Speakers 2026 – Centre for Media Studies at SSE Riga

Summer School on Investigative Reporting

Nils Hanson

Sweden

Nils Hanson

Sweden

Nils Hanson is an award-winning investigative editor and reporter with over 30 years of experience. From 2004 to 2018, he was the executive producer of Mission Investigate at SVT, overseeing nearly 500 investigations. Under his leadership, the program won ten international awards in its final two years, including an IRE and an Emmy Award for Deceptive Diplomacy – Cover-up by the UN in 2019. His handbook on investigative journalism is considered a classic in Sweden. Today, he works as a freelance editor and reporter while lecturing on investigative journalism worldwide.

Craig Silverman

USA

Craig Silverman

USA

Craig Silverman is an award-winning journalist and author and one of the world's leading experts on online disinformation, fake news, and digital investigations. He is the cofounder of Indicator, a newsletter and website dedicated to exposing digital deception and to equipping professionals with knowledge and skills to help them investigate it. Prior to Indicator, he was a national reporter for ProPublica covering voting, platforms, disinformation, and online manipulation. Craig previously served as the founding editor of BuzzFeed Canada and the media editor of BuzzFeed News, where he pioneered coverage of digital disinformation and media manipulation. Craig is also the editor of the European Journalism Centre’s Verification Handbook series. These free online books offer world-class guidance on how to verify online content and investigate disinformation and media manipulation.

Lisa Röstlund

Sweden

Lisa Röstlund

Sweden

Lisa Röstlund is a reporter at Aftonbladet in Sweden. She has long investigated climate and environmental issues. In 2023, she won Sweden’s top award for investigative journalism, the Golden Spade (Guldspaden), for her book on the forestry industry, Skogslandet (The Forest Land). In 2025, her investigation of the Norwegian oil industry was published in the book The Norway Paradox. The same year, Letting the World Know was released and has since become required reading at several Swedish universities.

Miranda Patrucic

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Miranda Patrucic

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Miranda Patrucic is an award-winning investigative journalist and the editor-in-chief of OCCRP. Based in Sarajevo, she specialises in uncovering corruption, money laundering, and hidden assets across Central Asia, the Balkans, and the Caucasus. Her investigations have exposed billions in bribes in Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, as well as the offshore wealth of ruling elites. She has collaborated with ICIJ on major projects, including Swiss Leaks, the Panama Papers, and Paradise Papers. Patrucic has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Knight International Journalism Award, the Global Shining Light Award, the IRE Tom Renner Award, the Daniel Pearl Award, and the European Press Prize. A sought-after speaker and trainer, she educates journalists worldwide on financial investigations and tracking illicit funds.

Carolina Jemsby

Sweden

Carolina Jemsby

Sweden

Carolina Jemsby is an award-winning journalist and author. She is a staff reporter with TV4’s investigative programme Kalla fakta (Hard Facts) and has produced several notable documentaries, including The Lundin Case – Silence Every Witness, which won Kristallen for Best TV Investigation in 2025. Her book Regret (with Karin Mattisson), about Swedish transgender healthcare, was published in 2024 to critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the Vendela Prize. She previously worked with Uppdrag Granskning (Mission Investigate) and Dokument Inifrån at Swedish Television (SVT). From 2003 to 2009, she served as TV4’s Africa correspondent, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Gerda Nilsson Tysklind

Sweden

Gerda Nilsson Tysklind

Sweden

Gerda Nilsson Tysklind is a documentary film editor and post producer, known for her work at Kalla fakta (Hard Facts), one of Sweden’s leading programs for investigative journalism. She is strongly engaged in advancing visual storytelling to increase accessibility and global impact of investigative journalism. Among her recent work are the award winning documentaries "The Troll Factory: An Undercover Investigation" which exposed a systematic troll farm within one of Sweden's biggest political parties, and "The Lundin Case - Silence Every Witness" which uncovered who is accountable for the violent witness intimidation in Sweden's largest court case to date.

Lovisa Thuresson

Sweden

Lovisa Thuresson

Sweden

Lovisa Thuresson is a documentary filmmaker. She began her career as a news photographer and later worked as a correspondent in Paris, covering Europe and the Middle East. At TV4’s Kalla fakta (Hard Facts), her work has ranged from investigations into the CIA’s rendition program, organized gang criminality, and the hidden sides of the beauty industry, to the struggles of COVID-19 patients. She is the first woman to win Sweden’s Picture of the Year in the film category and has also been awarded the Guldspaden, Kristallen and Power of Journalism. Most recently, she filmed The Lundin Case – Silence Every Witness.

Vlad Lavrov

Latvia

Vlad Lavrov

Latvia

Vlad Lavrov joined OCCRP in 2011 and currently serves as the organisation’s Security Editor. His responsibilities include developing safety protocols for high-risk projects and travel for staff, member centres, and partner organisations; investigating threats to reporters; developing plans to mitigate risks and ensure safety; handling emergency situations; organising and conducting training; assessing the security of working premises.

Johannes Kristjansson

Iceland

Johannes Kristjansson

Iceland

Johannes Kr. Kristjánsson is an award-winning investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker based in Iceland. His reporting gained international attention during the Panama Papers investigation, when his on-camera confrontation with Iceland’s Prime Minister went viral and contributed to the Prime Minister’s resignation. As part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) team, he contributed to the Pulitzer Prize–winning Panama Papers project and was later nominated for an International Emmy Award for a documentary produced in collaboration with SVT and Süddeutsche Zeitung. Over a 25-year career, Kristjánsson has worked as an investigative reporter, producer and editor for major Icelandic media, including the investigative news magazine Compass on Channel 2 and the national broadcaster RÚV. He has received numerous honors, including the EDDA Award, The Icelandic Journalism Prize and awards for Best Investigative Journalism nd Coverage of the Year. He is currently producing the podcast series On the Scene, offering rare access inside Reykjavík’s police departments and the emergency room of Iceland’s National University Hospital.

Sven Bergman

Sweden

Sven Bergman

Sweden

Sven Bergman, Sweden, is an investigative reporter and producer for the program “Uppdrag Granskning” (“Mission Investigate”) on SVT, Swedish Public Broadcasting. Starting in 1991, Bergman travelled in occupied East Timor and Burma, reporting for The Washington Post and Swedish Public Radio. Bergman has participated in a number of cross-border investigations, being a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, ICIJ. Alongside Icelandic partner Jóhannes Kr. Kristjánsson, Bergman carried out the perhaps most notable interview in the ICIJ investigation Panama Papers, which saw the resignation of the Icelandic prime minister. For many years, part of the renowned Swedish trio “Trojkan” – with Joachim Dyfvermark and Fredrik Laurin – recognised internationally for documentaries on the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program, corrupt arms deals and illegal fisheries. The trio has three times been awarded the Stora Journalistpriset, Sweden’s highest journalism honour. Bergman has been named Swedish Environmental Journalist of the Year, won honours from the Overseas Press Club of America, Prix Europa and ICIJ's Daniel Pearl Award, and been nominated for an Emmy Award.

Shaya Laughlin

Malta

Shaya Laughlin

Malta

Shaya Laughlin is OCCRP's research director, co-leading the research and data team. She joined the organization in 2023 as a researcher for the Middle East and North Africa region. Prior to that, she specialized in leading humanitarian research projects in conflict and post-war contexts. Shaya began her journalism career in 2013 as a reporter for News Corp Australia. She speaks English, French, and Arabic.

Coco Gubbels

The Netherlands

Coco Gubbels

The Netherlands

Coco Gubbels is an experienced process and project manager who combines her expertise in managing large-scale projects for international companies with a background in investigative journalism. Her work focuses on the growing need for structured project management within (cross-border) investigative journalism. Drawing on her dual experience, Coco introduces techniques and tools from project management that enhance collaboration and efficiency in today’s evolving media landscape. With over a decade of freelance investigative journalism experience and a degree in cultural anthropology, Coco brings a unique perspective to international collaborations. She mentors cross-border investigative teams for funds, works as a freelancer with major European investigative projects, and serves on the board of VVOJ, the Dutch-Flemish Association for Investigative Journalism. She is author of the GIJN Guide to Project Management in Investigative Journalism and co-author of several books and online articles about Collaborative Journalism.

Jim Mintz

USA

Jim Mintz

USA

Jim Mintz is the founder of the SEEK Initiative, based in Berlin, an organisation that supports “community leaders, activists, citizen journalists, and NGOs to drive change in their communities through grassroots investigations in the public interest.” https://seekinitiative.org/ He has spent his life conducting investigations and training investigators. For more than 15 years, he has been an adjunct professor of investigative reporting at the Columbia Journalism School in New York. Jim Mintz is the founder of the Mintz Group and a member of its board of directors. Jim retired at the beginning of 2023, after more than 40 years conducting investigations all over the world, primarily for law firms and general counsel.

Stefanie Dodt

Switzerland

Stefanie Dodt

Switzerland

Stefanie Dodt works as TV-correspondent for ARD (public German broadcaster) based in Geneva, covering Switzerland and the international organizations like the UN. She is an award-winning investigative journalist and director of investigative documentaries. For almost 10 years, she has been conducting and leading international investigative research projects of ARD with media partners such as Süddeutsche Zeitung, ProPublica or The Guardian. Her work is focused on human rights abuses and corruption. She worked on the "Paradise Papers", the diesel-scandal and uncovered how Volkswagen collaborated with the military police in Brazil. Stefanie teaches investigative research and storytelling at the “Henri-Nannen-Schule” and the “Journalistische Nachwuchsförderung (JONA)”. She is board member of "Netzwerk Recherche". She was based for almost four years in New York City, working at the local ARD studio. https://seekinitiative.org/ He has spent his life conducting investigations and training investigators. For more than 15 years, he has been an adjunct professor of investigative reporting at the Columbia Journalism School in New York. Jim Mintz is the founder of the Mintz Group and a member of its board of directors. Jim retired at the beginning of 2023, after more than 40 years conducting investigations all over the world, primarily for law firms and general counsel.

Olga Rudenko

Ukraine

Olga Rudenko

Ukraine

Olga Rudenko is the chief editor of the Kyiv Independent, an award-winning media start-up launched in November 2021 by the former editorial team of the Kyiv Post. Olga is the former deputy chief editor of the Kyiv Post. She has written for global publications, and was a fellow at the Chicago Booth School of Business in 2021. She was featured on the cover of Time magazine in May 2022 as one of the publication’s Next Generation Leaders, and won the Women of Europe award in the “Woman in Action” category in December 2022. Olga Rudenko is the author of the Ukraine Weekly newsletter, which focuses on key events that have shaped the week.

Šarūnas Černiauskas

Lithuania

Šarūnas Černiauskas

Lithuania

Šarūnas Černiauskas leads Siena.lt, a Lithuanian investigative journalism center. Since its launch in 2019, Siena has contributed to multiple global investigations (Pandora Papers, FinCEN Files, Scam Empire and others) and has led to multiple cases of impact in its home country. Siena's investigations resulted in multi-million euro fines for sanction violations, hundreds of thousands in returned taxes and several resignation of senior officials. In 2025, Siena's work has led to the resignation of Lithuania's prime minister.

Brenda Chávez

Spain

Brenda Chávez

Spain

Brenda Chávez is a freelance investigative, data, and solutions journalist based in Madrid. She covers the intersection of global consumption, supply chains, human rights, migration, gender, labour issues and sustainability challenges. Her work includes reportage, investigative journalism, an award-winning podcast and several bestselling non-fiction books on consumption and sustainability. She contributes to various media outlets, including The Guardian, Unbias The News, Equal Times, Follow The Money, eldiario.es and El País. She is committed to using journalism to promote social and environmental transparency.

Aleksandar Metodijev

Germany

Aleksandar Metodijev

Germany

Aleksandar Metodijev is a journalist based in Bonn and Skopje with extensive experience in television, radio, and digital media. He has worked for several Macedonian broadcasters and served as a journalist, editor, and presenter for Deutsche Welle. His reporting focuses on foreign policy, economics, human rights, and environmental issues, with a strong interest in disinformation and digital storytelling. In 2024, his investigative project “The Fragile Forests” received multiple journalism awards, recognizing its impact and excellence in environmental reporting.

Leana Hosea

United Kingdom

Leana Hosea

United Kingdom

Leana Hosea is co-founder of Watershed Investigations, an award-winning nonprofit journalism unit publishing and broadcasting water-focused investigations in the mainstream media. Her work has featured in the Guardian, BBC radio and TV, ITV, the Times, Daily Mail etc and Watershed was the UK partners in the awarded "Forever Pollution Project”. Prior to setting up Watershed in 2023, Leana worked for the BBC for 18 years in global news, as well as for London investigations, as a reporter and producer for TV, radio and online. She’s also made documentary films, radio programmes and was a Knight Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan.

Anne-Marie and Gustaf Ander Centre for Media Studies

Summer School on Investigative Reporting

Nils Hanson

Craig Silverman

Lisa Röstlund

Miranda Patrucic

Carolina Jemsby

Gerda Nilsson Tysklind

Lovisa Thuresson

Vlad Lavrov

Johannes Kristjansson

Sven Bergman

Shaya Laughlin

Coco Gubbels

Jim Mintz

Stefanie Dodt

Olga Rudenko

Šarūnas Černiauskas

Brenda Chávez

Aleksandar Metodijev

Leana Hosea

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