinary and hard to make. Don’t dismiss something just because it is obvious,” Heal told participants.

Investigative journalists now have to analyse and present a lot of data, so learning visual journalism skills is essential, Heal said. She also highlighted the importance of breaking up long stories with visual elements. Participants discussed when to tell a story visually and what elements to use.

The day ended with the journalists working on pitching cross-border investigative stories.

The Summer School continues on Friday with lessons on how to use visual evidence in investigative reporting.

The third day of BIRN’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting on Wednesday started with financial and business journalism sessions.

Simon Bowers, an investigations editor at Finance Uncovered, talked about how to investigate company finance and follow money flows.

“Directors have only one thing to do, and that is to make a profit for shareholders. Therefore it’s important to know how to unpack financial statements and what notes to prioritise,” Bowers told participants.

Journalists also shared their experience of covering news in conflict zones. “In a war, it’s not just the bullets that are dangerous; the regime, the political elite can be a threat, too,” said BIRN journalist Milica Stojanovic.

Lina Kushch, first secretary of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, talked about her colleagues’ everyday hardships during the Russian invasion.

“Most Ukrainian journalists had no experience working in a conflict zone. Media outlets were unprepared for war; they didn’t have safety protocols. We tried to help them with online training and safety equipment,” Kushch told participants.

Her organisation prepared a journalist’s guide and set up a hotline with recommendations on safety.

Ahmad Al-Bazz, an independent journalist and documentary filmmaker from the Palestinian territories, said that although the times of direct military censorship have passed, problems persist because local and international business people are not interested in supporting Palestinian media outlets. Most of their financial support comes from the EU.

“Since I started my career, no authority came knocking on my door. They are treating us as normal Palestinian citizens; we don’t get any extra access for being a journalist,” Al-Bazz said.

The day ended with the journalists working on pitching cross-border investigative stories.

The Summer School continues on Thursday with lessons on combining various different sources into a multimedia story.

The second day of BIRN’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting started with sessions on digital security entitled How to Keep Your Work Safe.

BIRN journalist and a digital security trainer Milica Stojanovic explained the importance of cyber-safety to the participants, saying that “digital security is a habit; like a habit to lock your door when you leave the house”.

Stojanovic guided participants through the most secure applications and offered tips on how to set up the best passwords.

“Passwords are your best friend from now until the end of everything. It should have at least 16 characters and it should be changed every six months. For each account you should have another password,” Stojanovic said.

BIRN journalist Claudia Ciobanu talked about the investigation project Polish Forests Full of Fear. Ciobanu has been following the migrant crisis on the Polish-Belarussian border for a year now and the project’s site contains the most complete data on migrants who are stuck at the border.

Ciobanu presented her multimedia investigation to the participants, explaining the obstacles and challenges she came across while reporting.The Q&A session that followed addressed practical and ethical aspects of investigative journalism.

Kai Biermann, an editor at German newspaper Die Zeit, gave examples of data visualisation and talked about the process of gathering data.

“Statistics are fine but often don’t answer your questions. The problem is finding the data. You should also ask: can you generate it yourself?” Biermann said during the last session of the second day.

The Summer School continues on Wednesday with lessons on financial flows and a panel discussion dedicated to war reporting and war reporters who were killed while on assignment.

This year’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting started on Monday in the Slovenian town of Portoroz.

During the week-long programme, journalists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Finland and Ukraine will learn new skills and techniques and work on investigative stories.

The head of Regional Operations at BIRN, Dusica Stilic, welcomed the participants selected from a record-breaking number of applications – 180 this year.

“We are very proud to have this extraordinary group of people eager to learn to become the best version of an investigative journalist they possibly can be,” Stilic said.

Ivana Nikolic, leading the Investigative Reporting Initiative Programme at BIRN, presented the agenda and encouraged the participants to work towards pitching powerful stories.

“This week, you will learn a lot about innovative journalism techniques and skills from award-winning journalists and editors,” Nikolic said, adding that for the first time this year, participants will have the opportunity to learn how to stay safe online while working on their investigations.

Freelance coder and data specialist Friedrich Lindenberg gave an introduction to open data for investigations. Lindenberg has been working with investigative journalists and anti-corruption activists for the past decade and has built data-driven tools that support their work.

Lindenberg gave practical advice on effectively searching and cross-referencing open databases and using various tools to track documents.

“It’s important to remember that a search doesn’t make any document or information reliable and doesn’t take away the journalist’s responsibility,” he told the participants.

The first day ended with the journalists sharing ideas and starting to work on pitching cross-border investigative stories.