15:30
16:00
A Revealing Movie
Special Private Screening – Stay tuned
Main Auditorium
09:00
09:30 – 10:00
Welcome address
Nils Hanson, programme director and Lasma Antonevica, SSE Riga
Practical information
Main Auditorium
10:00 – 11:00
Investigative Journalism in the Times of War
Keynote speaker: Jakub Parusinski, Kyiv Independent
Main Auditorium
11:00 – 11:30
Break
11:30 – 13:00
Investigating war crimes
Reporting violations in an active conflict, previously a daunting and life threatening task, has now become easier thanks to open-source reporting techniques.
A guide to investigating war crimes using the new tools and techniques.
Manisha Ganguly
Main Auditorium
Excel for Beginners
Part 1
Digging into data for stories
Basics of Excel: navigating, sorting, filtering, using formulas and aggregating data with PivotTables; most common problems and how to avoid them.
(Bring your own computer with Excel installed. Computers with Excel will also be provided for training.)
Linda Larsson Kakuli
Room 303
Reporting on Organized Crime and Corruption
Protect yourself from surveillance
From planting bugs in the newsroom to infecting your mobile phone – how to detect and stop it.
Miranda Patrucic
Paul Radu & Vlad Lavrov
Room W32 (Law School Building)
13:00 – 14:00
Lunch
14:00 – 15:30
Fact-checking the propaganda
How to check facts in a country where facts are lies, and the truth is dangerous to deal with? Ilya Ber had to leave his country when it became a criminal offence to be a serious fact-checker. Here he gives insight into the limitations and opportunities to fact check the Russian propaganda.
Ilya Ber
Main Auditorium
Cleaning dirty data in Excel
Part 2
In this hands-on workshop you will learn to identify and clean dirty data in Excel, organize badly formatted data into rows and columns, convert formats and join/split up fields by using formulas.
(Bring your own computer with Excel installed. Computers with Excel will also be provided for training.)
Linda Larsson Kakuli
Room 303
Reporting on Organized Crime and Corruption
Follow the money
How to investigate multinational companies outside your border.
Miranda Patrucic
Paul Radu & Vlad Lavrov
Room W32 (Law School Building)
15:30 – 16:00
Break
16:00 – 17:30
Tracking oligarch’s assets in the Baltics
When the EU introduced sanctions against Belarus president Alexander Lukashenka due to rigged elections and a violent crackdown on protests, some oligarchs in his close circle started to shift assets to allies across Baltic borders. They were not the only ones. Russian oligarchs were also there. Journalists from investigative centres – Re: Baltica in Latvia, Delfi in Estonia, Siena in Lithuania – reveal the scale of sanction-busting in this illicit flow of wealth and how to track the oligarch’s assets.
Sanita Jemberga, Holger Roonemaa, Šarūnas Černiauskas
Moderator: Inga Springe
Main Auditorium
Data coaching one-on-one
Part 3
Problem with a specific job? An idea to develop? Or do you have an annoying Excel-problem? Come, meet Linda and figure out a solution.
Linda Larsson Kakuli
Room 303
Reporting on Organized Crime and Corruption
How not to get lost Methods to be efficient and focused.
Miranda Patrucic
Paul Radu & Vlad Lavrov
Room W32 (Law School Building)
09:30 – 11:00
Human Sources
Part 1
Do you need a source at a company or a government agency? Here you get tips on how to get it. You will learn methods that will help you to get inside the most closed and secret organizations.
Axel Gordh Humlesjö
and Nils Hanson
Main Auditorium
Story Based Inquiry
1. Start with a hypothesis
Any investigation begins with a question. A hypothesis is a preliminary answer to that question. By imagining your story in advance, you increase the chance of success. We teach you how to formulate a hypothesis in such a way that it opens up an inward path for your investigation. A hypothesis also helps you to assess the importance and viability of your idea before investing in further research.
Mark Hunter and Luuk Sengers
Room 303
Reporting on Organized Crime and Corruption
The sanctioned oligarchs Investigate how they try to save their fortunes in the western world.
Miranda Patrucic
Paul Radu & Vlad Lavrov
Room W32 (Law School Building)
11:00 – 11:30
Break
11:30 – 13:00
Human Sources
Part 2
“There is nothing more toxic to responsible journalism than an anonymous source. There is often nothing more necessary” Daniel Okrent, Public editor New York Times 2004.
Whistleblower and anonymous sources are crucial in our business. But how do you handle them and their information? How to secure that they are safe?
Nils Hanson and Axel Gordh Humlesjö
Main Auditorium
2. Nail down the timeline
Timelines are the royal road to a story. We show how to record events along a timeline, and how to deduce and verify other events that affect the story.
Mark Hunter and Luuk Sengers
Room 303
Reporting on Organized Crime and Corruption
Find the hidden wealth
You can find what the high official owns by using open-source techniques and tracking relatives.
Miranda Patrucic
Paul Radu & Vlad Lavrov
Room W32 (Law School Building)
13:00 – 14:00
Lunch
14:00 – 15:30
Internet Research
Part 1
When search engines are
your best friend
Hands-on tips and tricks on how to find exactly what you are looking for. Together we try out advanced Google search operators, and other free internet resources.
Bring your own computer if you want to follow along
Emelie Rosén
Main Auditorium
3. Map the stakeholders
A source map shows who is involved in your story — as initiators, witnesses, profiteers and victims — and what documents they create. The map shows the relationships between stakeholders, the paper trail and the target audience for your story. The latter is essential to increase impact.
4. Master the material
Our study of professional practice shows that organization is the key to successful projects. Our specially developed tool is called the ‘masterfile’. In it, sources and insights are collected and organized. The masterfile is also a management tool that provides insight into the status of the investigation and facilitates collaboration among team members.
Mark Hunter and Luuk Sengers
Room 303
Reporting on Organized Crime and Corruption
Understand financials
Numbers tell us a story if we ask the right questions.
Miranda Patrucic
Paul Radu & Vlad Lavrov
Room W32 (Law School Building)
15:30 – 16:00
Break
16:00 – 17:30
Internet Research
Part 2
Social media research – beyond Facebook
Facebook is not what it once was when it comes to research on social media. This session explores tools that still works on Facebook, but also explores several other social media networks that might be way more useful for you.
Bring your own computer if you want to follow along.
Emelie Rosén
Main Auditorium
Let the story tell the facts
We have never met a researcher who could not find interesting material, but we have met many who stumbled in producing the story. We learn how to use narrative structures and literary or cinematic storytelling techniques.
Mark Hunter and Luuk Sengers
Room 303
Reporting on Organized Crime and Corruption
Reveal money laundering
Practical tips on following the traces.
Miranda Patrucic
Paul Radu & Vlad Lavrov
Room W32 (Law School Building)
19:00
Garden Party
REPORTING ON THE WAR
Moderator: Axel Gordh Humlesjö
10:00 – 11:00
11:00 – 11:30
Break
11:30 – 13:00
Reporting from the inside and the outside
After almost six months of reporting on the war – what have we learned? Four investigative journalists, one from inside the war zone, discuss methods and tools, dilemmas and obstacles, resources and impact. The discussion will give the attendees insight and concrete tips on dealing with the most demanding assignment for a journalist.
Anna Babinets, Ilya Ber, Manisha Ganguly and Pavel Merzlikin
Main Auditorium