Monika Kutri

Journalist safety specialist
The Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA)

Monika Kutri is a project manager and journalist safety specialist at the Croatian Journalists’ Association. Over the past five years, her primary focus has been on the safety of journalists in Croatia and the Balkan region as part of the SafeJournalists network. She is the author of the annual Indicators of Media Freedom and Journalist Safety in Croatia, as well as the Journalist Safety Index. In recent years, Monika has been increasingly involved in digital security. Since 2022, she has been a trainer in digital security for journalists, continually enhancing her skills and expertise in this area.

Summer School of Investigative Reporting 2024 Sessions

Shielding the Truth: Digital Security Essentials for Journalists

In an era of pervasive digital threats, this session equips journalists with essential knowledge and tools to safeguard their communications, sources, and data against cyber attacks and surveillance, covering the latest encryption techniques, secure communication methods, and best practices for digital security.

Group session: Digital Security, Virtual Reality (VR) and through Tabletop Exercises (TTX)

The session will simulate scenarios using VR and through TTX, preparing participants in a secure environment to identify and mitigate digital threats. A VR experience will allow journalists to practise making critical decisions which impact their digital security and to safely experience the sensation of sustaining an attack, while TTX  to discuss key digital security dilemmas and assess their organisation or community’s readiness to respond to incidents.

Redon Skikuli

Digital Infrastructure
Expert CryptoParty Tirana (CPT)

Redon Skikuli has been a digital rights and Free Libre Open Source promoter since 2012. Co-founder of Cloud68.co, Open Source Conference Albania (known widely as OSCAL), CryptoParty Tirana and LibreLabs Albania. Redon is a passionate advocate for open knowledge and online privacy, based in Tirana, Albania. He studied communication and marketing in Athens, but changed direction when he co-founded the first hackerspace in 2012. Since then, he’s been at the forefront of initiatives like CryptoParty Tirana and OSCAL, driving conversations on digital rights and open access in Tirana. His dedication to open knowledge is evident in extensive contributions to projects like OpenStreetMap, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata. Last but not least, Redon has been invited to various open-source conferences as a presenter, sharing insights on various topic with emphasis on digital rights in the post Snowden age.

Summer School of Investigative Reporting 2024 Sessions

How do Tech & Journalism Intersect and What to Do With It

Redon Skikuli and Boris Budini will jointly explore how to extract more insights from publicly available open-source information online,  showcasing of powerful tools and practical skills for investigative journalism. From data analysis to online research, we will try to get some practical skills and resources that can be used daily.

Group session: Advanced Deep & Dark Web

In this session, Redon Skikuli and Boris Budini will explore safe navigation techniques for investigating stories on the deep and dark web, including advanced methods for secure payments and information analysis, with live demonstrations and hands-on experience.

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