15:00
16:00 – 18:00
REVEALING THE CORRUPTION IN UKRAINE
Olga Simanovych
The war hasn´t prevented Ukrainian journalists from uncovering corruption in their country. Here, with video examples, you will get an overview of these crucial investigations, often made under heavy pressure and resistance. As a regional editor for the Global Investigating Journalism Network, Olga Simanovych keeps an eye on the development of investigative journalism in Ukraine, its successes and issues. During this session, Olga will focus on the outstanding anticorruption investigations and the specific challenges that journalists faced after the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion. Besides regular air raids and missile-related power outages, the lack of editorial staff, restrictions on access to public information and closed official databases, journalists faced surveillance and pressure from government agencies, as well as threats, digital attacks, trolling and hating campaigns, organised by bad actors, who’s wrongdoings were uncovered.
The following three Ukrainian investigative journalists will participate on Zoom:
Yuriy Nikolov, who was the first to uncover overpriced government purchases for the army
Maxym Opanasenko, Bihus Info, will talk about their anticorruption investigations and how they investigated surveillance organised by the Ukrainian Security Service.
Oleksandra Hubitskaya, NGL.media, is a representative of the Lviv regional media, which has recently been very active in publishing anti-corruption investigations.
18:00 – 20:00
Networking & Drinks
📍 Inner Yard of Stockholm School of Economics in Riga
09:00
09:30 – 10:00
10:00 – 11:00
Yevheniia Motorevska leads the War Crimes Team of the Kyiv Independent. She is an experienced investigative reporter who, since February 24, 2022, has been working under extreme conditions. Here, she will talk about threats, fear, security, methods, and how her team worked with the documentaries that led to the prestigious American IRE award earlier this year.
11:00 – 11:30
Break
11:30 – 13:00
Finding time for investigative projects can be challenging if you work with limited resources. Data editor Rune Ytreberg has the solution. He will demonstrate how journalists at the small local newspaper iTromsø in northern Norway use AI to empower their research. He will reveal the secret Arctic AI strategy. Data First: Get the data and use simple AI models to gather, analyse, summarise and detect news. “If we can do it, you can too – and we are open to cross-border cooperation”.
Where to look for stories in the closed world of sports? How to develop sources and build a case with them? How to get the documents which often are scarce? Where are the cracks in a system where everyone wants to keep a clean surface? Examples of successful cases that can inspire you to do similar stories. There is one good thing about the world of sports: the structure is pretty similar all over Europe.
Corruption and financial crime can take many forms, and many buzzwords and technical terms are involved, from money laundering to “pump and dumps”. We’ll look at the most common and important types of criminality to look for – what they involve, and how to spot them:
13:00 – 14:00
Lunch
14:00 – 15:30
Your credibility rests on the fact that the story is accurate and fair. To ensure you don´t end up as the bad guy yourself, you need a system for quality control. You can call it The Investigative Reporters Survival Kit.
As in all investigative journalism there are challenges when you want to investigate sports journalism. How do you handle the conflict of wanting interviews with the investigating of a national hero or a local team? Especially when you have to meet the athletes week after week at games, competitions and practice sessions. How do you handle supporters who don’t like what you are doing with their favourite team or player? How should you view the use of anonymous sources? How do you balance the risk of getting too close to sources?
Recently, one of the types of data we’ve been exploring at OCCRP is Georgian trade data, as published by the Georgian Ministry of Finance. We are analyzing the different categories of goods imported and exported across several years, year-on-year and month-on-month, seeking irregularities. The issue is that the data is millions of rows long, and the data requires us to aggregate based on different criteria to see if any particular category has anomalously increased over the period of time we are interested in. That is far too much data to explore in Excel or Google Sheets – those tools simply don’t support that amount of data.
Dataiku is probably the most powerful tool journalists can use for investigations and everyday artificial intelligence. Learn how your team can cooperate to make data-driven news stories without coding. In three sessions, you will learn how to use the platform to make a data-driven production: import, clean, combine, and analyse data, and maybe use AI to predict the future.
Limited to 25 participants.
Bring your own laptop!
15:30 – 16:00
Break
16:00 – 17:30
Your credibility rests on the fact that the story is accurate and fair. To ensure you don´t end up as the bad guy yourself, you need a system for quality control. You can call it The Investigative Reporters Survival Kit.
How can you dig despite that time and resources do not really allow it? The Latvian TV shows Nothing Personal, TV3 and De Facto, LTV air weekly. How do they organize their work to live up to their investigative ambitions?
Many of the biggest stories in the history of journalism have relied on anonymous sources, from Watergate to The Panama Papers. But how do you recruit secret sources and keep them safe? And what are the hazards of basing your story on people whom you can never reveal to the public? Axel Gordh Humlesjö will share his methods and provide examples of corruption investigations at OCCRP’s Swedish co-operation partner Mission Investigate, SVT.
Dataiku is probably the most powerful tool journalists can use for investigations and everyday artificial intelligence. Learn how your team can cooperate to make data-driven news stories without coding. In three sessions, you will learn how to use the platform to make a data-driven production: import, clean, combine, and analyse data, and maybe use AI to predict the future.
Limited to 25 participants.
Bring your own laptop!
09:30 – 11:00
One of the most challenging and interesting aspects of journalistic research is finding people. This session will cover the art of “Jigsaw Investigation,” which involves putting together clues to identify and locate an individual. It will cover using detective skills and specialist databases and will use real-life investigations to show how it is done.
ABC OF CLIMATE INVESTIGATIONS: Foundations of investigative climate reporting
📍 Auditorium 303
An update on the state of scientific knowledge and political action on climate change. What do we know and what is yet unknown? Who are the key players and how can journalists scrutinize and gain genuine insight into their actions? Discussion about the forms that investigative climate journalism can take, using a number of cases from European and international media.
The Secrets of Securitas is a thriller documentary that follows a lead from inside one of the world’s biggest security companies. Bribes, brothels and party trips on the highest level are exposed through secret recordings obtained by the Emmy-winning team at SVT’s” Mission Investigate”. The documentary follows how high executives at the headquarters in Stockholm use bribe-takers to win public contracts and visit prostitutes connected to the Russian mafia, which the national intelligence agency describes as a threat to national security due to Securita’s role in the nation’s military complex. Three people have been fired and convicted for corruption after the investigation. Axel Gordh Humlesjö will talk about the research process, how to use hidden cameras and surveillance techniques and how this resulted from a yearlong source recruitment strategy.
If possible – watch the investigation before the session: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6783108/video/839502048
Dataiku is probably the most powerful tool journalists can use for investigations and everyday artificial intelligence. Learn how your team can cooperate to make data-driven news stories without coding. In three sessions, you will learn how to use the platform to make a data-driven production: import, clean, combine, and analyse data, and maybe use AI to predict the future.
Limited to 25 participants.
Bring your own laptop!
11:00 – 11:30
Break
11:30 – 13:00
This session will cover techniques for finding images and using them in investigations. It will cover reverse image searching and advanced biometric tools for people research. It will also cover the use of image editing tools and specialist skills and sites for identifying locations and verifying the integrity of images.
ABC OF CLIMATE INVESTIGATIONS: Finding, using and analyzing climate data
📍 Auditorium 303
Starting with an overview of widely accessible climate and environmental data sources, this session invites participants to imagine and plan projects through case-based group challenges. In the first, participants will propose an analysis of existing data from one of the sources presented initially. In the second, participants will learn about simple methods for real-world data collection and will design investigative projects using one or more of these methods.
What kinds of documents are best when looking for a paper trail to prove corruption and criminality? We’ll countdown some of our favourites, from company statutes to U.S. affidavits to mortgage charges, and flag what to look out for.
13:00 – 14:00
Lunch
14:00 – 15:30
GETTING THE SECRET DOCUMENTS
Maria Georgieva
📍 Main Auditorium
Here, you will learn methods of obtaining secret documents, how to work with intelligence sources, and how open and leaked databases from Russia can open up new possibilities for investigative journalism and collaborative documentaries. Maria was part of a groundbreaking cross-border project launched after Moscow decided to start the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Nordic public service journalists exposed Russian espionage by combining intelligence sources and leaked Russian databases.
ABC OF CLIMATE INVESTIGATIONS: Investigating climate plans, goals and green marketing claims
Agnes Walton
📍 Auditorium 303
Start with a presentation of the investigative journalism that upended the carbon credits and offsets markets in 2023. We go on to consider other opportunities for investigative work that can hold powers accountable to promises and environmental claims made, and we look at methods for investigating the real-world progress, or lack of it, behind lofty environmental goals.
What kinds of documents are best when looking for a paper trail to prove corruption and criminality? We’ll countdown some of our favourites, from company statutes to U.S. affidavits to mortgage charges, and flag what to look out for.
One of the most challenging and interesting aspects of journalistic research is finding people. This session will cover the art of “Jigsaw Investigation,” which involves putting together clues to identify and locate an individual. It will cover using detective skills and specialist databases and will use real-life investigations to show how it is done.
15:30 – 16:00
Break
16:00 – 17:30
SCREENING: UPROOTED
The IRE-award-winning documentary by Kyiv Independent on Russia’s abduction of Ukrainian children.
📍 Main Auditorium
IRE Award from the American organisation Investigative Reporters and Editors is one of the most prestigious prizes in the world of investigative journalism. This is how Uprooted was praised by the judges earlier this year:
“This was a searing and comprehensive piece of reporting that unmasked the Russian government’s abduction and relocation of Ukrainian children, making an emotional impact far greater than a list of names and numbers or scattered news reports ever could. Judges were also impressed by the team’s use of open-source intelligence and strong accountability interviews with the specific officials responsible for taking children from their homes and families — all work that will likely stand as an important testament once the war is over.”
ABC OF CLIMATE INVESTIGATIONS: How to visualize and present your environmental reporting
📍 Auditorium 303
So, you have a scoop. But how do you frame the narrative and build a story that matters to your audience? In this session you will learn tools for visualizing environmental stories, rendering the invisible visible, and crafting human narratives that lead to engagement, action and accountability. You will learn practical principles for capturing environmental video, audio and images that enhance your text and data analysis.
How not to get lost? Tips on methods to be efficient and focused.
This session will cover techniques for finding images and using them in investigations. It will cover reverse image searching and advanced biometric tools for people research. It will also cover the use of image editing tools and specialist skills and sites for identifying locations and verifying the integrity of images.
19:00 – 23:00
Garden Party
📍 Inner Yard of Stockholm School of Economics in Riga