Hosted by The Examination, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates global health threats.Explore how to hold powerful interests accountable in the global health arena — with a focus on investigating the key industries that drive the most preventable deaths worldwide. This day-long training event includes interactive workshops, cross-disciplinary panels, practical case studies, and networking opportunities to build a more diverse community of investigative health reporters.Space is limited for this event. GIJC attendees with a background in health or business reporting can register their interest here.

From government surveillance to disinformation and algorithmic accountability, this full-day workshop brings together leading technology journalists, editors, and investigative networks to tackle the field’s most pressing themes. Participants will explore how to report deeply on recurring tech-related issues, share investigative methods, and discuss ways to increase collaboration and impact across borders — while also exploring how journalists can ethically leverage the latest technologies to hold powers to account.Space is limited for this event. GIJC attendees with a background in technology reporting can register their interest here.

Are you working on a sensitive investigation? Have you ever been threatened because of your work? Explore how to secure your information with the SafeBox Network, a unique and innovative mechanism. Developed by the award-winning organization Forbidden Stories, whose mission is to pursue the investigations of silenced reporters, the SafeBox Network is used by over 200 journalists worldwide. Most of the journalists have chosen to communicate about their membership to deter those who threaten them. The session includes hands-on exercises, open Q&A, and the opportunity to join the SafeBox Network. See more details here: https://forbiddenstories.org/safebox/

This meeting will bring together the outgoing and newly-elected Steering Committee of the Global Forum for Media Development. Every four years GFMD members elect a representative cohort of 17 delegates who are responsible for major strategic and policy matters, GFMD memberships issues, and oversee the work of the GFMD Secretariat. A new GFMD Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson and Treasurer will be elected at the meeting to serve from 2025 to 2029.If you or your colleagues will be attending GIJC25, please let the GFMD Secretariat know via email (communications@gfmd.info) in order to coordinate opportunities to connect and collaborate during the conference.

Welcome to the 2025 Global Investigative Journalism Conference! GIJN is excited to welcome you all — our latest cohort of GIJC fellows. Get tips on how to make the most of the conference and meet your fellow colleagues in a relaxed and informal setting. Join us to expand your network and build connections that last beyond the conference.❗Note: This is a closed, invitation-only session for GIJC25 fellows.

Join your colleagues from around the world for a drink and appetizers as we celebrate the start of GIJC25. We're kicking off the main conference with this informal get-together the night before, where you can greet old friends, make new connections, drink a toast, and relax a bit. Your hosts will briefly say hello, but there's no formal program tonight — this evening is just to catch up, share a few moments, and jump-start what promises to be an extraordinary week. ❗NOTE: For security reasons, only registered attendees are allowed to participate in the conference and the special events. Please leave your spouses or plus-ones at home.

Join us as we officially convene GIJC25! Expect a warm welcome from your hosts — both local and global — plus tips on how to get the most out of the conference and announcements about event highlights, networking, security, and more.

Our keynote speaker this year is Maria Ressa, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist who co-founded the pioneering investigative news outlet in the Philippines, Rappler. Her career spans nearly 40 years of journalism work in Asia. Ressa faced political harassment and arrests under the Duterte government. She is author of the book "How to Stand Up to a Dictator." She is CEO of Rappler, and also a professor of practice at Columbia University, where she co-leads its Technology Initiative. Her journalistic work and fight for press freedom has been recognized worldwide: she was named one of Time's Most Influential Women of the Century in 2020, and also, in 2021, UNESCO awarded her the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, among many other awards.

Following Nobel laureate Maria Ressa's keynote, an esteemed panel of journalists from across Asia will discuss key investigative trends in the region, the context in which relevant stories are being uncovered, as well as the opportunities for partnerships and impact in reporting on the continent. Moderator Steven Gan, co-founder of Malaysiakini, will lead an hour-long discussion with Glenda Gloria (Philippines), Wahyu Dhyatmika (Indonesia), Sherry Lee (Taiwan), Nitin Sethi (India), Yong-jin Kim (South Korea), and Gunel Safarova (Azerbaijan).

Li Wei Soon from the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) will present the paper "The Challenge of Practicing Environmental Investigative Journalism in Malaysia." Li Wei will explore how institutional and political structures shape environmental reporting practices based on interviews with about a dozen journalists.Irma Garnesia from Indonesian Data Journalism Network will present the paper "Challenges in Mainstreaming Environmental Journalism in Indonesia: From Alternative Media to Journalism Classes at Universities,” co-authored with Yearry Setianto, and Rachma A. Ramadhani. Using a political economy of media framework, the authors analyzed the roles of NGOs, journalism associations, and international funders in developing and institutionalizing environmental journalism in Indonesia.Sarah Habershon from Leipzig University will present the paper “Eye in the Sky: Remote Sensing for Investigative Journalism.” The research examines the state of current practice by exploring and classifying a curated sample of journalistic texts involving remotely sensed Earth observation data, according to the data's role in the investigation, verification, and telling of the story.🪑All sessions are first-come, first-serve. That means people who arrive first will get seats. Be aware that some sessions are in relatively small rooms and they will fill up quickly.

Illegal mining typically occurs in isolated, hard-to-reach locations, often protected by corrupt authorities or powerful local interests. These operations can cause severe, long-term environmental and social damage, making media exposure crucial. This panel features newsrooms that have successfully uncovered evidence of illegal mining across different contexts. Learn investigative techniques for accessing remote locations, using satellite imagery, analyzing environmental data, and building cases that reveal both the existence and devastating consequences of these operations.

This hands-on workshop helps investigative journalists understand the importance of preparing accurate, reliable, and consistent data for analysis. It introduces common data quality issues — such as missing values, duplicates, and formatting errors — and demonstrates step-by-step methods to detect, clean, and transform raw datasets. Explore both manual and automated tools, along with best practices and workflows, to ensure data is trustworthy and ready for effective analysis or storytelling.

Web scraping is one of the most useful methods for gathering investigative data from public sources. This hands-on workshop guides journalists through essential no-code scraping techniques for extracting structured data from PDFs, static websites, and complex datasets using simple plugins or free tools. Whether you're dealing with budget documents, regulatory filings, or multi-page online databases, this panel offers techniques to efficiently extract and organize information that powers compelling investigations without writing a single line of code.

The challenges of managing investigative projects and teams within a hostile press environment are magnified even further in exile. How can newsroom leaders navigate threats, bans, team dislocation, and censorship circumvention technologies to access documents, sources, and indeed local audiences from afar? In this panel, editors from Venezuela, Afghanistan, and Burundi share transferable techniques to maintain healthy teams and investigations while in exile, as well as insights on leveraging digital tools and risk mitigation methods that could benefit any newsroom.

What makes managing an investigative journalism newsroom different from managing a newspaper or TV show? Managing team morale and rigorous editorial standards during lengthy investigations requires specialized skills. Leaders must handle massive data flows, develop long-term editorial strategies, and navigate team dynamics when results take months to materialize. This panel identifies the unique leadership challenges facing investigative editors and reveals practical management approaches that deliver sustained excellence in complex, time-intensive reporting projects.

Investigative podcasts have revolutionized how audiences consume complex stories, reaching listeners who rarely engage with traditional journalism. This session explores how to craft compelling serialized investigations for audio format. Learn storytelling techniques that maintain listener engagement across multiple episodes, methods for building narrative tension with documents and interviews, and production strategies for long-form investigative audio content.

Photojournalist Ron Haviv draws on decades of frontline experience to guide participants through the practice of investigative photojournalism. The session examines how visual reporting can uncover hidden truths, demand accountability, and serve as legal evidence. Through case studies, Haviv breaks down each stage of a project — from initial idea and research, to planning and logistics, to execution in the field. Participants learn practical tools and a sharper understanding of both the possibilities and ethical responsibilities that come with documenting history through photography.

Some of the most innovative investigative collaborations are produced at universities and journalism development centers, where young watchdogs and mentees build skills while tackling carefully chosen public interest projects. Veteran journalist faculty leaders across Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America will share new models for cross-border collaboration between students, as well as exciting plans to increase hands-on accountability projects.

Reporting crimes during armed conflict serves dual purposes: informing citizens and creating evidence for future justice proceedings. However, this challenging, dangerous work becomes exponentially harder in territories occupied by foreign forces that control movement and restrict local rights, including press freedom. This panel explores innovative methods Ukrainian journalists have developed to overcome these obstacles, documenting war crimes despite surveillance, censorship, and threats.

Increasingly, investigative journalism outlets are experimenting with theatrical performances to reach new audiences. This format has developed into two main models: journalists collaborating with actors to present their work live, and theatrical adaptations of investigative reports. These productions have shown strong public appeal, filling theaters and generating revenue. This panel examines the practical aspects of organizing such events, including budget planning, promotional strategies, as well as offering guidance for journalists considering this alternative storytelling medium.

Emircan Saç from Turkey will present the results from a study titled "Fact-Checking in Turkey: Comparing Government-Controlled and Independent Organizations During the 2023 Earthquake". Emircan examines the differences in claim selections, subject focus, and types of sources the different category of organizations prefer and consider reliable.Tamara Yesmin Toma from Dismislab in Bangladesh will present her research titled "Disinformation Got Smarter, So Did We: How Traditional Fact-Checking Evolved into Intelligence-Driven Investigations in Bangladesh." She examines Bangladesh’s disinformation ecosystem across an authoritarian-to-transitional period, revealing a multi-layer architecture in which manufactured expertise (fabricated academics), manufactured consensus (bot brigades), and a foreign veneer (ghost authors abroad) work in concert to legitimize power, stigmatize critics, and travel back into domestic discourse.🪑 All sessions are first-come, first-serve. That means people who arrive first will get seats. Be aware that some sessions are in relatively small rooms and they will fill up quickly.

This hands-on workshop teaches journalists to uncover hidden stories behind aircraft used for narcotics trafficking and corruption schemes. Participants learn about open source research techniques, public databases, and investigative methods to trace private planes and expose their connections to organized crime and political networks. The session also provides practical skills for following aviation paper trails that lead to major corruption and trafficking stories often overlooked by traditional reporting methods.