Eric Nalder

Eric Nalder has received two Pulitzer Prizes, one for national reporting in 1990 and another for investigative reporting in 1997. 

He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer in public service in 1992. He has published one book, Tankers Full of Trouble, which won the Investigative Reporters and Editors book award for 1994. He has taught interviewing and investigative reporting workshops in five countries, each year adding new techniques learned from journalists, cops, FBI agents, lawyers, social workers and other practitioners. Retired in January and working on another book, he was a journalist for 42 years, last serving as national investigative reporter for the Hearst Newspapers chain (Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, etc). Always based in the Seattle area, his stories have exposed corruption in politics, the legal profession, government agencies, financial institutions, police departments, businesses and sports. He has also examined the dereliction and loopholes that led to massive oil spills, pipeline explosions and oil well disasters. He previously worked for the Seattle Times, Seattle Post Intelligencer and San Jose Mercury News. His jobs usually included investigative team leadership.  He lived during his youth in Norway, France, Lebanon and Afghanistan.

Blake Morrison

Lead Trainer, Investigative Projects Editor
Reuters New York

Based in New York as the investigative projects editor at Reuters, Blake Morrison has overseen and edited three projects that were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize: The Child Exchange, an investigation of America’s underground market for adopted children; The Echo Chamber, a special report that revealed how a handful of lawyers came to have an outsized influence in the US Supreme Court; and Cheat Sheet, an investigation into how standardised tests used by universities  to determine who to accept have been compromised by rampant, systematic cheating and other security failures.

Projects he has overseen have resulted in decades of jail time for individuals whose wrongdoing the Reuters investigations have exposed.

Prior to joining Reuters, Blake served as the investigations editor, deputy enterprise editor and investigative reporter at USA TODAY. His investigation into the impact of industrial pollution on schoolchildren spurred the US government to launch a $2.25-million project to examine the air outside more than 60 schools across the nation. The reporting earned honours including the Grantham Prize, a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism, the Fourth Estate Award, the America’s Promise Journalism Award, the Kevin Carmody Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting, the Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize, the John B. Oakes Award and the Philip Meyer Journalism Award. Before joining USA TODAY, Blake spent six years as a beat reporter, investigative reporter and editor at the St Paul Pioneer Press.

Summer School of Investigative Reporting 2025 Sessions  

The Investigative Mindset

This interactive presentation is designed to reignite our curiosity and creativity in the field of investigative journalism.

Formulating Story Ideas: How to Structure Your Pitch

Building on lessons learned throughout the week, this final session will guide participants in crafting a compelling pitch that captures the essence of the story.

The Art of Interview:

This session will explore the techniques and strategies essential for conducting effective interviews. From developing a personal interviewing style to navigating difficult conversations.

What We Expect to Hear Tomorrow:

Learning how to refine and focus your story ideas to create pitches that resonate with editors and audiences alike.

Aldo, Enterprise on your Beat:

How to structure your time and approach to do ambitious reporting

Luigi Rinella

Luigi Rinella was born on February 13, 1968, and graduated in law from Bari (Apulia) University in 1991. He joined the Italian National Police in 1995 and worked in Milan as the chief of a section (100 people) of the ‘Volanti’ patrol unit. After that, he went on to direct the investigative section of the unit.

In 2000, after being transferred to central directorate for criminal police in Rome, he was appointed chief of the transnational crime Organisation section of the central operational service of the Italian National Police. In 2004, he was appointed chief of the narcotics section of the central service.

In September 2004, he was appointed liaison officer for the Italian National Police in Washington D.C. in the United States.

In February 2008, he was assigned to the Squadra Mobile (criminal investigative squad) of the Questura of Milan as deputy chief and chief of the narcotics section.

In October 2011, he was promoted and assigned to the Questura of Bari as chief of the Squadra Mobile.

Joachim Dyfvermark

Joachim Dyfvermark is award winning investigative reporter and producer for Sweden’s main investigative program “Uppdrag granskning” at SVT – Swedish Television.

Dyfvermark has been working in radio, TV and film since 1996, first as a news reporter and later as investigative reporter and host on “Kalla Fakta” TV4, before working for Swedish Television.

Arben Ahmeti

Arben Ahmeti is a reporter at the “Koha Ditore” daily newspaper in Kosovo.  He primarily reports on corruption and organized crime.  Some of the high profile cases he covered were investigated by EULEX.

In March 2011, Ahmeti was elected President of the Board of Association of Professional Journalists of Kosovo, APJK, which is the largest media and journalist organization in Kosovo.  Recently, APJK led a journalist and media protest against Kosovo’s new penal codes that were approved by Kosovo’s parliament.  According to the controversial articles 37 and 38, journalists can be held criminally liable and obliged to reveal their sources.

Hrvoje Appelt

Hrvoje Appelt worked for daily newspaper “Jutarnji list” and weekly magazine “Globus” for 11 years, receiving the Marija Juric-Zagorka award for investigative journalism in 2005

Following threats received after he wrote articles on organised crime in 2008 he was placed under 24 hr police protection. Although his life was in danger, Hrvoje Appelt was fired by his employer. Today, he is an independent investigative journalist.

http://www.appeltreport.com/

Nick Thorpe

Nick Thorpe is an award-winning writer and journalist. A contributor to the Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Scotsman and BBC Radio 4 among others, he has covered stories ranging from Russian presidential elections to the coca wars of Bolivia, for which he was shortlisted for the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism.

His bestselling book, Adrift in Caledonia: Boat-hitching for the Unenlightened, is the story of his 2500-mile journey around Scotland on other people’s boats. It was published by Little Brown and serialised on BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week programme in March 2006.

Eight Men and a Duck, his critically-acclaimed first book, recounts his voyage to Easter Island by reed boat and was published by Abacus in 2003. He is currently working on a new book called Relax or Die: Adventures in the Lost Art of Letting Go, due for publication in 2011.

Born in 1970, Nick grew up near London but moved to Scotland more than 15 years ago. He lives in Edinburgh with his wife and young son. His obsessions include Six Feet Under, the meaning of existence and things that float.

http://www.nickthorpe.co.uk

Oliver Vujovic

From 2000 Oliver Vujovic is the Secretary General of the South East Europe Media Organisation –  International Press Institute affiliate

2001-2004: Advisor for the Balkan Südosteuropäischer Dialog, magazine, Vienna and Kulturzentrum, Vienna

2000- 2001: Director of Balkan Südosteuropäischer Dialog, magazine, and Kulturzentrum, Vienna

2000: Vujovic founded Balkan Point – Independent SEE Research and News Service  on www.balkanpoint.org

1998-1999: Product manager in Henkel CEE in the Vienna headquarter and responsible for marketing in the new founded company Henkel Yugoslavia (as Director)

1994-1997: Querleser Wien Correspondent for South East Europe

1991- 2000: Correspondent of the Austrian daily Die Presse in Belgrade The Belgrade Federal Minister of Information decided to recall his accreditation, and Oliver Vujovic reported between 1994 – 1997 from Skopje ( Macedonia) and Szeged (Hungary), also using the pseudonym David Fatschel

1991 – Independent Consultant, Event Manager and  Business Researcher. Also independent advisor for Public Relations and Business Developments. Cooperation with companies in Austria, Germany,  Switzerland and in South East Europe

1989 – 1991: Radio B92, Belgrade

1988 – 1989: Radio Index, Belgrade

1988 – 2000: Freelancer in South East Europe for media in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavian countries and UK. He published also articles in several print media in South East Europe.

Vujovic had in this period as journalist / correspondent over 400 interviews with leading persons in South East Europe, and he published in total over 3500 different articles in print media.

He graduated economics (public relations). Today he works on his PhD.

Editor, co-editor,  author or co-author in  books, publications, research articles and magazines. He is  editor of the SEEMO Media Handbook (annual publication) and publisher of the De Scripto magazine. Some of publications were he was the editor are: Guide for Investigative Reporters, Investigative Reporting in SEE etc. 

Contact: public-department@balkanpoint.org

Link to www.seemo.org

Samra Luckin

Unique range of experiences in media development, public relations, journalism, media professional development, promotion of media rights and freedoms, advertising, educational campaigns, media monitoring

Experience in working with media, journalists, political parties and governments, international organizations and NGOs. A total of 23 years in different organizations working in sales, media, communications and advertising.

Present duties:

Director: Managing all segments and activities of the PR/ advertising agency BORAM, which also supports an informal network of radio stations. Also, supervising both TV documentary and  commercial production in BORAM as well as organization of different conferences and events.  Developing media strategy for educational campaigns.

Managing different campaigns of public interest:  European Commission, EUFOR Branding Campaign, US Defense Ministry Anti-terrorism campaign, EUPM, OSCE, OHR, UNDP, UNICEF, IOM, BBI Bank, UNHCR, The US Embassy, Dutch Embassy, TEPD, BBC, H. La Roche, German Institute for Cultural Relations- Ifa,.

Duties also include: strategic planning, business planning, purchase of media time, market analysis, tactical planning, projections of future developments, as well as public relations strategy, communication plans …Coordinator: Stability Pact Media Working Group for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).

Team Leader for EU Awareness Programme in BiH. Was responsible for project management; provided the overall strategic communications advices to the DEI and ECD, contributed to the development of a project strategy paper and articulated a corresponding annual work plan; focused on the media aspects of the work to be performed under the contract, identified the best key messages and their relevance to the targeted audiences, ensured the selection of adequate communication channels to reach the targeted audiences.

Worked on a monitoring component and measured the impact of all activities undertaken; was responsible for all the media relations aspects of the project.

Together with other experts supervised all the TV production aspects of the EU Awareness campaign, and ensured the material produced would effectively be broadcast by the partner TV channels, in relevant programmes and formats in order to reach important audiences; acted as an Executive Producer of TV debates and quizzes, was in charge of the relations with print media to ensure sustained coverage of the EU integration process, through story alerts and good background material as well as press inserts; organised the media training sessions and defined their content, acted as presenter at the PR trainings, organized brunches for journalists, was responsible for the organization of 9 May events on behalf of the Project, as well as for the organization of round tables throughout the country.

President, International Advertising/Media Association for BiH; Representative of BiH in South East Europe Media Organization; former Chairwoman, Stability Pact Media Working Group for BiH; member, Board of Directors ABC; member, Board of Directors Balkan Youth Foundation

Worked as a lecturer on Freedom of Access to Information Law, Defamation Law and self regulation of print media

http://www.boram.ba/