15:00
16:00
Pre-seminar (Soros Auditorium)
The Pegasus Project: How military-grade spyware was used to target journalist and activists.
A highly sophisticated spyware tool developed by the Israeli company NSO Group had for years been misused to target journalist, human rights defenders, lawyers, diplomats, and many others. More than 80 reporters from 17 media organizations in 10 countries coordinated by Forbidden Stories broke the story. Miranda Patrucic from OCCRP was one of the key reporters.
Miranda Patrucic, OCCRP
08:45
Verification of Vaccination Certificates and Registration
09:30 – 10:00
Welcome address and practical information (Soros Auditorium)
Hans Månson, Programme Director
and Sabine Sile, Director of the Centre for Media studies at SSE Riga
10:00 – 11:00
Keynote speaker: Roman Anin (Soros Auditorium)
How Russian authorities proclaimed investigative journalists as enemy of the state: Roman Anin, the founder of the Russian investigative outlet IStories, tells what lessons he has learned from constant attacks by the secret services and the Kremlin on him and his media and how this experience might help journalist from other countries.
11:00 – 11:30
Coffee break
11:30 – 13:00
Make people talk (Room 303)
Scared, traumatized, suspicious or people who just hate journalists. Does making them talk seem impossible? It’s not.
Everyone wants to talk to you, if only you can break the code.
Find the interviewee’s fears, get the interview.
Learn through authentic cases and get practical tips to achieve what seems impossible.
Åsa Erlandsson
Internet research (Room W32)
Part 1
Advanced Googling
How logic and language can help focus your search on the best sites. Searching on specified sources, government and region-specific sites. Time travel. Find information from the past. Analyze historic satellite photographs and street views. Retrieve deleted tweets and bring long lost websites back from the dead.
Tom Trewinnard
Reporting on Organized Crime and Corruption (Room 311)
Part 1
Follow the Money Investigating dictators, high-level officials, crooks and organized crime figures internationally and at home.
Miranda Patrucic and Stevan Dojčinović
13:00 – 14:00
Lunch break
14:00 – 15:30
Belarus: How journalists work inside and outside the most repressive country in Europe (Soros Auditorium)
Belarus is the most dangerous country in Europe for media personnel. Critical journalists and bloggers are jailed, beaten, and pushed out of the country. There are Internet shutdowns. Independent news websites are blocked and newspapers cannot print. Hanna Liubakova tells a story of the year of state-sponsored repressions against independent media in Belarus, and how journalists are still able to operate both inside and outside the country.
Hanna Liubakova
Quality Control (Room 303)
Thanks to social media any mistake and any attempt to take shortcuts can be expected to be revealed. To make sure you don’t end up being the bad guy yourself you need a system for quality control. It is not only a question of fact checking, you also have to make sure you haven’t been trapped by tunnel vision.
Nils Hanson
Internet research (Room W32)
Part 2
Finding People on Social
People Research
Identify someone’s email address and phone number and use them in a search.
Social networks
Go beyond the search box and investigate individuals, groups and their relationships.
Searching Instagram
Use image-based social networks to trace people, find witnesses and evidence.
Searching LinkedIn
Make effective use of the most popular social network of the business community
Paul Myers(Online)
Reporting on Organized Crime and Corruption (Room 311)
Part 2
Think like a criminal The ten crimes you need to know and how they really work. Understand money laundering, embezzlement, drug smuggling, weapon trafficking and other sophisticated crimes.
Stevan Dojčinović and Miranda Patrucic
15:30 – 16:00
Coffee break
16:00 – 17:30
Your dream, an investigative book (Room 303)
The news coverage is done, but you know there is more to it. You want to go deeper, to write a book, but that is totally different from regular reporting. How do you prepare, what is the working process? And how do you succeed without losing your sanity?
Åsa Erlandsson
Internet research (Room W32)
Part 3
Technical Tools
Specialist technology to help you to find website owners, analyze web servers and trace people through their Internet connection and mobile phone.
Paul Myers(Online)
Reporting on Organized Crime and Corruption (Room 311)
Part 3
Learn to dissect a company’s financial statements and get leads for stories. Background a business, track offshore companies, find hidden assets. Tools, databases. Tips and tricks.
Miranda Patrucic and Stevan Dojčinović
18:00 – 24:00
Garden party at SSE Riga courtyard
18:00 Welcome snacks & drinks
19:30 – 20:30 Annual Journalism Excellence Award at SOROS auditorium (organised by Latvian Journalists’ Association in cooperation with Centre for Media Studies at SSE Riga: Summer School attendees are welcome to attend, simultanious translation will be provided)
21:00 – 22:00 Live music
22:00 – 24:00 DJ Rojs Rodžers
Conference badges required for entry!
09:30 – 11:00
Investigative journalism: Television (Soros Auditorium)
Part 1
Project management How to spot ideas and transform them into stories. Based on our experience of more than 20 years we have developed a method of avoiding unsustainable projects.
Joachim Dyfvermark
Infographics and data visualisation (Room 303)
Sometimes stories can be too complex to be put in words. That’s where infographics come in. This workshop will introduce you to methods of visual storytelling by showing several real-life cases from OCCRP’s work, as well as a basic framework for starting your own infographic projects.
Edin Pašović
Internet research (Room W32)
Part 1
Advanced Googling
How logic and language can help focus your search on the best sites. Searching on specified sources, government and region-specific sites. Time travel. Find information from the past. Analyse historic satellite photographs and street views. Retrieve deleted tweets and bring long lost websites back from the dead.
Tom Trewinnard
Reporting on Organized Crime and Corruption (Room 311)
Part 4
Starting your own investigation: developing sources and Interviewing crime figures.
Practical advice on picking investigative projects, planning newsgatherings, organizing yourself, sourcing and interviewing.
Stevan Dojčinović and Miranda Patrucic
11:00 – 11:30
Coffee break
11:30 – 13:00
Investigative journalism: Television (SOROS Auditorium)
Part 2
Storytelling
How to compete with the streaming entertainment by learning to write better scripts. The basics.
Joachim Dyfvermark
Can your grandmother understand your investigation? (Room 303)
Part 1
Once the investigation is completed and the writing begins, you and your editor must find a way of reaching an average reader. This is particularly challenging with longer investigative stories.
Ilya Lozovsky
Internet research (Room W32)
Part 2
Finding People on Social
People Research
Identify someone’s email address and phone number and use them in a search.
Social networks
Go beyond the search box and investigate individuals, groups and their relationships.
Searching Instagram
Use image-based social networks to trace people, find witnesses and evidence.
Searching LinkedIn
Make effective use of the most popular social network of the business community
Paul Myers(Online)
Reporting on Organized Crime and Corruption (Room 311)
Part 5
Role Play: Journalist vs. Crime Group
Experience real life situations encountered by journalists investigating organized crime. Tips for safety and dealing with threats.
Stevan Dojčinović and Miranda Patrucic
13:00 – 14:00
Lunch break
14:00 – 15:30
Investigative journalism: Television (Soros Auditorium)
Part 3
Storytelling
Writing a good story is like cooking: you need to have a plan before you start creating. This session is about transforming your research into a story.
Joachim Dyfvermark
Can your grandmother understand your investigation? (Room 303)
Part 2
How to use storytelling, signposting, selectivity, colour, chronology, and other techniques to ensure that your hard work is communicated clearly and has the impact it deserves.
Ilya Lozovsky
Internet research (Room W32)
Part 3
Technical Tools
Specialist technology to help you to find website owners, analyze web servers and trace people through their Internet connection and mobile phone.
Paul Myers(Online)
Reporting on Organized Crime and Corruption (Room 311)
Part 6
Mafia Wars. How to investigate in times when bodies pile up on the streets. Understand who is on whose side, find the best focus for your story and get the information.
Stevan Dojčinović and Miranda Patrucic
15:00 – 16:00
Coffee break
16:00 – 17:30
Investigative journalism: Television (Soros Auditorium)
Part 4
Interview
DOs and DON`Ts when conducting an interview.
Joachim Dyfvermark
Protect sources and yourself (Room 303)
Security of whistle-blowers, sources and reporters is paramount. Private security firms, intelligence services and organized crime use advanced dirty tricks to hamper investigative journalism. How do we protect ourselves and our most valuable assets?
Axel Gordh Humlesjö and Vlad Lavrov
Internet research (Room W32)
Part 4
Geolocation Challenge
Practical workshop on identifying locations using open source techniques.
Tom Trewinnard
Reporting on Organized Crime and Corruption (Room 311)
Part 7
Storytelling and Visualization
How to take the results of a very complex investigation and present them in a way that will excite your readers instead of putting them off.
Ilya Lozovsky
and Edin Pašović
10:00 – 13:00
Society under surveillance (Soros Auditorium)
Moderator: Axel Gordh Humlesjö
Speakers/panel: Linus Larsson, Tom Trewinnard and Roman Anin
We can now clearly see the down sides of our new digital society. Data brokers sell our personal information, social media platforms track every step we take, governments use high tech tools developed by the intelligence agencies to spy on its citizens. Private surveillance companies are gaining more money and power every year. Speakers will talk about spyware, facial and voice recognition and much more. How do we protect ourselves and how can we use this technique in our favour?
13:00
Lunch and networking