Global Investigative

Journalism Conference

gijc2015.org

Lillehammer, 8th11th. october 2015

Global network

Ilegally there

Piles of data

Reporting Ebola

14 years, 9 conferences,
the global network has
been expanding p 610

Documenting life on a
Russian garbage dump,
for 14 years p 1823

James B. Steele on how punchcards changed the way of investigative reporting p 2832

Fighting through reporting

an unknown and deadly
enemy p 3640

Free Khadija
Journalist Khadija Ismayilova has been imprisoned for reporting on
Azerbaijans First Family p 1216

EDITORIAL

WELCOME TO GIJC 2015

Welcome to
Lillehammer 2.0
WE AT THE Norwegian Foundation for In-

vestigative Journalism (SKUP) are proud to

welcome you to the ninth Global Investigative Journalism Conference.

When SKUP presented the bid of hosting

the most important gathering of the worlds
investigative journalists two years ago in
Rio, our promise was that GIJC15 would be
a true global conference with participants
from more than 100 countries.

This week close to 900 journalists from a record breaking 121 countries are present here
in Lillehammer, Norway. GIJC15 is by far the
most global conference in the history of the
Global Investigative Journalism Network.

Our program is filled with 160+ workshops,

seminars and panels and we even have
our own Investigative Film Festival with
evening screenings. Journalists from all corners of the world meet up and will generously share and exchange their knowledge
and experiences for the benefit of improving quality of global investigative reporting.

The Lillehammer event is also an important venue ground for journalists who want
to find partners for future projects. The last
weeks we have sent out a survey and asked
most of the GIJC15 participants what kind of
topics they want to network on during the
conference days. Be sure to join or book your
own networking event in one of our free
networking rooms.

GIJC15 is a product of a massive joint effort between local SKUP devotees here in
Norway, the GIJN staff in Washington and
Budapest and input from a huge number of
GIJNs member organizations worldwide.

We also want to thank our generous sponsors of helping us. Hosting such a global
conference could simply not have been
done without you.
Thanks to these funds SKUP, GIJN and other
parts of our wide network have been able to
bring in more than 200 people who would
not have been able to attend otherwise.

We are living in a time when the business

model of traditional media organizations
seems to be in crisis almost everywhere.
Thankfully this is met by new start-ups
with a lot of creativeness. The need of
networks like GIJN and the existence of
conferences like GIJC15 is crucial and has
never been as important as now.

Investigative journalism is expensive, difficult and often dangerous, but it is needed

as a game changer to put focus on wrongdoing, corruption and other sorts of power
abuse.

Together we can make a great impact and

change!
Jan Gunnar Furuly
Chairman, SKUP

CONTENTS

Publisher
Stiftelsen for en Kritisk og Underskende
Presse (SKUP)

Editor in-chief: Maren Sb

Design and layout: Alexander Prestmo
Contributors
David Kaplan, Jan Gunnar Furuly,
John Bones, Brant Houston, James B.
Steele, Christine Engh, Drew Sullivan,
Annemor Larsen, Ashoka Mukpo
SKUP GIJC15 organizing committee
Jan Gunnar Furuly, SKUP chairman
Jens Egil Hefty, SKUP director
John Bones, SKUP vice-chairman/data
journalism programmer
Committee members
Maren Sb, Tarjei Leer-Salvesen, Yohan
Shanmugaratnam, Christine Engh,
Ola Haram and Trond Ids
Production and technical support
Erlend Vge
Alexander Ziegler and his team
Global Investigative Journalism Network
(GIJN) staff:
David Kaplan, GIJN executive director
Gabriela Manuli, GIJN deputy director
GIJN conference committee
Paul Radu, OCCRP/RISE PROJECT
Rana Sabbagh, ARIJ
Marina Walker Guevara, ICIJ
Mzilikazi wa Afrika, Sunday Times
Oleg Khomenok, Internews Network
Jan Gunnar Furuly, SKUP/Aftenposten
Anton Harber, University of the
Witwatersrand

Global Conference, global network

the history of the GIJN

Reporting in the time of Ebola

Khadija Ismayilova
a hero of journalism

Finalists for the Global Shining

Light Award

I was always illegally there director

Hanna Polak on filming on a Russian
garbage dump

MAP: Lillehammer

Fifty years of journalism and data

a brief history

Speakers at the GIJC2015

How piles of records revealed patterns of

judgment in 1972

MAP: Lillehammer Radisson Blu Hotel

Into the future with CAR

Program in full

Open Society Foundations (OSF)

Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Fritt Ord
Google
Ford Foundation
Logan Foundation
Norsk Journalistlag
Adessium Foundation
UNESCO
Schibsted Media Group
International Womens Media
Foundation
ABRAJI Brazilian Association of
Investigative Journalism
Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma
Organized Crime and Corruption Project
(OCCRP)
International Center for Journalists
Investigative Reporters and Editors
International Consortium of Investigative
Journalists
Newstapa
Free Press Unlimited
Scoop
International Media Support
The Norwegian Helsinki Committee
Aftenposten
Konrad Adenauer Stiftung
Regional Press Development Institute
(RPDIPPM)
International Renaissance Foundation
International Anti-Corruption
Conference (IACC)
Grid-Arendal

Global Conference,
Global Network

Enjoying a glass of wine at his modest home in Aarhus, Denmark, Nils Mulvad
and guest Brant Houston were celebrating the latest gathering of reporters they
had brought together. It was the spring of 2000, and they had just hosted nearly
a hundred journalists to talk about investigative techniques
BY David E. Kaplan

he focus of the gathering that spring had been on the

sparking extraordinary collaborations, and helping start dozens of
fast-growing field of computer-assisted reporting (CAR).
investigative journalism organizations.
Houston had pioneered CAR back home in Missouri, where
I never imagined it would develop into what it is today, Mulvad
he ran Investigative Reporters and Editors, the big U.S.-based
says. This ended up being the most important thing Ive contributassociation of investigative journalists. IREs National Institute
ed to in my career. We didnt know it at the time. Its just what
of Computer-Assisted Reporting NICAR was attracting
happened.
international interest. Indeed, after Mulvad attended
Two years after that first conference, the team held
an IRE boot camp in 1996, he was bitten by the
a second global gathering, again in Copenhagen. The
CAR bug. Returning home, he founded DICAR the
9/11 attacks and a global security crackdown put a
Danish International Center for Analytical Reportdamper on participation, making travel difficult,
ing and was busy introducing data journalism
but still some 300 came, and the excitement reto colleagues across Europe. His annual events
mained. Houston and Mulvad were convinced that
were now attracting journalists from a half-dozwhat they were seeing the skills sharing, the
en countries, and he and Houston were thinking
hunger for training, the collaborative spirit was
about the future.
no accident. Everybody wanted to stay in touch
Why dont we invite the world next time? Houbetween conferences, Houston says, and we wantston asked.
ed to make sure we had an ongoing network. They
The ground was fertile for such an undertaking. Prodrafted a statement of principles and convened a meeting
Nils Mulvad
pelled by globalization, investigative reporting was spreading
at the conference to launch an informal association.
worldwide, boosted by the Internet, mobile phones, and
The organizing statement was simple and straightforthe end of the Cold War. There was, as yet, no real hub,
ward: They would form a network of independent
no central gathering point, for the growing globjournalism organizations that support the training
al community of muckrakers. But Houston and
and sharing of information among journalists in
Mulvad had no idea if journalists notorious for
investigative and computer-assisted reporting.
being competitive and lone wolves would even
The goals of the new group: to organize conferrespond to such a call.
ences and workshops; help form and sustain
Backed by DICAR, IRE, and the Danish Assoinvestigative and data journalism organizations;
ciation of Investigative Journalists, Mulvad in 2001
support and promote best practices; help ensure
booked Copenhagens most famous hotel for an
access to public documents and data; and provide
April weekend and hoped for the best. We figured
resources and networking services for investigative
some people would come, but we really didnt know,
journalists worldwide.
Brant Houston
Houston recalls. It turned out to be the right event at the
Membership was limited to nonprofit organizations or
right time.
their equivalent around the world. The reason: While commercial
media certainly have played an important role in investigative reportA religious revival
ing, it is the nonprofits that have done much of the training, teaching,
In all, more than 300 journalists from 40 countries descended upon
mentoring, and skills-sharing that have spread it around the world.
Copenhagen that weekend, looking for tips, tools, and kindred souls.
The atmosphere at times resembled a religious revival, as hard-boiled
Going global
muckrakers discovered that they were not alone in the world. InvesIn all, 35 organizations from 22 countries signed the founding docutigative journalists are so much alike, no matter where theyre from
ment. More than two-thirds were from Europe, but the list included
and where they work, says Houston. There was immediate undergroups pioneering investigative journalism around the world: associstanding and immediate bonding. For many, there was a surprise that
ations in Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, South Africa,
first day how openly people shared their knowledge. By the second
and the United States, and reporting centers in Ghana, the Philippines,
day, it was an accepted practice.
Nepal, and Romania. There were a handful of schools and trainThose humble beginnings were the start of the Global Investigaing institutes, a media development NGO, and a then-little-known
tive Journalism Conference, now being held for its ninth time here in
cross-border consortium called ICIJ. IRE contributed a listserv (which
Lillehammer, Norway. Over the years, the conferences have brought
remains a vital link in our community) but there was no funding and
together and trained more than 5,000 journalists from 100 countries.
no central organization.
In the process, they have played a key role in the rapid spread of inThey called themselves the Global Investigative Journalism Netvestigative and data journalism around the world, raising skill levels,
work, or GIJN.

GIJN functioned as a loose-knit support system to the global

conferences, which, starting with Amsterdam in 2005, would be
held every 18 to 24 months. Sponsored by VVOJ, the Dutch-Flemish
Association of Investigative Journalists, the Amsterdam event again
attracted hundreds of journalists from around the world. That was
followed by successful conferences in Toronto in 2007, organized by
the Canadian Association of Journalists; in Lillehammer in 2008, by
SKUP, Norways investigative journalism association; and in Geneva
in 2010, by the Swiss Investigative Reporters Network.
By the sixth conference in Geneva, it was clear the events had
grown in size and sophistication. More than 500 journalists from
80 countries now flocked to the big gatherings, many for their third
or fourth time. The incipient global community that Houston and
Mulvad had foreseen now stretched literally around the world. As
commercial media suffered under the double blows of lost advertising
and recession, the nonprofits that formed GIJNs backbone became a
model emulated around the world. In 2007, a survey by the Center for

International Media Assistance identified 39 nonprofit investigative

journalism centers in 26 countries, and that number would double
over the next five years.
Growing demand
In 2010, Houston and Mulvad set up an informal board for GIJN, the
Volunteer Group, to help deal with growing demands on the looseknit network. Conference organizers needed help fundraising and
finding great journalists. As stories increasingly led across borders, reporters wanted to know how to reach colleagues on other continents.
Frustrated editors wanted to know how to set up their own nonprofits.
Others wanted workshops and the latest tips and techniques. And
data journalism, once an innovative sideshow, had become red hot;
the Global Conferences trainers had produced a generation of computer-literate reporters now in high demand.
It was increasingly clear to veterans of the global conferences that
more structure would benefit both the global conferences and

You know youve reached the next stage when its hard for
people to imagine you not existing.

the global network. In 2011, with the support of Houston, Mulvad,

and others, I proposed the formation of a secretariat to manage the
many requests coming to GIJN, to support the global conferences,
and to further GIJNs core mission of strengthening investigative
journalism around the world.
In October 2011, at the seventh global conference in Kiev,
Ukraine, representatives of GIJNs membership held a robust debate and approved setting up a provisional secretariat, which was
launched in February 2012.
I was privileged to be made director of this new initiative. With
US$35,000 in seed funding from the Adessium and Open Society foundations, we spent a year laying the groundwork: creating
a website with extensive resources, a global calendar, and news
on investigative journalism around the world; setting up multiple
networking and social media platforms; and launching an ambitious
plan to transform GIJN from a largely European and North American
network into a truly global one. Our efforts received a big boost with
the 2013 Global Conference in Rio de Janeiro, in which the new secretariat partnered with Abraji, Brazils dynamic investigative journalism association, to hold the first Global Conference in the developing
world. We combined our conference with both Abraijs annual congress and COLPIN, the Latin American Investigative Journalism Conference. The impact surprised us all. Hoping for a thousand attendees,
the Rio conference attracted a record 1350 people from 93 countries.
In Rio, the GIJN membership gave a ringing endorsement to our
efforts and, in near-unanimous votes, decided to make the secretariat permanent, to keep the secretariat in one place (voting down a
rival proposal to rotate its office), and to appoint me to a three-year
term as GIJNs first executive director.
Then in May 2014, following a debate on GIJNs future, members
again overwhelmingly endorsed measures giving GIJN more structure and formal legal status. By then, GIJN had grown to 98 member
organizations in 44 countries. In an online election, the members
voted by margins of more than 90% to make the Global Network
a registered nonprofit in the United States and to create an elected
board of directors that ensures geographic representation from six
regions. A subsequent vote was held to create GIJNs first elected
board of directors; that election resulted in the current board of 15

10

journalists from 11 countries.

Today, GIJN has a paid staff of four people and is publishing regularly in English, Chinese, and Spanish. We have more than 60,000
followers on social media, and a lively website viewed by readers in
80 countries a day. Our membership has doubled to 118 groups in
54 countries. Since setting up the secretariat, we have responded to
more than 2,000 requests for assistance from around the world. Last
year, we co-sponsored Asias first Investigative Journalism Conference, attracting 300 journalists from Japan to Pakistan. And our
collaboration today with Norways SKUP has given the 9th Global
Conference GIJC15 greater reach than ever before, with journalists heading to Lillehammer from a record 120 countries.
Whats in the future? We are working hard to further internationalize GIJNs membership. We have initiatives to build up networks
tying together journalists worldwide with resources, capacity, and
each other. Were working to strengthen investigative journalism
groups across the globe; expand GIJNs online resource center; increase our capacity to respond to requests for help; and train investigative groups in business skills, fundraising, and revenue diversification. Were also planning a second regional conference in Asia,
and our staff is ready to dive into work on GIJC17 the next global
conference which our members will soon decide whether to hold
in Amman, Johannesburg, or Vancouver. Above all, we are excited
about the contribution GIJN and the Global Conferences are making around the world. Every day, we see first-hand the impact our
colleagues have by exposing corruption, abuse of power, and lack of
accountability. For that, we are grateful to two pioneers who, over a
glass of wine a decade ago, had the vision to see what was possible.
Weve moved to the next stage, reflects Brant Houston. You
know youve reached the next stage when its hard for people to
imagine you not existing.
David E. Kaplan is executive director of the Global Investigative Journalism
Network. He previously served as director of the International Consortium
of Investigative Journalists, chief investigative correspondent at U.S. News &
World Report, and news editor at the original Center for Investigative Reporting. He has worked as an investigative journalist for 35 years, reported from
two dozen countries, and won or shared more than 25 awards.

When you want to know more

It is the combination of the high quality content and the user experience that
makes VG+ special.
The investigative journalism known from VGs daily newspaper and its special
weekend edition, VG Helg, is merged with an extensive use of imagery, graphics
and video. Together an interactive magazine experience is created, perfect
when you want to know more.

11

Khadija Ismayilova

A hero of
journalism

An arrest of an Azeri journalist has turned into an investigating

project that is revealing the extent of the First familys hold on
economic and political power in Azerbaijan
BY Drew Sullivan

Khadija Ismayilova in Poland

12

13

Ismayilova outside court in Baku in January. Photo: RFE

he term courageous journalist and hero are

thrown around our business regularly and maybe a bit carelessly. But when a journalist dies on
the job or is imprisoned or beaten, the terms are
heaped on their name almost indiscriminately. We canonize them as saints and no one questions their courage,
their journalism, their fairness or their skills. Often, these
journalists are not really deserving of the high praise. They
are more victim than hero.
But the case Khadija Ismayilova is markedly different.
In many ways, she is the perfect hero for a new journalism age. First, she is a very good journalist. She is also not
a victim but a clear-eyed realist who made hard decisions and is standing by them today in an Azerbaijani jail.
Unfortunately she is not alone. Her colleagues have joined
her in a martyrdom of religious proportions.
Reporting on the First family
Khadija is known to many in our GIJN community. She
made many friends and met collaborators at our conferences and together she was awarded a Global Shining
Light Award at the GIJN Rio de Janeiro conference in 2013.
She was a long-time member of the Organized Crime and
Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a cross border
consortium of investigative centers which grew up alongside GIJN. She learned and worked for and with many
GIJN members. She, more than any Azerbaijani journalist,

14

Journalists under threat

The opening session on Thursday
October 8th will focus on
journalists under threat. Journalists
are increasingly harassed and
arrested and independent media
closed.Among cases discussed in
this session is the case of Khadija
Ismayilova, and the project that has
been inspired by her arrest, The
Khadija Project.

benefited from international media

and development programs.
Her time at as the head of the
Azerbaijani service of Radio Free
Europe, RFE/TV Liberty from 2008 to
2010, made her aware of the importance of international contacts
and reporting worldwide and gave
her the time and encouragement to
cooperate with other media. But she
went back to reporting in 2010 when
she started to use her international
contacts to get access to records other
reporters in her country were not
aware of.
Drawing on her many mentors

and influences, she internalized the skills that made a

good investigative reporter. But always inside, there was
strength of purpose that would be tested often. She started
in 2010 with a series of stories on corruption that would
shake the country largely because no one had ever dared
to write so convincingly and with so much evidence about
the First Family.
When the government of Azerbaijan told reporters that
the international giant Siemens owned a leading Azerbaijani telecom company, she called the German company
who admitted they did not. Later she discovered, by using
data from OCCRP, that the real owners were the daughters
of the president through a Panamanian offshore.
The price of her reporting was made clear soon after
the telecom story. In March, 2012, pictures arrived in the
mail one day from Russia that showed her and her then
boyfriend being intimate. An accompanying letter told her
she was a whore and she would face public humiliation
if she didnt quit. It was a real problem. Azerbaijan is a
deeply religious country and women and their families
faced deep shame or even stoning from having sex out of
wedlock. The letter shook her. She called her close friends
and consulted with them before deciding she would
continue. Instead, she got ahead of the story by announcing the extortion attempt on her Facebook page. Later,
full videos would emerge that were played on television
stations owned by state companies.

There has been several protests of support for Ismayilova, here outside the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Washington USA. Photo: RFE

She said she would rather be arrested than flee

because fleeing just meant those reporters left behind
would get arrested.
More threats
While she handled the criticism, it caused deep
problems for her family. But the threats only
made her more resolute she would keep fighting
and keep reporting. A slew of stories followed the
attack. She mined the Panamanian database for
more stories finding that the wife and daughters of
the president owned construction companies and
mining companies that were being given lucrative
contracts and concessions. Government officials
would respond by calling her family Armenian
spies a charge that could have led to attacks
against them - and even at one point listed her
mothers home address.
Khadijas work laid bare the hypocrisy and
greed of the first family despite the governments
increasing violent responses. Her friends started to get arrested including many of the leading

activists who were protesting, in part because of

her stories. In 2014, the government announced
charges against her for inciting suicide. A former
boyfriend claimed he was not hired at RFE because
of Khadijas influence and that caused him to try to
commit suicide. The government took an intense
interest in the ludicrous charges. Khadija continued
travelling and speaking to international forums
about corruption in Azerbaijan embarrassing the
government. It became clear she could be arrested
at any time.
Khadija herself made a video in October
predicting her arrest but it became clear to all by
December 2014, that Khadija would be arrested if
she returned to Azerbaijan.
I talked with Khadija that December. I offered
to support her if she did not go back. I argued she
was too valuable as a reporter to lose and she could

do more from abroad. But the arguments fell on

deaf ears. She said she would rather be arrested
than flee because fleeing just meant those reporters
left behind would get arrested. She, at least, had
enough friends abroad who would raise a stink and
not let her be forgotten.
Arrest
This decision was courageous for more than just
a willingness to go to jail. She had no illusions
about who ran her country. President Ilham Aliyev
and Ramiz Mehdiyev, the head of the presidential
administration who wrote a 60 page screed

15

Azerbaijans First family, here wife of President Ilham Aliyev, Mehriban Aliyeva and daughters Leyla and Arzu. Photo: Azeri Media

about Khadija calling her a traitor, are vicious,

vindictive men who have crushed anyone who
gets in their way. Reporters have been murdered
including a relatives of Khadija who was especially
insulting. They routinely crush lives and have left
the people of Azerbaijan ignorant and poor while
they steal the nations wealth. Their daughters carry $160,000 purses they spend $300,000 to drive
their huge luxury yachts across the Mediterranean
so their 17-year-old son can have lunch on the
boat. They own mansions, ride in G6 jets everywhere and have monopolized every aspect of the
Azerbaijan economy.
Meanwhile, the average salary is less than $800
per month in an oil rich country.
Khadija knew she would be in their hands
in their jail. Yet, she accepted arrest. Eventually,
the government, maybe realizing that a charge of
inciting suicide was ridiculous even for them
especially given that the complainant had recanted
his testimony publicly numerous times, found
new charges. They raided RFEs offices in Baku
and seized records. In a moment dripping with
Orwellian irony, they charged Khadija, its former
director, with abuse of power and other charges.

16

Their daughters carry $160,000 purses they

spend $300,000 to drive their huge luxury yachts
across the Mediterranean so their 17-year-old son
can have lunch on the boat.
She was eventually convicted and sentenced to 7.5
years in jail.
Since then, they have arrested reporters from
RFE and Meydan TV, one of the few remaining
independent media. When reporters have fled, they
have arrested family members on charges of drug
smuggling or hooliganism. Khadijas fellow journalists are scattered but they have not given up.
OCCRP, following Khadijas words, have continued her work working quietly with Azerbaijani
journalists throughout the region. We have continued to report on the first family finding that they
also have monopolized the luxury hotel, travel and
banking industries.

We are finding more assets abroad

and have been helped by reporters from
around the world including Sweden,
Switzerland, Germany and elsewhere. The
reporting goes on and will go on as long as
Khadija is in jail. Her colleagues, far from
being cowered, are more committed than
ever.
The final lesson of the Khadija Project
is that while one reporter may be arrested,
dozens will fill her place.
Drew Sullivan is the editor of the OCCRP and is
based in Sarajevo.

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17

All photos from the Documentary

Something Better to Come, growing
up in a garbage dump

I was always
ILLEGALLY
there
Hanna Polak on hope, a life changing experience and 14 years of
documenting life on Europes largest garbage dump.
BY Christine Engh

nitially, it was all about aid work. But

everything changed in Hanna Polaks life one
day in 1999 when she met a group of homeless children on the streets of Moscow.
It was a powerful shocking experience for me.
I could not simply walk away seeing small children
dying, struggling to survive on the streets, abandoned and not needed. It was beyond my comprehension that children could live and die like this,
she says.
The children led Polak to the garbage dump
named Svalka, where a community of homeless
people is living among piles of garbage, wild dogs
and huge bulldozers.
When I visited the garbage dump, a forbidden
territory with a tall fence and tight security, where
trespassing and obviously filming is strictly
prohibited, I realized that I have to show this unknown place to the world. I wanted to make a film
about people living in garbage dump, and especially

about children living there.

Something Better to Come is the result of 14 years of
filming at Svalka. But the film is not only describing
life and people at the garbage dump.
This is a universal story of hope. If someone
thinks he is living in hell, then he should spend
some time in the place which was Yulas reality
for many years. A place where most people simply
give up and die. Most of the people we see in the
movie, passed away. But not Yula. She dares to
dream, and takes her life into her own hands. It is
a fourteen-year journey. I was following Yula from
her being a 10 year old child until she became a
mature woman with her own family. It is also a film
about Russia during Putins time. Coincidentally
I started filming at Svalka in year 2000, the same
year Vladimir Putin was elected for the first time as
a president of Russia. And echoes of his presidency
and social and political moods over these years are
present in the film.

19

How did you first introduce your camera to the

people in Svalka?

They were very grateful for turning the lens and

the attention on them. They eagerly accepted
me with and my camera. They felt so much
rejected and not needed, that my presence, the
presence of the camera, was giving them a feeling of being not only noticed, but important and
appreciated. The life at the dump is extremely
hard; it is a constant fight for survival. But this is
not what hurts the most. The feeling of rejection,
of being an outcast, is the deepest pain in the
hearts of these homeless people. They wanted
to reveal their hearts and share their thoughts,
they wanted to be heard and seen, as they really

20

are kind, normal, funny and intelligent. There

is unfortunately a stigma many of them have to
live with because of the low material status. But
the reality is that these extreme conditions often
bring what is the best in people, as they share
their roof of the small cardboard huts, and the
last piece of bread with each other.
The Svalka is forbidden area for journalists.
How did you manage to work there for a period
of 14 years?

I used to sneak in on this fenced-in territory.

I was always illegally there. I would come and
disappear for some time. I would come irregularly, or on days when the security was least

tight. But it was always very difficult. Every time

I went there I was in danger and the camera
and materials were always endangered. I was
careful, but I also had some luck. The garbage
dump is considered to be a military area. It is
protected by security with walkie-talkies. The
local police protect it too. There is no filming
or trespassing allowed. It is a huge multi-million dollar business of illegal recycling, and no
strangers are welcome there. It is a type of mafia
run place and no one wants what is really going
on there documented. For collecting recycle
materials work, people are paid with vodka,
which in fact is not vodka, but a cheap, poisoning technical spirit. There are also hundreds of
wild dogs there, and some criminal activities

going on, heavy machinery in operation. The accidents

are frequent. For so many reasons it was simply always
so dangerous to go there.
Did you ever get in trouble with the Russian authorities?
Or with someone else?

I was caught many times at the dump by the security,

and the police stopped me. I ran away many times.
Sometimes I was simply lucky to get away. In a few
circumstances when I was caught, I had to erase the
materials. But things could have been much worse: I
knew of one journalist who tried to film there and she
was beaten up, had her nose broken and her expensive camera smashed. This is a violent place. People
get beaten, killed, women are raped, and the ambulance wouldnt come if one calls for help. I tried to
be invisible for the security of the dump as much as
possible. I knew it was risky, but I had to document
these people and especially the childrens lives. I was
delivering medicines to them, smuggled them to hospitals and occasionally I would place some children in
the orphanages.

21

What were the challenges you met as a filmmaker at the

dump?

Shooting was technically complicated: in the small huts or

shackles people build on the dump there was practically no
light, so I had to light these places myself. I could not bring
a tripod to the dump, except for a very few times when I
brought it despite the danger of being more easily spotted.
I had to carefully watch my steps to avoid hurting my feet
by nails or needles and other dangerous trash, watch out
for trucks and bulldozers. Its hard to do so when you look
through the viewfinder. During the winter the camera
wouldnt even work some very cold days, when temperature dropped below 20 degrees Celsius. Sometimes it was
just impossible to shoot the illegal activities that were going
on there, which I felt was very important to give a context
of the place. Still, I managed to film some.
The biggest difficulty was the continuity. Because this
place is so inaccessible, because I had to hide myself and
couldnt come to the dump too often not to be noticed, it

I was caught many times

at the dump by the security
and the police stopped me. I
ran away many times. Sometimes I was simply lucky to
get away.
was very hard to follow up with the camera, to keep the
continuity of certain situations and people. I also couldnt
film what and how I wanted. Sometimes I saw a situation
I would love to film, but I couldnt come closer and film
it. This was very frustrating. Sometimes Yula disappeared
on this huge territory of Svalka and I could not find her.
The trash constantly moves and the machinery and people
move with it.
Is it possible to stay objective when working with your protagonist for such a long time?

It was impossible not to be partial when I saw people, especially children, suffering. I started knowing and understanding some of them, and I started to care about them
personally. One part of me looked at the situation objectively, but another part was simply crying, and I thought
more about alleviating someones suffering than making
a story. On the other hand I knew that the filming and the
final result of it, the movie, could ultimately make people
aware about the problem and potentially influence policy
making process. I knew that to change something on a
higher level I had to make an objective work, or a report.
I also wanted the images to speak for themselves. Nowadays there is so much creation in documentaries, authors
feel they have to explain everything, write comments and
put the voice over everywhere. Together with my co-editor
Marcin Kot Bastkowski we simply believed in contrary to
what happens in most of the productions in the objective
truth and strength of the materials and we really wanted
to let people experience of being there, to enter and stay
in this world for 90 minutes. We didnt want to force things
with the editing, with effects, titles, and explanations. We
wanted be objective as much as possible in this process
and thus made this cinema verite documentary.
Did you ever bring food, clothes or anything else to Yula and
her friends?

Yes, of course I did. And one of the biggest help is the one
I received from Norway. For many years I have been cooperating with Aktiv Barnehjelp, the charity organization set
up to help homeless children. Aktiv Barnehjelp collected
funds to buy food, medicines, and other necessities for
the homeless children in Russia. It was thanks to

22

the kind support of the Norwegian people, that the

activities of helping these children could be carried
over many years. I wasnt just making a film. With
a group of friends and volunteers, we tried directly help these homeless children. Especially two
wonderful girls should be mentioned: Ewa Laxa and
Monika Jankowiak. They came with me to Russia
and got directly involved in helping children. Aktiv
Barnehjelp is still involved in helping children. I encourage everybody who wants to help in our efforts
to help Yula and other children, to contact them and
find the way how to contribute.

Investigative film-festival at
the GIJC 2015

How do you see yourself; activist or journalist? Do

you think it is possible to have both roles?

Thursday

I think we all wear many hats. I think a good journalist sees what is right and what is wrong. So I
think I am journalist in this respect. But I think I
should play an active role in promoting a movement, which could bring better, or what we say
normal life, for the homeless people, especially
children. In that respect I think I am an activist.
What was it like to return to your own life after 14
years in Svalka? That is; if you have returned?

I have never returned to my previous life. I am still

working on so many aspects of this film and I care
for the film protagonists, especially Yula. I also
hope to reach a bigger audience with the message
concerning these abandoned children and people.
Right now were preparing the promotional campaign of Something Better to Come. I really hope that
people in the world will see this amazing story of
Yula and as a result they will make efforts toward
relieving the plight of homeless children living in
extreme poverty in the world.
You were nominated for Oscar with Children of
Leningradsky. Now you have started working for
Oscar nomination again. How do you consider your
chances?

The main reason to make this film and now to promote it is to make people aware about the problem,
to influence the policy makers to change the regulations, and finally to help people from the dump, and
other homeless, disadvantaged human beings. Oscar
campaign for sure will bring this topic to the wider
audiences. I think 19 awards, which the film so far
received on various festivals, is already a great success. If the film gets nominated for Oscar, this would
certainly give the problem more visibility, and
increase the importance and urgency of the issue.
And this is why I am so determined to get the film
nominated. Yulas story is a proof, that sometimes
impossible becomes possible. So I owe Yula and
other people from the dump this stubbornness.

All documentaries will be

screened in Lillehammer 1-2
and is free for all participants
at the GIJC2015
Wednesday
20.30: Drone by Tonje Hessen
Schei.
22:00: Serbia: The fight for
truth by Erling Borgen and Tom
Heinemann
22:45: Guatemala: Land of
Terror by Erling Borgen

20:30: Something Better to

Come by Hanna Polak
22:00: Ghanas Food for
Thought by Anas Aremeyaw
Anas for AlJazeera
Friday
20:00: Follow the Money by
Mike Chinoy. World premiere!
22:30: Indias Daughter by
Leslee Udwin

Hanna polak (48)

Hanna Polak, an Oscarnominated director,
graduated from the
cinematograhy division
of the Cinematography
Institute of the Russian
Federation.
She has worked on
various movies as
producer, director,
cinematographer and
still photographer.
In 2004 she completed
work on the
documentary The
Children of Leningradsky
in collaboration with
HBO. The movie received
an Oscar nomination
(2005), an IDA Award,
two Emmy nominations,
and the Gracie Allen
Award, among others.
Hanna has been
advocating the case of
homeless children all
over
the world. She founded
and collaborated
with Active Child
Aid foundation and
collaborates
with UNICEF.
Her latest documentary,
Something Better to
Come (2015), will be
screened Friday 9
October at GIJC.

Who is your professional role model?

Hans Jrgen Burkhardt, who

works for German Stern magazine,
whom I admire for his amazing
photographs and great ethics.
Vadim Yusov, a wonderful Russian
cinematographer, who was my
teacher and an amazing personality. Recently I met Lyse Doucet
from the BBC and Simi Jan from
TV2 Denmark, and I was greatly
impressed by them. They are kind,
love people and places they go to,
they are brave to report from war
zones, they are fun, and they are
smart, and intelligent women. I
could go on

Which is the best documentary you

have ever seen?

It is impossible to name one. There

are so many great documentaries!
While working on Something Better to Come, it was inspirational for
me to watch From Mao to Mozart,
with Isaac Stern artistic credos and
I was obsessed by his music.
Which documentary do you dream
of making?

I have several ideas about the next

movie, but currently I put all my
efforts to make Something Better
to Come successful.

23

Fifty years of journalism and data

A brief history
In 1952 a computer was applied to try to predict an
US- election. More than six decades later, computer-assisted reporting is at the core of investigative
reporting worldwide.
BY Brant Houston

any practitioners date the beginning

of computer-assisted reporting and
data journalism to 1952 when the
CBS network in the U.S tried to use
experts with a mainframe computer to predict the
outcome of the presidential election. Thats a bit of
a stretch, or perhaps it was a false beginning because they never used the data and it really wasnt
until 1967 that data analysis started to catch on.
In that year, Philip Meyer at The Detroit Free
Press used a mainframe to analyze a survey of
Detroit residents for the purpose of understanding
and explaining the serious riots that erupted in
the city that summer. (Decades later The Guardian in the United Kingdom used some of the same
approaches to look at racial riots there and cited
Meyers work.)

24

Meyer went on to work in the 1970s with The

Philadelphia Inquirer reporters Donald Barlett and
James Steele to analyze the sentencing patterns
in the local court system and with Rich Morin at
The Miami Herald to analyze property assessment
records. Meyer also wrote a book called Precision
Journalism that explained and advocated using
database analysis and social research methods in
reporting. (Several revisions of the book have been
published since then.)
Still, only a few journalists used these techniques until the mid-1980s when Elliot Jaspin in
the U.S. received recognition while at The Providence Journal Bulletin for analyzing databases for
stories, including those on dangerous school bus
drivers and on a political scandal involving home
loans. At the same time, about 50 other journalists

across the U.S. in the late 1980s, often consulting

with Meyer, Jaspin, or Steve Doig of the Miami Herald, began doing data analysis for their stories.
Aiding their efforts were improved personal
computers and a programNine Track Express
that Jaspin and journalist-programmer Daniel
Woods wrote to make it easier to transfer computer
tapes (that contain nine tracks of information)
to personal computers using a portable tape drive.
This allowed journalists to circumvent the bureaucracies and delays involved in using mainframes at
newspapers and universities.
In 1989, the U.S. journalism profession recognized the value of computer-assisted reporting
when it gave a Pulitzer Prize to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for its stories on racial disparities
in home loan practices. During the same year, Jas-

In 1989, the U.S. journalism profession recognized the value of

computer-assisted reporting when it gave a Pulitzer Prize to The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution for its stories on racial disparities in
home loan practices.

pin established the institute at the Missouri School

of Journalism now known as theNational Institute
for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR), and in
1990 Indiana University professor James Brown
held the first computer-assisted reporting conference in Indianapolis.
In the 1990s through early in the 21st century,
the use of computer-assisted reporting has blossomed, primarily due to the seminars conducted at
Missouri and throughout the world by Investigative
Reporters and Editors Inc. (IRE) and NICAR, which
is a joint program of IRE and the Missouri School
of Journalism. This was aided by the publication of
my book in1996, the first on doing CAR, Computer-Assisted Reporting: A Practical Guide, which is
in its 4th edition.
The early part of the 21st century saw the Global

Investigative Journalism Network begin to play

crucial part in the movement, starting with its first
conference in 2001 in Copenhagen that offered
a strong computer-assisted reporting track and
hands-on training.
NICAR begins
In 1994 NICAR was created, and I and training
director Jennifer LaFleur initiated an ambitious
on-the-road program that eventually saw as many
as 50 seminars a year - and by 1996 word of the
successes in the U.S. had reached other countries,
and foreign journalists began attending the boot
camps (weeklong, intense seminars) at NICAR. In
addition, IRE, with the support of the McCormick
Foundation, had set up a program in Mexico City
that oversaw data training in Latin America.

While journalists outside the U.S. first doubted

they could obtain data in their own countries in
1990s, the training showed them how international or U.S. data could be used initially for stories in
their countries, how they could build their own
datasets, and how they could find data in their own
countries.
As a result of the training efforts, by 1999 journalists from countries including Finland, Sweden,
New Zealand, Venezuela, Argentina, the Netherlands, Norway, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Bosnia
and Canada had produced stories involving data
analysis.
Meanwhile, in London in 1997, journalism professor Milverton Wallace began holding an annual
conference called NetMedia that offered sessions
on the Internet and classes in computer-as-

25

sisted reporting led by NICAR and Danish

journalists. The classes covered the basic uses of
the Internet, spreadsheets and database managers
and were well-attended by journalists from the UK,
other European countries and Africa.
In Denmark, journalists Nils Mulvad and Flemming Svith, who had gone to a NICAR boot camp in
Missouri in 1996, organized seminars with NICAR
in 1997 and 1998 in Denmark. They also wrote a
Danish handbook on computer-assisted reporting, created the Danish International Center for
Analytical Reporting (DICAR) in 1998 with Tommy
Kaas as president. They also co-organized the first
Global Investigative Journalism Conference with
IRE in 2001.
CAR also became a staple of conferences in
Sweden, Norway, Finland and Netherlands with
Helena Bengtsson from Sweden, and John Bones in
Norway.
Through the global investigative conferences,
the use of data also quickly spread across eastern
Europe. In eastern Europe, Drew Sullivan (who
formed the Organized Crime and Corruption
Reporting Project), and Romanian journalist Paul
Radu were strong proponents and organizers.

26

Seminars also were given initially in China

through the University of Missouri and in India
through the World Press Institute.During same
period Steve Doig, a pioneer in CAR and now the
Knight Chair in Computer-Assisted Reporting at
Arizona State University, traveled internationally to
teach CAR as did additional NICAR training directors, Jo Craven McGinty, Tom McGinty, Ron Nixon,
Andy Lehren and Sarah Cohen all now journalists
at either the New York Times and the Wall Street
Journal.
Visualization of data increases
In 2005, the visualization of data for news stories got a big boost when U.S. programmer Adrian
Holovaty created a Google mash-up of Chicago
crime data. The project spurred more interest in
journalism among computer programmers and in
mapping. Holovaty then created the now-defunct
Every Block in 2007, which used more local data
for on-line maps in the U.S., but the project later
ran into criticism for not checking the accuracy of
government data more thoroughly.
Also, in 2007 the open data movement in the
U.S. began in earnest, spawning other such efforts

world-wide. The movement increased accessibility

to government data internationally although the
need remained to have Freedom of Information
laws to get data not released by the government.
By 2009, there was an increasing number of
computer programmers and coders in journalism
resulted in the creation of Hacks/Hackers that
would help more sharing between the two professions and ease some of the culture clash between
the two groups.
Aron Pilhofer then of The New York Times and
now the Guardian, and Rich Gordon from Northwestern Universitys Medill School of Journalism,
pushed for the creation of a network of people
interested in Web/digital application development
and technology innovation supporting the mission and goals of journalism. At the same time
in Silicon Valley, Burt Herman brought journalists
and technologists together. The three then joined
to create Hacks/Hackers. The result has been
an increasing technology sophistication within
newsrooms that has increased the ability to scrape
data from Web sites and make it more manageable,
visual and interactive.
Another outcome of the journalist-programmer

mashup was the new respect for knowing how

flawed databases are and for ensuring the integrity
of the data.
As was well-said by Marcos Vanetta, an Mozilla
OpenNews fellow who worked at The Texas Tribune:Bugs are not optionalIn software we are used
to make mistakes and correct them later. We can
always fix that later and in the worst case, we have
a backup. In news, you cant make mistakes there
is a reputation to take care of. The editorial team is
not as used to failure as developers are.
More breakthroughs
The years 2009, 2010 and 2011 also were breakthrough years for using data for journalism. In
Canada in 2009, Fred Vallance-Jones and David
McKie published Computer-Assisted Reporting:
A Comprehensive Primer with a special emphasis
on CAR in Canada. The European Journalism Centre
began its data-driven journalism center that has
organized workshops throughout Europe. Journalist
Paul Bradshaw became recognized as a pioneer in
data journalism in the United Kingdom. Wikileaks
released its Afghan War Diaries, composed of secret
documents and then the Iraq War Diaries, requir-

ing journalists throughout the world to deal with

enormous amounts of data in text.
This was followed in 2011 by the Guardians its
impressive series on the city racial riots and the
first Data Harvest conference, which is organized
by the Journalismfund.eu.
Also in the United Kingdom the Centre for
Investigative Reporting (led by Gavin MacFadyen),
which teamed in its early days with IRE to offer classes in data journalism during its summer
school, has continued run a strong program on
its own with the assistance of CAR veteran David
Donald.
Meanwhile, at Wits University in South Africa
Anton Harber and Margaret Renn substantially
increased the data sessions at the annual Power
Reporting Conference and data analysis has taken
hold in Asia and Australia.
As of 2015, and after nearly 50 years of journalists using data, it is clear that data is not only a
routine part of journalism, but also a driving force
for stories. And the tools and methodology continue to expand.
The use of computers for journalism began
by applying social science methods, statistical

and data analysis to societal issues. It has widely

expanded over the years into counting instances
of incidents and accidents, to using spreadsheets
and database managers, to matching apparently
unrelated datasets, to mapping data geographically
and in social networks, to web scraping, to more
efficient data cleaning, to better crowd-sourcing
and audience interaction, to multi-media and to
text mining with algorithms.
There has been much discussion what to call the
use of data for high quality journalism and various
branding efforts. But whether it is called precision
journalism, computer-assisted reporting, data
journalism, data driven journalism, or computational journalism, the good news is that it is here
to stay.
Brant Houston is the Knight Chair in Investigative Reporting at the University of Illinois and author of Computer-Assisted Reporting: A Practical Guide. Some sections of
this article have appeared in Computer-Assisted Reporting:
A Practical Guide and in a 1999 issue of Nieman Reports.)

27

HOW PILES
OF RECORDS
REVEALED
PATTERNS OF
JUDGEMENT
IN 1972

The use of computers to analyze data and strengthen major stories is

so thoroughly ingrained in investigative journalism today that we almost
forget that it was not always so. In the summer of 1972 two reporters at
the Philadelphia Inquirer embarked on a story that would change the
way they worked.
BY James B. Steele

ot so long ago, you were lucky to find a computer in a newsroom, and some journalists actually frowned upon their use as a reporting tool. In the summer of 1972,
Donald L. Barlett and I, then investigative reporters for The Philadelphia Inquirer,
embarked on a story that led us to discover the extraordinary capabilities that
computers could offer to analyze complex public issues. It enabled us to look more deeply at
a controversial public institution and shed light on its inner workings in a way that had never
before been done in the city.
This is the story of how that project came about and a reminder of the remarkable tools
we now use routinely that make it possible for us to report in depth on issues that were once
beyond our grasp.
Here is how it started.

Crime and punishment

Philadelphia in 1972 was roiled by charges by some
politicians that certain judges were giving light
sentences to violent criminals or letting them go
free. When we tried to find out if there was any
truth to these accusations, we learned there were
plenty of anecdotes to support the claims, but no
hard data.
Before we interview, we always look for documents to see what data and background information may exist on a subject. Educating ourselves
beforehand gives us an advantage when we interview. We know something about the subject and,
more importantly, we know whether the people
we interview are lying - or, as is often the case, just
dont know what they are talking about.
In this instance the documents were cases of
violent crime that had been judged in the citys
criminal courts. These documents were stored in a
cavernous, out-of-the-way room located under one
of the decorative towers of Philadelphias Victorian 19th century City Hall. Called the closed case
room, it was stacked with decades of files that
bulged with stories of the dark side of life in the
city. We decided to review cases of murder, rape,
robbery and assault during the previous year, 1971.
To be sure we were consistent in gathering the
information we drew from the records of each case,
we designed a one-page form that we would fill out
for each case. It included the names of the victim,
defendant, defense attorney, judge and prosecuting
attorney; the type of crime; whether a weapon was
used; the defendants prior criminal record if any;
the time and place of the crime; the decision by the
judge or jury on the charges; and the defendants
sentence, if guilty. A total of 42 pieces of information could be entered for each case on our onepage form.
A mountain of data
Each morning we showed up at City Hall and
made our way upstairs to the seventh floor, and
then climbed a steep stairway up two more floors
to the closed case archive. With its vaulted ceiling
and darkened interior, it looked like the nave of an
abandoned church, except for the cluttered shelves
filled with case files. Two longtime City Hall political appointees oversaw the room, but we persuaded them to let us work from a table inside the file
room itself so as not to badger them continuously
to retrieve files for us.
Seated at a table under a round window that we
opened for air, the sounds of the city rising from
the streets below, we methodically began entering

30

James B. Steele
James B.Steeleis
a Pulitzer-prize
winning investigative
reporter and a
contributing editor of
Vanity Fair. In 1971 he
started working with
Donald L. Bartlett
at the Philadelphia
Inquirer, a working
relationship that
continued across
four decades. The
pair has written
8 books together.
The last one, The
betrayal of the
American dream
was published in
2012

Looking back, I wonder what we were thinking as

we worked our way through the cases with completed
forms piling up beside us day after day.
information from individual cases on the form we
had designed. The files contained a wealth of data
indictments, police reports, prior arrest records, probation reports, pre-sentence transcripts, psychiatric
evaluations and hospital and health records. For the
most serious cases, such as murder and rape, we
copied trial transcripts when they were available.
As voluminous as the court files were, we often
found that some of the boxes on our data sheet
remained blank, the information missing. To find
these answers we turned to other public records.
This was especially true in the case of background
information on the victims of violent crimes,
especially those whod been murdered. For this we
turned to the medical examiners office, whose files
contained the precise causes of death and graphic
descriptions of the circumstances, the ages and
races of those involved.
At first, we werent sure how many cases we
would ultimately review, but we decided early on
to try to look at every completed murder and rape
case, since those were the two most violent crimes.
We settled on a percentage of the robberies and
assaults. Eventually, we would review 1,034 cases

39 percent of the violent crime cases in the city for

that year.
Looking back, I wonder what we were thinking as we worked our way through the cases with
completed forms piling up beside us day after
day. We were obtaining fascinating information
including some startling anecdotes. But what was
the big picture? Were judges weak - or tough - or
somewhere in between? Was the citys prosecuting attorney as tough on crime as he had long
maintained? Or was he quietly reducing charges in
some cases to lighten his caseload? How could we
possibly analyze so much information and be able
to answer those basic questions? We had previously used statistics and charts in our stories, but
the work on those stories was performed by hand,
using a small calculator. The mountain of data we
were collecting for the court story went far beyond
anything wed done before.
We turned to a colleague for advice. He was
Philip Meyer, then a reporter in the Washington
bureau of Knight Newspapers, which also owned
our newspaper. Phil had been a Nieman fellow at
Harvard in 1967, where he became intrigued by the

computerized research methods social scientists

used to delve into and quantify some of the big
issues of the day. Long frustrated by newspapers
use of anecdotal stories to illustrate points that he
felt were often misleading, Phil was convinced
that journalists needed to adopt a more scientific
approach in their reporting, and computers offered
that potential.
Phil learned programming at Harvard, and
when he returned to reporting he helped the
Detroit Free Press, another Knight newspaper,
win a Pulitzer in 1968 for its computer analysis of
those who were involved in the Detroit racial riots
of 1967. Phil became the apostle for using sophisticated computing techniques in newsrooms, and
his groundbreaking book, Precision Journalism,
published in 1973, is a classic for journalists who
seek to use social science research methods to
look more deeply and accurately into major issues.
Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) has
named a national award in his honor.
9618 punch cards
When we told Phil that we had compiled data
on hundreds of cases, he was ecstatic. The sheer
volume of the data we had collected represented a
rare opportunity to employ on a large scale some
of the methods he had learned at Harvard. Without
hesitation, he offered to write a computer program
that would allow us to systematically assess what
was really happening in Philadelphias criminal
court system.
What followed was an education for us. The

program Phil wrote used a computer language

called Data Text that had been developed at Harvard in the 1960s and which he had learned while
a Nieman fellow. The first step in the computing
process was to transfer the information on each
case that Don and I had extracted from the court
files onto paper coding sheets that resembled graph
paper. With the help of secretaries and clerks at The
Inquirer, we followed the program Phil had written by penciling in certain squares of the coding
sheets to correspond to the program. The process of
transferring the information to coding sheets was
incredibly tedious, but we were spurred on by the
belief that the end result would produce something
unique. Once the coding sheets were completed, they were turned over to an outside company
where keypunch operators converted them to IBM
punch cards.
Punch cards? A young journalist accustomed
to working on a laptop probably has never seen a
punch card. But these cards - 7 3/8 by 3 -inch
sized pieces of stiff paper that resembled index
cards were at the heart of the process because
each one was perforated with holes that represented points of data. Once they were fed into a
big mainframe computer, they would enable us to
tabulate and analyze the vast amount of data we
had collected.
By the time all the information had been transferred from the coding sheets onto punch cards, we
had 9,618 individual punch cards. Years later, The
Newseum, the Washington, D.C. museum dedicated to the history of journalism, asked us to donate

the cards for an exhibit. They remain there today.

With the program written and the punch cards
punched, all we needed was a computer. As it
turned out, our newspaper, one of the largest newspapers in the U.S., did not have a computer that
could handle the amount of data we had collected.
But one day Phil called to say he had some good
news and bad news: The good news was that he
had found a computer, an IBM 7090, that we could
rent for a reasonable price to perform our analysis.
The bad news was that the computer was located
in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. 125
miles from Philadelphia and we could only use
to it from midnight to 5am. We learned later that
this huge mainframe was owned by a contractor to
track the Navys ships.
Once in Maryland, Phil, Don and I spent in the
early morning hours running tabulations. It

31

was there with the big mainframe humming

and a large printer offloading huge volumes
of tables that we finally realized what we had.
Because of the program, we were able to pose
many questions and then chart trends showing
how justice was being administered in Philadelphia. We were able to show, differences
in the way cases were decided by white and
African-American judges, by Republican and
Democratic judges, by white judges presiding
over the cases of African-American victims, by
African-American judges presiding over cases
in which the victim was white, and by white
and African-American judges presiding over
cases in which the defendant and victim were
of the same race. We also compiled conviction
rates and tabulated the sentencing patterns of
individual judges.
Patterns revealed
As hard as it is to believe, all the calculations
that were done on the noisy 7080 mainframe
with its whirring tape decks could be done on a
notebook computer today.
With our cars stuffed with these printouts,
we headed back to Philadelphia to interview
defendants, lawyers, police and others and to
start the writing.
In February 1973, more than seven months
after the project started, The Inquirer pub-

32

We were able to show, differences in the

way cases were decided by white and AfricanAmerican judges
lished Crime and Injustice, a 25,000-word,
seven-part series that provoked widespread
reaction in Philadelphia, among newspapers
elsewhere and in the national criminal justice
community. Many local officials who did not
fare well in the articles criticized the work,
especially the citys prosecuting attorney who
did not like the way his office was portrayed.
But overall the reaction was favorable, in Philadelphia and elsewhere, especially from judges,
legal scholars and criminal justice officials
across the nation.
What impressed many readers was the
level of sophistication in the findings, which of
course were only made possible by the computer analysis. One such conclusion showed
that 64 percent of African-American murder
convicts received sentences of more than five
years when their victims were white, but only
14 percent were given such long sentences if the
victims were black.

As the largest computer-assisted reporting

project of its time, the series had wide influence
in journalism. James Aucoin, in his book, The
Evolution of American Investigative Reporting,
said Crime and Injustice set a new standard
for other investigative reporters embarking on
investigations of local criminal justice systems.
The series won major journalism awards and
was cited by the University of Missouri School
of Journalism for its pioneering use of computers. We learned later that it had apparently
provoked a controversy among Pulitzer deliberations in 1974 after it was entered in the Pulitzer
competition. During the selection process, a
juror or board member it was never clear who
- was apparently disturbed that a computer had
been used in the reporting, and declared to one
of his fellow Pulitzer participants that no story
using a computer would ever win a Pulitzer if
he had anything to do with it.
Weve all come a long way.

33

Into the future

with CAR
This year, the Global Conference offer the most comprehensive
track in computer assisted reporting (CAR) ever. This should provide
you with the skills for the newsroom of tomorrow.
BY Maren Sb

34

- If you know some of the

data tools, you can make
unique stories every day.

ohn Bones of the Norwegian daily Verdens Gang,

and a board member of SKUP, is the main programmer behind the data track. We asked him
about the highlights
-Every session is a highlight! There will both be
newbies and veterans at the Conference, and there
are multiple sessions for all groups, depending on their
interests and skills. Participants not familiar at all with
the data tools should attend the basic Excel courses.
For those who have taken the first steps, there will be
five sessions in web scraping with Python, introduction
courses in statistics and database building, different
mapping courses and different methods for cracking
PDF files.
So, put another way, what should one absolutely not
miss?
-A difficult question, but when I am thinking about
it, the most important part of our work is to find and
retrieve information. We have some courses in advances internet search, and we have also some sessions
where the people behind Verification Handbook will
tell the audience how to validate the information they
have found. There are also courses in how to get access
to public information around the world.

How can these new skills be used in the newsroom of

tomorrow?

-They can be used in all departments in a newsroom.

What are sports about? Numbers! What is economy
about? Numbers! What is entertainment about? Money!
What is politics about? Money! You can use your data
skills to handle huge amounts of information, and you
can see patterns you will not notice without these tools.
You can map your findings, and you can use statistics
to control what you have found.
Teamwork between journalists and developers seem to
be catching on a lot of places. What are the benefits for
journalists and developers working together?

-Even if the journalists get used to working with different data tools, most of us will need to work together
with a programmer when we are doing the complicated stuff. A journalist that know something about
programming and a programmer that know something
about journalism will be a strong team. And if you add
a designer, the team will be perfect. The programmer
and the designer will take your information to a higher
level.
But still, some of us are going about it, alone. Are there
still opportunities for the lone wolf?

All photos by Annemor Larsen/VG

Computer assisted reporting at GIJC2015

There are classes in data driven
reporting running throughout the
programme, these will be marked at
data-track. Notice that some of these
classes have limited space as they are
hands-on computer-classes. You can sign
up for these in the programme online.
It is necessary that you bring your own
computers for these classes.

- If you know some of the data tools, you

can make unique stories every day. You do
not depend entirely on your sources or spin
doctors; you make your own stories based
on the analysis and calculations you have
made. Instead of people telling you what to

write, you ask your sources to comment the findings

you have made. You are the king, or the queen, of your
own data.
After the revolutions in North- Africa and Ukraine,
and considering the revelations of Edward Snowden,
there seems to be a lot of people watching us do our
work. There are new challenges in security, what must
everyone be aware of, and is there anything we can do
to protect ourselves and our sources?
-Everybody should attend some of the security
courses at the Conference. The Snowden-case was an
eye-opener for journalists, and all of us should learn
techniques for encryption and secure communication.
There are people out there listening to what you are doing, and if you dont think thats OK, learn some skills
to protect your communication and your devices.

35

Reporting
in the time
of Ebola
Reporting on an unseen and deadly
enemy, the work of local and
international journalists helped
fight Ebola in West Africa.
BY Maren Sb

Workers in protective gear disinfect

a courthouse after a case is reported
Photo: Ashoka Mukpo

Patients and relatives waiting outside the Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) run by Doctors without borders
outside Monrovia. Photo: Ashoka Mukpo

n the spring of last year, signs were that an epidemic of the deadly and
largely unknown Ebola- virus was getting out of hand in West-Africa. By
June- July the virus created havoc in the Liberian capital of Monrovia. As
was fear and misinformation about the virus.
There was a lot of information spreading like wildfire, it was not easy to
know what was true, lot of the rumors said that Ebola was some kind of conspiracy that was brought by the West, we had to do the research, find out about
the virus, the history, says Edwin Gemoway, one of the reporters at local paper
Frontpage Africa.
From the outset there was an information gap, people could not get through
to the
Hospitals, and if they did, there were no ambulances to send. In August the
Liberian capital had two of them. Reporters, especially those working in radio,
became a link between people and the overwhelmed health-system.
They would call and tell us where the sick people were, or if there was a
body. Sometimes bodies was left for days, if we reported it, it forced the ambulance to appear and take it away
Gemoway tells of mistrust, between people and government, between the
press and government. A driver in all this was fear. Among stories that made
the rounds was tales of Ebola turning people into zombies, stories of poor
neighborhoods singled out to die. In mid-August riots broke out in the densely
populated slum of West Point in the centre of Monrovia. More than 60.000
people were quarantined. Left on their own. Getting out reports on how to
protect one self, debunking rumor became a matter of life and death. Local
radio stations were the key.
For Gemoway and his colleagues, reporting on an epidemic also changed the
focus of their work. Journalists in Liberia, like in many other countries tend to
focus on politicians and other people in high places, on scandal, corruption and
power. But the disease hit high and low in Liberian society, and even inside
the ministries. In early August an adviser for the finance minister traveled to
Nigeria, in Lagos he fell sick, and later died
The death of Patrick Sawyer a prominent person that had interacted
with a lot of people, including ministers, they quarantined important people.
This was when a lot of people realized this was for real.
At the same time, reporters realized they were putting themselves at risk,
going to hospitals and holding areas without protective gear, witnessing mass
cremations. At least four journalists died Gemoway reckons.

38

Staying safe
Freelancer Ashoka Mukpo arrived in Monrovia in early
September; he was impressed by the important job
done by his Liberian colleagues at the time.
-The local press generally did an excellent job. In
fact, it was photographs of biohazard-suited medical
teams conducting "safe burials" that were partially
responsible for the widespread denial of the disease's
existence starting to reduce. They were published in a
local daily and a video was shared on facebook. It was a
major point where people started to recognize that the
danger was real.
By the time Mukpo showed up, international press
had been arriving in all greater numbers for about a
month. By August Ebola was the big story, and hotels
in Monrovia were filled up with major news outlets, as
well as aid workers. Previously a resident of Monrovia,
Mukpo got to work as a fixer an cameraman for international news outlets, from that vantage point he observed both the international and local press in action.
The main difference I saw between international
and local reporters was that the internationals tended to focus on the most upsetting scenes outside of
treatment units, as well as the need for an international
response. Local journalists were much more focused on
the shortcomings of their own government in dealing
with the outbreak, and were more adept at communicating with Liberians about the impact that the disease
was having on their lives and families
Among the reporters filing for the international
press, Mukpo and other freelancers was amongst the
most exposed.
There was a tremendous demand for freelance
content. Many journalists were afraid to be in such a
dangerous and unpredictable environment, where the
rules were far different than that in war. I was paid
relatively well for shooting assignments and most-

Alpha Senkpeni Grand Bassa-correspondent for the national newspaper Frontpage Africa, and a local radio station
interviews Stella Lymas (22) who lost her father, a local doctor to the virus. Photo: Maren Sb

ly found it easy to pitch stories. It was dangerous,

obviously. Many of the other freelancers I knew didn't
have adequate insurance, nor any assurance that the
outlets they were dealing with would help them if they
became sick.
Mukpo questions the ethics of some of the reporting he witnessed. The nature of the disease, much
less known at this time last year than now, prompted
some sensational reporting. CNN called Monrovia a
war zone while most of the city was functioning as
always.
The international press was a mixed bag. There
were obviously some journalists and outlets that were
just concerned with getting the most shocking or
simplistic footage, but others were doing a good job of
getting in-depth with the story, trying to under-

Safety for journalists

Safety for
journalists is the
focus for several
seminars during
the conference.
There will also be
a seminar on the
coverage of the
Ebola crisis on
Saturday at 14.30.
See program for
further details

39

We wore large rubber

boots and gloves, carried
backpack sprayers full
of chlorinated water
solution, and above all
- didn't come close to
infected patients.

stand the full context and portraying as nuanced a

view as possible. The New York Times stands out,
their coverage was excellent, it captured the political situation as well as the way the disease was
unraveling the fabric of Liberian life.
As for the local press, staying safe and alive was
a pressing issue for the international press corps
throughout the epidemic. As his colleagues, Mukpo
followed advice he got from health workers and
wore protective gear.
We wore large rubber boots and gloves, carried backpack sprayers full of chlorinated water
solution, and above all - didn't come close to
infected patients. The sense was that if we kept our
distance from people who were obviously sick and
continuously sprayed chlorine, we would be fine,
Mukpo says.
Staying alive
But by early October, Mukpo knew that something
wasnt right, when his fever rose, he had to raise
the alarm, and get to an Ebola Treatment Unit
(ETU) set up on the outskirts of Monrovia. There
he tested positive for Ebola. Mukpo was attached
to NBC by the time he got sick, and was covered by

40

their insurance. Catching the virus further showed

Mukpo the difference between him, and his local
colleagues.
Many of the local reporters were in a very
difficult situation, if they got sick they'd have no
chance of being evacuated, but they were out in the
field most of the time anyway. Obviously there was
a disparity there. I got sick and was airlifted to the
US, but my Liberian colleagues could never have
expected that to happen. As a source of information
they were invaluable and also broke stories before
the international press in many cases, although
they rarely received credit for that, says Mukpo
Ashoka Mukpo was lucky, after being airlifted from Monrovia, he got treatment in Nebraska
in the US. Weeks later he could walk out on his
own feet. Later, he has had time to reflect on the
coverage, he says too much of the focus was on the
international response. While in fact, it was local
efforts that curbed the spread of the virus, with the
international community entering the scene after
the so-called peak of the epidemic.
Obviously international resources were desperately needed, but when you look at the timeline
of when cases started to fall, it's hard to say that

it was international support that caused that to

happen. In particular, I don't think the US deployment of troops had much of an effect at all. It was
important that new treatment units and testing
capacity were given to Liberia, but I think the
essential reason why the outbreak ended was that
Liberians at a very grassroots level began to change
their behavior and cooperate with health authorities. The reason they denied Ebola's existence in the
first place wasn't because they were ignorant- it
was because they don't trust their government, and
for good reason. Respectful partnerships between
local health officials and community organizations,
often led by the communities themselves, has
much more to do with Ebola coming under control
in Liberia than any deployment of international
resources, in my opinion.
For Gemoway and his colleagues the situation
by September 2015 is back to normal. Every now
and then they do a follow up story on the health
system, still in crisis, and the survivors. But power,
corruption and scandal are back on the front-page.
But the reporter thinks that the epidemic has left
some changes in the way Liberian reporters do
their job.
Ebola brought media to the human interest
stories; it represented a shift from covering prominent people, to most people. We had no options
but to report on what happened, all normal politics
were suspended. We continue doing human interest stories now but of course, we are dependent on
advertising, so we also need the political scandals.
Gemoway, who among other things witnessed
mass cremations at Monrovias beaches, says that
none of his colleagues has had any counseling after
the epidemic. He admits it hasnt been easy, but
that trauma is not really discussed among Liberian
press professionals. After all, these are reporters
that up to 2003 lived in a country at war with itself.
During the civil war in Liberia, we could see
what was killing us. But this killer cannot be seen,
that was scary, he says.

Vinner av
SKUP-prisen
2014

DE SISTE SEKS RENE HAR DAGBLADET VUNNET MER ENN

40 PRISER OG UTMERKELSER FOR SITT JOURNALISTISKE ARBEID.
FOR ANDRE RET P RAD VANT VI SKUP-PRISEN!

Dagbladet-journalisten Kristoffer Egeberg vant SKUP-prisen 2014 for prosjektet Nigeria-btene. SKUP-Prisen
deles ut til den beste underskende journalistikken i ret som gikk. Egeberg tok i bruk bde tradisjonelle og
utradisjonelle metoder for avslre hvordan salgene av skipene har foregtt.
Artikkelserien om Nigeria-btene avslrer hvordan Forsvaret har solgt marinefarty til paramilitre i Vest-Afrika.
Blant disse er seks tidligere norske missiltorpedobter solgt til krigsherren Tompolo. De er bevpnet p nytt
med maskinkanoner og mitraljser, og har gitt krigsherren makt over hele den nigerianske oljeeksporten.
Avslringene har frt til flere politietterforskninger i Norge og Storbritannia. Flere er siktet. Og Stortingets
kontroll- og konstitusjonskomite har pnet kontrollsak mot Forsvarsdepartementet og UD.
Les den prisvinnende artikkelserien p db.no.

Den store
journalistprisen
2010

rets avis
2012

Den store
journalistprisen
2012

Vinner av
SKUP-prisen
2013

European
Press Prize
2013

World Media
Digital Award
2013

International
Reporter
2015

Magasinet-reportasjen
Den Usynlige

Mediebedriftenes
Landsforening

22.juli-dokumentaren
Tomrommene

Null CTRL-serien om sviktende

datasikkerhet i Norge.

Null CTRL-serien om sviktende

datasikkerhet i Norge.

Null CTRL-serien om sviktende

datasikkerhet i Norge.

Artikkelserien
Nigeria-btene

41

GLOBAL SHINING LIGHT AWARD FINALISTS

12 Finalists Named for

Global Shining
Light Award
T

welve extraordinary stories from 12 countries are finalists

in the sixth Global Shining Light Award, a unique prize
which honors investigative journalism in a developing or
transitioning country, done under threat, duress, or in the
direst of conditions.
The winners will be announced and presented at the Global
Investigative Journalism Conference this October 10 in Lillehammer,
Norway. The winners will receive an honorary plaque and US$1,000.
Finalists were selected from among 76 submissions received from
34 countries, for stories published or broadcast between January
1, 2013 and December 31, 2014. Judging was done by a prestigious
international panel of journalists.
The award is sponsored by the Global Investigative Journalism
Network, an association of 118 nonprofit organizations in 54 countries.
And the 12 Finalists Are

42

GLOBAL SHINING LIGHT AWARD FINALISTS

19 Disappearances, 1 City, 2 Weeks

THE NEW AGE,BANGLADESH, (2014)

Team: David Bergman and Muktadir Rashid.

The Graft of General Gu Junshan

CAIXIN, CHINA (2014)

Team: Wang Heyan and Xie Haitao

This series investigated the disappearances of 19

opposition activists in Bangladeshs capital city. The
stories found substantial evidence that law enforcement officials were involved in picking up all of
them before they vanished.

A two-year investigation into former Peoples

Liberation Army deputy logistics chief Gu Junshan
found that he personally benefitted from military
real estate deals and building projects. The series,
regarded as Chinas first media investigation into
military top brass, caused a major stir.

Egypt-Italy Death Trip

Unholy Alliances

ARAB REPORTERS FOR INVESTIGATIVE

JOURNALISM (2014)
Team: Mohammad Al Kazaz

ORGANIZED CRIME AND CORRUPTION

REPORTING PROJECT, MONTENEGRO (2014)
Reporters: Miranda Patrucic; Dejan Milovac;
Stevan Dojcinovic; Lejla Camdzic.
Editors: Drew Sullivan, Jody McPhillips,
Rosemary Armao

ARIJs Mohammad Al Kazaz spent months to tell

the inside story of families and brokers smuggling
children on boats of death to Italy. He documents
harrowing stories at sea, hard times in Italy, and a
broken immigration system.

This year-long investigation exposed how Montenegros once-untouchable Prime Minister Milo
Djukanovic and his family bank are at the center of
an unholy alliance of government, organized crime,
and business. Far from a model candidate for the
EU, Montenegro in effect functions as a mafia state.

43

GLOBAL SHINING LIGHT AWARD FINALISTS

Empire of Ashes

GAZETA DO POVO, BRAZIL (2014)

Team: Mauri Knig with Albari Rosa and Diego
Antonelli (Brazil); Martha Soto (Colombia); and
Ronny Rojas (Costa Rica)
A five-month investigation revealed how cigarette
smuggling is overtakingmarijuana and cocaine as
the most profitable racket in parts of Latin America. The illicit trade is reshaping the geopolitics of
organized crime in South America, and is covertly
led by Paraguay President, Horacio Cartes.

Call the Executioner

KENYA TELEVISION NETWORK, KENYA (2013)

Team: Mohammed Ali; John-Allan Namu;
Kassim Mohamed; Sam Munia
This eight-month investigation by Kenya TV revealed the brutal tactics of an elite anti-terrorism
police unit. The team traveled to Kenya, Somalia,
and Uganda, documenting the unexplained deaths
of men accused of being Al-Shabaab recruiters.

44

Tunisias Quranic Kindergartens

REALITES MAGAZINE, TUNISIA (2013)

Team: Hanene Zbiss
Following its 2011 revolution, Tunisia saw the spread
of Quranic kindergartens radical Islamist schools
dedicated to creating a Wahhabi elite in Tunisian
society. After reporter Zbiss went undercover to
document the extremist teaching, the state closed
100 kindergartens.

Goldfinger

M-NET & DSTV, SOUTH AFRICA (2014)

Team: Graham Coetzer (producer); Susan Comrie
(journalist); Devi Sankaree Govender (presenter).
This investigation exposed how thousands of tons
of illegal gold are laundered into the legal trade
every year, disguised as second-hand jewelry. So
lucrative is this VAT scam that it has drawn sophisticated and dangerous organized crime gangs into
the trade.

GLOBAL SHINING LIGHT AWARD FINALISTS

Kimberlys Illicit Process

WORLD POLICY JOURNAL, ANGOLA, DRC,

UNITED STATES (2013)
Team: Khadija Sharife and John Grobler.

YanukovychLeaks

YANUKOVYCHLEAKS.COM, UKRAINE (201415)

Team: Dmytro Gnap; Anna Babinets; Vlad Lavrov;
Oleksandr Akimenko; Katya Gorchinskaya; Natalie
Sedletska; Oleh Khomenok; Mariya Zemlyanska;
Olesya Ivanova; Maksym Opanasenko; Kateryna
Kapliuk; Denys Bigus.

The investigation exposed how US$3.5 billion in

illicit diamond revenue flowing from Angola and
the Democratic Republic of Congo was laundered
using the legitimacy of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.

In the chaotic days of Ukraines 2014 revolution, an

impromptu team of journalists banded together to
rescue 25,000 documents nearly destroyed by the
countrys fleeing president. Their work documented
an extraordinary history of corruption and became
evidence in criminal cases against Yanukovych and
his cronies for stealing millions of dollars.

The Presidents White House

Cyprus Troika

HETQ.AM, ARMENIA (2013)

Team: Edik Baghdasaryan; Kristine Aghalaryan;
Ararat Davtyan.
ARISTEGUI NOTICIAS, MEXICO (2014)
Team: Rafael Cabrera; Carmen Aristegui; Daniel
Lizarraga; Sebastin Barragn; Irving Huerta.
The ownership of a US$7 million mansion for
Mexicos president was hidden, registered under a
group owned by a businessman whose enterprises
grew along with the presidents political career.
Four months after the storys release, all the journalists involved in this story were fired.

Armenias HETQ exposed the murky dealings of an

offshore company registered in Cyprus, revealing
how the countrys state, church and business sectors cooperate in pursuing their economic interests. The story implicated the Prime Minister, who
resigned in April 2014.

45

MAP OVER LILLEHAMMER AREA

46

MAP OVER LILLEHAMMER AREA

Birkebeineren Hotel & Apartments

Clarion Collection Hotel Hammer

Mlla Hotell

Scandic Victoria
Lillehammer

Lillehammer
Railway Station

Radisson Blu
Lillehammer Hotel

First Hotel Breiseth

47

Speakers and
participants
There are more than 840 participants at GIJC2015, from 121 countries.
These are just a handful of the colleagues youll meet and learn from
during the conference. For a full list of speakers and participants,
visit our homepage at gijc2015.org

MUSIKILU MOJEED

is member of the International

Consortium of Investigative
Journalists, is an award-winning
journalist and Managing Editor at
Nigerias multimedia newspaper,
Premium Times. He was until 2011
Investigative Editor at Nigerias NEXT
newspaper where he directed the
groundbreaking investigative work of that
newspaper. He also coordinated the papers
WikiLeaks coverage.

MARGO SMIT

is an independent investigative
journalist and journalism teacher.
She is currently the ombudsman
at Dutch public broadcaster NOS.
Till august 2015, she was director
of the Dutch-Flemish Association
of Investigative Journalists VVOJ.
In 2012, she lead a team of over 80
European journalists to compile the report
Deterrence of fraud with EU-funds through
investigative journalism in EU-27. Smit is a
member of IRE, GIJN and ICIJ.

KHADIJA SHARIFE

is a forensics financial researcher

and writer based in South Africa.
She works with the African
Network of Centers for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR), is a fellow
with the World Policy Institute, and
author of Tax Us If You Can: Africa.

48

CECILIA ANESI

is a reporter with Correct!v, the

German centre for investigative
journalism and a member and
founder of the Investigative
Reporting Project Italy (IRPI), a
centre for investigative journalism
in Italy. Before creating IRPI, she
co-authored the investigative journalism documentary Toxic Europe which won
the Best International Organised Crime Report
Award 2011

HELENA BENGTSSON

is Editor, Data Projects at the Guardian

in London, UK. She previously
worked as the database editor
at Sveriges Television, Swedens
national television broadcaster. In
2006 and 2007, she was database
editor at the Center for Public
Integrity in Washington, D.C. In 2010,
she was awarded the Stora Journalistpriset
(Great Journalism Award) for Valpejl.se, a website profiling every candidate in that seasons
Swedish elections.

FIRAS FAYYAD

is a from Syria. Twice held by Syrian

President Bashar Assads fearful
intelligence regime for exposing
human rights abuses and covering the start of the 2011 peaceful
protests that turned into civil war,
offers tips to foreign journalists
investigating the trail of Europes biggest
immigration crisis in decades.

BRANT HOUSTON

is the John S. and James L. Knight

Foundation Chair in Investigative
and Enterprise Reporting and
teaches investigative and advanced reporting in the Department
of Journalism at the University of
Illinois. He is a founder and chair of
the board of Diretors for the Investigative News Network, a consortium of
nonprofit investigative news organizations

MARGOT WILLIAMS

is research editor for investigations at

The Intercept, previously at the International Consortium of Investigative
Journalists (ICIJ), NPR, The New York
Times and the Washington Post.
She has pursued jihadists online
and detainees whodied in U.S.
immigration detention, investigated
war contractors and followed the money
(and private jets) of mayors, governors, senators,
presidential candidates, and ex-presidents.

SASHA CHAVKIN
is a reporter for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
He was ICIJs lead reporter for the
Evicted & Abandoned investigation, which explored forced
displacement and human rights
abuses in development projects
funded by the World Bank.

MAR CABRA

is the head of the Data & Research

Unit, which produces the organizations key data work and also
develops tools for better collaborative investigative journalism. She
has been an ICIJ staff member
since 2011, and is also a member of
the network.
Mar fell in love with data while being a
Fulbright scholar and fellow at the Stabile Center
for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University in 2009/2010. Since then, shes promoted
data journalism in her native Spain, co-creating
the first ever masters degree on investigative
reporting, data journalism and visualization and
the national data journalism conference, which
gathers more than 500 people every year.

SAMI AL-HAJJ

is originally from Sudan. He was

arrested by the Pakistani Army while
working for Al Jazeera in Afghanistan in 2001.
After six years and seven months
as a prisoner of the United States
at Guanatanamo Bay, he was
released as a free man. Today he
heads Al Jazeeras Public Liberties and
Human Rights Centre and a board members of
International Press Institute (IPI).

ANDREW FEINSTEIN

is a former ANC Member of Parliament from South Africa. He is the

author of After the Party: The
ANC, Corruption & South Africas
Uncertain Future and The
Shadow World: Inside the Global
Arms Trade. He is currently working
on a full-length documentary feature
of Shadow World with director Johan
Grimonprez. He is the Executive Director of
Corruption Watch in London.

UMAR CHEEMA

is an investigative reporter for the

Pakistani newspaper The News. In
2008, was a fellow for Daniel Pearl
Journalism Fellowship, and was
the first to work for The New York
Times. Cheema was also a fellow
for London School of Economics by
Chevening Scholarship, where has a
masters in Compared Politics.

ROSEMARY NWAEBUNI

is an investigative reporter with the

POINTER newspaper in Delta State,
Nigeria. Among her stories is Corruption Paid for in Lives in Nigerias
Delta State, her investigation into
the sorry state of health care in her
region of Nigeria. She has a knack
for getting to the root of issues by digging deep through thorough investigation;
holding corrupt officials and criminals to account for their actions. Her passion for exposing
societal ills and bringing perpetrators to justice
as her driving force led her into several investigative works such as Corruption Paid in Lives in
Delta State Nigeria; and Nigeria, a though Place
for a widow (Disinheritance: A cultural tool of
Violence against Women) funded by Forum for
African Investigative Reporters (FAIR).

ANDREW LEHREN

is a Reporter at The New York Times,

and has worked on a range of
national, international, and
investigative stories. He was one
of the newspapers lead Reporters
analyzing the Wikileaks trove of
diplomatic cables, Afghanistan
and Iraq war logs, and Guantanamo
detainee dossiers. Highlights from those
stories were compiled into a bestselling book,
Open Secrets.

IMMANUEL LIU

is an Oscar-nominated director, graduated from the cinematography

division of the Cinematography
Institute of the Russian Federation. She has worked on various
movies as producer, director,
cinematographer, and still photographer. In 2002, she was awarded
Best Producer of Documentary and Short
Fiction Movies in Poland for Railway Station
Ballad. In 2004 she completed work on The
Children of Leningradsky in collaboration with
HBO. The movie received an Oscar nomination
(2005), an IDA Award, two Emmy nominations,
and the Gracie Allen Award, among others.
Hanna has been advocating the case of homeless children all over the world. She founded
and collaborated with Active Child Aid foundation and collaborates with UNICEF.

RAFAEL MARQUES DE MORAIS

is the editor of Maka Angola. Hes an

investigative journalist and anti-corruption activist from Angola.
Educated at Oxford he began
his career in journalism in the
state-owned newspaper Jornal
de Angola but was soon fired for
his articles critical of president Jose
Eduardo dos Santos. In 1999 his articles
also landed him in jail for the first time.

ANA ARANHA

is an investigative reporter based in

Sao Paulo, Brazil. She frequently
covers the Amazon, her last
stories followed the impacts of
large power plants, illegal logging
and indigenous population. She
collaborates with national and
international media and has written
for the Guardian Weekly, El Mundo and
the Brazilian branches of Marie Claire, Rolling
Stones and GQ. From 2004 to 2011

is an investigative reporter with Chinas

Southern Weekly newspaper. She
formerly worked for the business
publication Caixin, and was honored with Reporter of the Year for
her coverage of the envrionment.
Most recently she reported on the
recent explosions in the city of Tianjin. |
For the last 7 years, Liu Yiman has reported
many environmental issues in China.

HANNA POLAK

MARINA WALKER GUEVARA

is deputy director of the International
Consortium of Investigative Journalists, an independent network of
reporters headquartered in Washington, DC. A native of Argentina,
her investigations have won and
shared more than 25 national and
international awards

JULIANA RUHFUS

began reporting and investigating for

the BBC in 1997. The following years
she produced investigations for
the BBC and Channel 4 from as
diverse places as Somalia, Yemen
and Haiti, before joining AlJazeera
in 2006 as a chief reporter on the
People and Power-program. She is
today a senior presenter at the network.

49

SHAPING
THE MEDIA OF
TOMORROW.
TODAY.
EMPOWERING
PEOPLE TO WORLD
CLASS JOURNALISM
SCHIBSTED JOURNALISM ACADEMY

50

51

MAP OF LILLEHAMMER RADISSON BLU

52

MAP OF LILLEHAMMER RADISSON BLU

53

PROGRAM

WEDNESDAY 7th OCTOBER

THURSDAY 8th OCTOBER

14:0015.30 Safety and security [S]

New Insights into Trauma and Journalism
Venue: Troll
Moderators: Trond Idas
The old model of PTSD suggests that trauma trouble
starts when a sense of overwhelming threat breaks
down peoples natural defences. This discussion will
look at recent research and ask what relevance it
has for working journalists.

09:0010:30
Opening Ceremony
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Speakers: Jan Gunnar Furuly, Brant Houston &
David E. Kaplan
Welcome to the ninth Global Investigative Journalism Conference! Please join your hosts SKUP and
GIJN as we convene an extraordinary gathering of
journalists from around the world and launch more
than 160 panels, workshops, and special events.

15.3016.00 Break

16:0017:30 Safety and security [S]

Spreading Trauma Awareness
Venue: Troll
Moderators: Trond Idas
Well be looking at old and new approaches to
spreading trauma awareness both in journalism
schools and professional contexts.

17:3018:00 Break

09:3010:30 Cross border investigations [R]

Investigative Journalism Under Attack
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Moderators: Margo Smit
Speakers: Clare Rewcastle Brown, Umar Cheema,
Rafael Marques de Morais, Drew Sullivan &
Marcela Turati
Reporting in many countries is getting more
dangerous than ever. Journalists are increasingly
harassed and arrested and independent media
closed. Even family members of reporters are being
arrested. In this panel, five courageous investigative
reporters from four continents talk about their harrowing experiences with prosecutions, dirty tricks,
and violent attacks.

Speakers: Alex Gimson

This session is about extracting data from webpages without using any code.
11:0012:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Email Encryption 1
Venue: Messanin 12
Speakers: Ola Haram & Fredrik Laurin
This session will give you hands-on training with
Mailvelope and other email clients.
11:0012:00 Data Presentation [T]
data track: Internet Search - How To Find People 1
Venue: Birkebeiner 2
Moderators: Eva Jung
Speakers: Henk van Ess
In this Facebook and Twitter extravaganza you will
learn the best tricks to find people fast.
11:0012:00 Non-profit track [F]
How To Support Investigative Newsrooms
Venue: Weidemann 3
Moderators: Gnter Bartsch
Speakers: Leila Bicakcic, David E. Kaplan & Valer Kot
There are at least 150 nonprofit organizations in
over 50 countries teaching and promoting investigative journalism. Here are invaluable tips from veterans in the field, with lessons from both successful
nonprofits and for-profits.

18:0021:00 Barbeque Dinner in the Garden

10:3011:00 Coffee break
20:3022:00 Investigative Film Festival [I]
Drone
Venue: Weidemann 5
Moderators: Christine Engh
Speakers: Tonje Hessen Schei
Inside the secret CIA drone war. Intimate stories
from the war on terror. People living under drones
in Pakistan and drone pilots struggling with killing
through joysticks in the US.
22:0022:45 Investigative Film Festival [I]
Serbia: The Fight for Truth
Venue: Weidemann 5
Moderators: Christine Engh
Speakers: Erling Borgen & Tom Heinemann
Brankica Stankovic is the editor and journalist of the
most well-known documentary programs, the Insider on the TV-station B92. For five years she has
been under constant police protection because she
does her job as a critical investigative journalist.
22:4523:30 Investigative Film Festival
Guatemala: Land of Terror
Venue: Weidemann 5
Moderators: Christine Engh
Speakers: Erling Borgen & Tom Heinemann
Jose Ruben Zamora owns the newspaper El Periodico in Guatemala. The media exposes cocaine
cartels and the countrys political corruption. He is
threatened on his life and has been kidnapped. But
Zamora refuses to remain silent.

54

11:0012:00 Academic track [A]

Approaches in Teaching Investigative Reporting
Venue: Troll
Moderators: Ying Chan
Speakers: Wang Shiyu (Vincent) & Mark Lee Hunter
The session will explore different ways of teaching
investigative reporting.
11:0012:00 Cross border investigations [R]
How To Investigate a Bank
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Moderators: Gerard Ryle
Speakers: Mar Cabra, David Leigh & Oliver Zihlmann
Heres the inside story of a collaborative investigation that exposed how the Swiss branch of one of
the worlds biggest banks, HSBC, profited from doing business with tax dodgers and criminals around
the world.
11:0012:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Basic Excel 1
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Moderators: Crina Boros & Yolanda Jinxin Ma
This session will teach you the basics you need to
turn tabular data into headlines and to edit your
spreadsheet for user-friendly team work.
11:0012:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Webscraping without Programming 1
Venue: Weidemann 4

11:0012:00 Safety and security [S]

How Can We Better Protect Investigative Journalists?
Venue: Weidemann 5
Moderators: Vivienne Walt
Speakers: Chris Elliott, Xianhong Hu, Thorbjrn
Jagland, Abeer Saady, Rana Sabbagh, Anna Schiller
& Bruce Shapiro
Investigative journalists experience threats and
violence against themselves, their family and colleagues. This session adresses what strategies that
are most effective to stop persecution and violence
against journalists doing their jobs.

12:0012:30 Break

12:3013:30 Academic track [A]

A Sustaining High Quality Journalism
Venue: Troll
Moderators: Chuck Lewis
Speakers: Anya Schiffrin
Chuck Lewis will moderate and offer his observations from more than three decades of work in the
nonprofit sector on how high quality journalism has
been sustained and could be sustained.
12:3013:30 Corruption and organized crime [C]
Investigating the Italian Mafia in Africa
Venue: Weidemann 3
Moderators: Wilfried Ruetten
Speakers: Cecilia Anesi, John Grobler, Giulio Rubino
& Khadija Sharife

PROGRAM

In this session the speakers will discuss how they

worked with complicated cross-border issues.
12:3013:30 Cross border investigations [R]
Revealing Kremlin money
Venue: Lillehammer 3
Moderators: Oleg Khomenok
Speakers: Roman Anin & Stephen Grey
Roman Anin and Stephen Grey will tell you how they
set up a multinational team at Reuters to discover
the money trail from the taxpayer to Putins friends.
12:3013:30 Cross border investigations [R]
The Migrants' Files
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Moderators: Sheila S. Coronel
Speakers: Anne-Lise Bouyer, Firas Fayyad &
Sylke Gruhnwald
The Migrants Files is a consortium of journalists
from over 15 European countries. It is focused on
examing the human and financial cost of 15 years of
Fortress Europe.
12:3013:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Basic Excel 2
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Moderators: Crina Boros & Yolanda Jinxin Ma
This session will teach you the basics you need to
turn tabular data into headlines and to edit your
spreadsheet for user-friendly team work.
12:3013:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Email Encryption 2
Venue: Messanin 1-2
Speakers: Ola Haram & Fredrik Laurin
This session will give you hands-on training with
Mailvelope and other email clients.
12:3013:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Webscraping without Programming 2
Venue: Weidemann 4
Speakers: Alex Gimson
This session is about extracting data from webpages without using any code.
12:3013:30 Data Presentation [T]
data track: Internet Search How To Find People 2
Venue: Birkebeiner 2
Speakers: Henk van Ess
In this Facebook and Twitter extravaganza you will
learn the best tricks to find people fast.
12:3013:30 Lightning rounds [L]
Visualization
Venue: Weidemann 5
Moderators: Jennifer LaFleur
Speakers: Islam Alzeny, Rodrigo Burgarelli, Dan
Kre Engebretsen, Govindraj Ethiraj, Deborah
Nelson & Natalia Viana
12:3013:30 Networking [N]
Environmental Reporting
Venue: Meetingroom Laagen

13:3015:00 Lunch

15:0016:00 Data Presentation [T]

data track: 100 Best Databases for Internet
Research
Venue: Birkebeiner 2
Moderators: Andrew Lehren
Speakers: Gary Price & Margot Williams
Take home tips for backgrounding people and
companies, tracking planes and ships, finding elusive documents, and more.

15:0016:00 Academic track [A]

Teaching Computer-Assisted Reporting
Venue: Troll
Moderators: David Donald
Speakers: Brant Houston, Nils Mulvad &
Giannina Segnini
This session will incorporate decades of experience
in teaching students, faculty and professionals how
to use data for journalism.

15:0016:00 Environmental [E]

Investigating Environmental Crime: Illegal Logging
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Moderators: Subhra Priyadarshini
Speakers: Ana Aranha, Patrick Dunagan, Paul Radu
& Stefano Wrobleski
This panel will take you through the growing capability of satellite imagery at Skybox and other
service providers, combined with and advanced
follow the money and other reporting techniques.

15:0016:00 Corruption and organized crime [C]

Finding Africas missing money
Venue: Weidemann 5
Moderators: Derek Thorne
Speakers: Rex Chikoko, Musikilu Mojeed,
John Reynolds & Khadija Sharife
The session will feature participants in the Wealth
of Nations programme which works with Africas
leading journalists and media houses to report on
illicit finance and tax abuse.

15:0016:00 Networking [N]

Cross-Border Projects (Latin America)
Venue: Meetingroom Laagen
Moderators: Carlos Eduardo Huertas, Fabiola
Torres Lopez & Marcela Turati
Heres a chance to meet your colleagues interested
in similar topics To better connect people, we have
arranged a dozen networking sessions, based on
interests noted by our attendees in a pre-conference survey.

15:0016:00 Cross border investigations [R]

How to Investigate the World Bank (and Other Aid
Orgs) Using Their Own Data
Venue: Lillehammer 3
Moderators: Sheila S. Coronel
Speakers: Sasha Chavkin, Lourdes Ramrez &
Cecile Schillis-Gallego
The panelists will offer tips on how to investigate
development aid, drawing on the lessons of the
World Bank project.

15:0016:00 Safety and security [S]

Protecting Your Health While Covering Human
Tragedy
Venue: Weidemann 3
Moderators: Gavin Rees
Speakers: Cait McMahon & Juliana Ruhfus
This panel will offer practical advice, drawing on
personal experience and the latest scientific insight
into self-care and trauma.

Moderators: Nils Mulvad & Subhra Priyadarshini

Heres a chance to meet your colleagues interested
in similar topics To better connect people, we have
arranged a dozen networking sessions, based on
interests noted by our attendees in a pre-conference survey.

15:0016:00 Cross border investigations [R]

Step-by-Step Cross-Border Journalism
Venue: Weidemann 4
Speakers: Brigitte Alfter
Brigitte Alfter presents a step-by-step description of
the process from idea to publication and beyond.
15:0016:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Introduction to Access 1
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Speakers: Helena Bengtsson & Luuk Sengers
Introduction to databases. Take the next step in data
journalism and learn how to work with MS Access.
15:0016:00 Data Hands-On [D]
How To Create a Secure Leaks Platform
Venue: Messanin 1-2
Moderators: Emilia Daz-Struck
Speakers: Cecilia Anesi & Micah Lee

15:0017:30 Social event [V]

Data Pub
Venue: Bagler'n Data-Pub
Every day after lunch you can meet colleagues
ready to help with your data journalism ideas, data
problems, data security, program installation, data
challenges, data journalism opportunities And,
yes, it's a pub!

16:0016:30 Coffee break

16:3017:30 Corruption and organized crime [C]

Reporting on Organized crime
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Moderators: Drew Sullivan
Speakers: Cecilia Anesi & Stevan Dojcinovic
Learn about the latest trends in organized crime and
how it is changing its face and blending even more
seamlessly into politics and the financial industry

55

PROGRAM

16:3017:30 Cross border investigations [R]

Covering China: Tips and Best Practices
Venue: Lillehammer 3
Moderators: Ying Chan
Speakers: Immanuel Liu, Christine Spolar & Wei Zhou
China is now the worlds second largest economy.
This poses unique challenges for investigative journalists. Here are three perspectives from veteran
journalists both inside and outside of China.
16:3017:30 Cross border investigations [R]
How To Investigate Development Issues
Moderators: Diana Lungu
Speakers: Eva Belmonte Belda, Gilles van Kote &
Stefano Liberti
This panel will discuss how their investigations came
about and what challenges they have faced in covering development and how to overcome these.
16:3017:30 Cross border investigations [R]
The New Cold War
Venue: Weidemann 3
Moderators: Kristof Clerix
Speakers: Nataliya Gumenyuk, Per Anders
Johansen, Brd Wormdal & Mikhail Zygar
What is happening behind the scenes after the
Russian Federation annexed Crimea and the start
of the war in Eastern Ukraine? How to report on the
real life, cyber and satellite battlefields? In this panel, four journalists shed their light on these questions
from different points of view.
16:3017:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Basic Coding for Journalists
Venue: Messanin 1-2
Speakers: Adriana Homolova & Tommy Kaas
In this session youll get an introduction to the fundamentals of programming. If you have no prior
knowledge of programming you might want to start
with this session.
16:3017:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: DocumentCloud, analyzing huge text
amounts
Venue: Weidemann 4
Speakers: Rob Gebeloff & Nils Mulvad
Heres how to organize your document trail. DocumentCloud is a good first step into this world. And
with just an hour of practical training, youll be up
and running with this free tool.
16:3017:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Introduction to Access 2
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Speakers: Helena Bengtsson & Luuk Sengers
Introduction to databases. Take the next step in data
journalism and learn how to work with MS Access.
16:3017:30 Data Presentation [T]
How to Become an Instant Expert through Google
Venue: Birkebeiner 2
Moderators: Margot Williams
Speakers: Daniel Russell

56

You need to do a story on a topic thats completely

outside of your experience. In this mini-course Ill
show you the strategies and tactics I use to learn a
domain as rapidly as possible.
16:3017:30 Manage your investigations [M]
The Magic and Power of Audio Storytelling
Venue: Troll
Speakers: Sandra Bartlett & Huub Jaspers
In this session you will get the tools you need to produce an audio version of your print or video investigation, or to produce radio and podcast stories.
16:3017:30 Networking [N]
New Models & Nonprofits
Venue: Meetingroom Laagen
Moderators: Govindraj Ethiraj & Teun Gautier
Heres a chance to meet your colleagues interested
in similar topics To better connect people, we have
arranged a dozen networking sessions, based on
interests noted by our attendees in a pre-conference survey.
16:3018:00 Data Pub [P]
Download software for SQL
Venue: Bagler'n Data-Pub
Speakers: David Donald Andrew Lehren
Microsoft Access is the way to start. Of course, its
only available on Windows. Here you will get tips
on how to get started with SQL with various types of
applications on different operating systems.

18:3020:00 Dinner (Restaurant)

20:0021:00 Welcome Reception (Lillehammer 3)

20:0023:00 Social event [V]

CryptoParty
Venue: Bagler'n Data-Pub
Moderators: Ola Haram
This event is dedicated to sharing the art of encryption to anyone interested in learning how to install
and use tools to help secure their online communications and exchange public keys.
21:0022:30 Investigative Film Festival [I]
Something Better To Come
Venue: Weidemann 5
Moderators: Christine Engh
Speakers: Hanna Polak
Ten-year-old Yula, has but one dreamto escape
the largest garbage dump in Europe and lead a
normal life. Hanna Polak follows Yula as she grows
up for 14 years in this universal story of hope, courage, and life.
22:3023:0 Investigative Film Festival [I]
Ghana's Food for Thought (Al Jazeera)
Venue: Weidemann 5

Moderators: Christine Engh

Speakers: Anas Aremeyaw Anas
Following the discovery of oil in 2010, Ghana is
on the road to becoming one of Africas more
economically successful countries. But it is not quite
there yet and still ranks 138th out of 187 countries
in the 2014 Human Development Index. Ghanaian
journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas undercover
investigation reveals how officials of the Ghanaian
Health Service are stealing and selling it for their
own gain.

PROGRAM

FRIDAY 9th OCTOBER

09:0010:00 Cross border investigations [R]
Telia Sonera: How To Track Corruption Across Borders
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Speakers: Sven Bergman, Joachim Dyfvermark &
Fredrik Laurin
This case study in international cooperation was a
collaboration between Swedish Public TV and numerous journalists abroad, revealing how telecom
giant Telia Sonera bribed hard-line dictatorships
to get access to new virgin markets in Eurasia. The
panelists will explain their methods and the tricks
and trade of international cooperation.
09:0010:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Cleaning Dirty Data
Venue: Weidemann 4
Speakers: Crina Boros & Rob Gebeloff
Well use real data sets to teach you how to track
problems, how to clean dirty data, and how to format it for a confident analysis.
To participate in this class, you must be familiar with
spreadsheets and have some experience with SQL.
09:0010:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Encryption of Your Laptop and USB
Sticks 1
Messanin (Data Hands-On)
Speakers: Ola Haram & Runa Sandvik
09:0010:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Pivot Tables in Excel
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Speakers: Anuska Delic & Megan Luther
Learn how to summarize data in minutes rather
than hours on your spreadsheet with pivot tables.
09:0010:00 Data Presentation [T]
data track: Visualize Your Findings
Venue: Birkebeiner 2
Moderators: Linda Larsson Kakuli
Speakers: Jennifer LaFleur & Jodi Upton
In this session you will see different ways of working
with data, with examples from USA Today, ProPublica, and the Center for Investigative Reporting.

10:0010:30 Coffee break

10:3011:30 Academic track [A]

Investigative Journalism with Students
Venue: Troll
Moderators: Mark Horvit
Speakers: Sheila S. Coronel & Deborah Nelson
These veteran journalists and professors will share
the lessons learned in producing high quality and
often award winning stories with students on both
local and international stories.
10:3011:30 Cross border investigations [R]
How To Expose a Tax Haven

Venue: Lillehammer 12
Moderators: Kristof Clerix
Speakers: Simon Bowers, Marina Walker Guevara &
Edouard Perrin
LuxLeaks exposed in a systematic way how Luxembourg operates as a tax haven in the heart of the
continent. Team members explain how with the help
of digital tools, data mining, and tax experts they
transformed 28,000 pages of nearly incomprehensible accountancy lingo into stories that triggered a
tax storm in Europe and beyond.
10:3011:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Encryption of your Laptop and USB
Sticks 2
Venue: Messanin
Speakers: Ola Haram & Runa Sandvik
10:3011:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Investigative Dashboard 1 Follow the
Money Worldwide
Venue: Weidemann 3
Moderators: Nils Hanson
Speakers: Miranda Patrucic
Join us for this two-part, hands on-session and learn
how to investigate complex business structures and
access offshore records from your home computer.
In part one we will talk investigations and how-to.
10:3011:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Lookup Functions/Advanced Functions
in Excel
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Speakers: Anuska Delic & Megan Luther
Learn about advanced tricks in Excel that will blow
your mind and give you control over your data like
never before. Well conquer common data-cleaning
issues and much more.
10:3011:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Tableau 1, Beginners Session
Venue: Weidemann 4
Speakers: Florian Ramseger & Sophie Sparkes
earn how to create beautiful, interactive data visualizations on short deadlines. No programming required. Please bring your own laptop with Tableau
Public already installed. (Please visit https://public.
tableau.com/s/ to download the free Tableau Public Desktop application.)
10:3011:30 Data Presentation [T]
data track: 10 Ways To Deal with PDFs
Venue: Birkebeiner 2
Moderators: Nils Mulvad
Speakers: Rob Gebeloff
When it comes to liberating data from PDF files,
there are many options. But a solution that works
great for one project might not be the best fit for
your next story. In this session, well walk through a
number of different software packages, including
many that are free or inexpensive, and demonstrate
the strengths and weaknesses of each.

10:3011:30 Data Presentation [T]

Metadata and Mobile Spying
Venue: Weidemann 5
Moderators: Brigitte Alfter
Speakers: Andreas Bakke Foss, Fredrik HagerThoresen, Per Anders Johansen, Eva Jung & Lars
Nrgaard Pedersen
Snowden revealed how the American and British
intelligence services systematically intercept metadata from the worlds population. Danish project
#Sporet (in English #Tracked) made the debate
concrete and demonstrated how detailed one can
identify peoples thoughts and living patterns solely
by using so-called metadata. A team from daily
Aftenposten wanted to find out how often this technology was used in Norway, and whether its use
was legal. Here is the first story they broke.
10:3011:30 Masterclass [1]
Documentary Film Making
Venue: Meetingroom B (Under reception desk)
Moderators: Helene Skjeggestad
Speakers: Hanna Polak
Something Better to Come, is a documentary that
shows us life on Europes largest garbage dump.
Hanna will talk about the process of developing a
story and developing the hypothesis to prove it.
This is a Masterclass with a maximum capacity of
40-45 participants.
10:3011:30 Manage your investigations [M]
Working with Whistleblowers
Venue: Lillehammer 3
Moderators: Leon Willems
Speakers: Daniel Lizrraga, Yasmine Motarjemi &
Anna Myers
Whistle Blowers are becoming increasingly important sources for investigative journalists. What is
the realm of responsibility that journalists have for
source protection? How can we improve the fate of
whistleblowers? Those are some of the questions
this panel will address.
10:3011:30 Networking [N]
Conflict Reporting
Venue: Meetingroom Laagen
Moderators: Vivienne Walt
Heres a chance to meet your colleagues interested
in similar topics To better connect people, we have
arranged a dozen networking sessions, based on
interests noted by our attendees in a pre-conference survey.

11:3012:00 Break

12:0013:00 Academic track [A]

Studies of Cross Border Investigations
Venue: Troll
Moderators: Chuck Lewis
Speakers: Anas Aremeyaw Anas & Evelyn Groenink
Chuck Lewis explores the efficacy and potential of

57

PROGRAM

increased journalistic and academic data, research

and reporting collaboration, in the context of credible, accountability information. Evelyn Groenik and
Anas Aremeyaw Anas will explore how get African
investigative journalism on international platforms.
12:0013:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Advanced Access
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Speakers: Helena Bengtsson & Luuk Sengers
We continue to work with MS Access, learning how
to upload spreadsheets and text files into your
database. For this session you need to bring your
computer with a locally installed version of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access. If you dont have
that, go to the Data-Pub and get it installed before
you join us.
12:0013:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Investigative Dashboard 2 Follow
the Money Worldwide
Venue: Weidemann 3
Speakers: Miranda Patrucic & Paul Radu
Join us for a two-part hands on session and learn
how to investigate complex business structures and
access offshore records from your home computer.
In part one we will talk investigations and how to.
12:0013:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Tableau 2, Advanced session
Venue: Weidemann 4
Speakers: Florian Ramseger & Sophie Sparkes
In this session you will learn how to break away
from the default formatting in Tableau Public to
create interactive data graphics that match your
style guides and engage your readers. Tableau
Public is a free tool for journalists. Some familiarity
with the product is recommended; a beginner session earlier in the day should prepare you enough
for this session. Please bring your own laptop
with Tableau Public already installed. (Please visit
https://public.tableau.com/s/ to download the free
Tableau Public Desktop application.)
12:0013:00 Data Presentation [T]
Building Your Own Research Database
Venue: Birkebeiner 2
Moderators: Crina Boros
Speakers: Hamoud Almahmoud, Eva Constantaras
& Khadija Sharife
In this session, Hamoud Almahmoud, in charge of
setting up the Arab worlds first data and research
center, shares his drive to collecting on-line/offline records in 18 Arab countries where the right to
access information is non-existent.
12:0013:00 Environmental [E]
How to Turn your Reporting into a Game
Venue: Lillehammer 3
Moderators: Reg Chua
Speakers: Ivan Giordano & Juliana Ruhfus
Pirate Fishing is a groundbreaking interactive
web game that allows users to act as journalists

58

exposing the multi-million dollar illegal fishing trade

affecting West Africas poorest people. By watching
clips, the user follows the process of evidence gathering: destroyed nets, photos of ships with hidden
names, and snapshots of crew members. At the end
of each clip the user must enter the evidence into
the right section of the notebook to score points and
to advance in status.
12:0013:00 Manage your investigations [M]
How To Handle Documents
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Moderators: Mark Horvit
Speakers: James B. Steele
This session will explore how to find obscure reports
and documents on persons, institutions, companies
and programs valuable information that is often
otherwise unattainable. It will also offer practical
guidelines on how to analyze documents and reports to unleash their full investigative power.
12:0013:00 Networking [N]
Reporting on Poverty & Development
Venue: Meetingroom Laagen
Moderators: Sasha Chavkin & Diana Lungu
Heres a chance to meet your colleagues interested
in similar topics To better connect people, we have
arranged a dozen networking sessions, based on
interests noted by our attendees in a pre-conference survey.
12:0013:00 Non-profit track [F]
Fundraising for your Investigation
Venue: Weidemann 5
Moderators: Kunda Dixit
Speakers: Bridget Gallagher, Algirdas Lipstas &
Leon Willems
Despite more than 150 nonprofits engaged in investigative journalism worldwide, most groups are
struggling for money. Many fail to apply their own
reporting techniques to finding donors and to invest
in development. Theres money out there, and our
field continues to grow. but you need to have a solid
strategy and a strong commitment. Here are three
experts who can help guide your way.
12:0015:00 Cross border investigations [R]
Exposing International Wrongdoing with Code and
Journalism
Venue: Meetingroom B (Under reception desk)
Speakers: Mar Cabra, Rigoberto Carvajal, Emilia
Daz-Struck & Giannina Segnini
If you ever wondered how can journalists and programmers work together to produce brilliant investigations, this is your workshop. We will use shipping
data coming sometimes from obscure websites
to find unknown patterns and interesting stories.

13:0014:30 Lunch

14:3015:30 Academic track [A]

Studies on Data Journalism
Venue: Troll
Speakers: Oscar Parra Castellanos & Ivonne
Rodrguez
Castellanos and Rodriguez will describe the data
methodology behind Rutas del Conflicto, a project
created in 2014 that collected information from
more than 700 massacres committed in Colombia.
14:3015:30 Corruption and organized crime [C]
Reporting on Money Laundering
Venue: Weidemann 3
Moderators: Paul Radu
Speakers: Roman Anin, Miranda Patrucic & Leonida
Reitano
What are the signs of money laundering and how
do you report on it? What makes something money
laundering? Heres a look at some of the most significant cases proven by journalists.
14:3015:30 Cross border investigations [R]
How To Investigate the Arms Trade
Venue: Lillehammer 3
Moderators: Tarjei Leer-Salvesen
Speakers: Kristoffer Egeberg, Andrew Feinstein &
Paul Holden
Two of the central people behind exposing South
Africas big arms and corruption scandal share their
insights. They are joined by Kristoffer Egeberg from
Norways daily Dagbladet, who investigated how
the Norwegian Defence Ministry illegally sold an
entire fleet of naval ships to paramilitary forces in
Nigeria. Egeberg this year won SKUPs top award for
his reporting on the story. Paul Holden and Andrew
Feinstein played important roles in exposing the
South Africas big arms and corruption scandal.
14:3015:30 Cross border investigations [R]
Investigations in the Middle East: Focus on ISIS/
Daesh
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Moderators: Terje Carlsson
Speakers: Joakim Medin, Rana Sabbagh & Hanene
Zbiss
A panel discussion with focus on the latest developments in the Middle East. How are journalists
able to find reliable sources when investigating
extremist groups such as ISIS/Daesh? How can
reporters increase their knowledge about ISIS/
Daesh? What stories are not being told, now that
refugees and spectacular acts of violence are
dominating the news?
14:3015:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Basic Math for Managing Data
Venue: Weidemann 4
Speakers: Brant Houston
This session will look at basic calculations for overview analysis of data, showing ways to quickly find
stories through ratios, rates, percentage change,
and summarizing data with pivot tables.

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14:3015:30 Data Hands-On [D]

data track: Security Apps for Text and Voice
Venue: Messanin
Speakers: Ola Haram & Runa Sandvik
How can you secure your smartphone communications? This session will teach you how to establish
encrypted mobile voice and text communication.
14:3015:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Stats for Stories 1 - Descriptive
Statistics
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Speakers: David Donald & Andrew Lehren
This session introduces using statistics for stories. It
will cover a more systematic way of thinking about
your approach to data and then applying your new
understanding through descriptive statistics with an
emphasis on storytelling. Familiarity with spreadsheets is necessary but no experience with statistics
is assumed.
14:3015:30 Data Presentation [T]
data track: Are the Rumors True? Learn How To
Check Them!
Venue: Birkebeiner 2
Moderators: Rina Tsubaki
Speakers: Henk van Ess
There is new pope appointed. How can you validate
in just 30 minutes connections with dictator Videla, if
any? A Syrian reporter claims Gadaffi is killed. Your
mission, if you accept it, is to prove he is wrong or
right that night. A prototype of a new plane lands
secretly in Amsterdam. Everyone denies. How do
you proof its true?
14:3015:30 Lightning rounds [L]
My Favorite Data Tool
Venue: Weidemann 5
Moderators: Henrik Bergsten
Speakers: Helena Bengtsson, Crina Boros, Anuska
Delic, Rob Gebeloff, Sylke Gruhnwald, Tommy Kaas,
Linda Larsson Kakuli, Jennifer LaFleur, Megan Luther
& Chan Ka Wai
Data journalism on steroids! Some of the best
trainers in the world have got five minutes each to
present their favourite data tool.
14:3015:30 Networking [N]
Cross-Border Projects (Europe)
Venue: Meetingroom Laagen
Moderators: Brigitte Alfter, Rachel Oldroyd &
Andras Peth
Heres a chance to meet your colleagues interested
in similar topics To better connect people, we have
arranged a dozen networking sessions, based on
interests noted by our attendees in a pre-conference survey.
14:3016:00 Data Pub [P]
Investigating Budgets
Venue: Bagler'n Data-Pub
Speakers: Adriana Homolova
Quantitative approaches to investigating pub-

lic budgets and spending: what works and what

doesnt. You will get examples of best practices on
reporting on budgets, basically how to report big
numbers, what you can and cant compare.
14:3018:30 Social event [V]
Data Pub
Venue: Bagler'n Data-Pub
Every day after lunch you can meet colleagues
ready to help with your data journalism ideas, data
problems, data security, program installation, data
challenges, data journalism opportunities... And,
yes, it's a pub!

15:3016:00 Break

16:0017:00 Academic track [A]

A Case Study of Investigative Training in Mongolia
Venue: Troll
Moderators: Mark Lee Hunter
Speakers: Munkhmandakh Myagmar
How do you structure an investigative journalism
training program in a country with no tradition of
it? Heres what the Deutsche Welle Akademie did
by partnering with the Mongolian Press Institute
and veteran trainers from the global investigative
journalism community.
16:0017:00 Cross border investigations [R]
TV Investigations in the Arab World
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Moderators: Rana Sabbagh
Speakers: Ahmed Soliman Nawar, Ahmed El Shamy
& Musab Shawabkeh
Egypts Environmental Crime Journalist Ahmed
Soliman Nawar, senior ARIJ multimedia editor,
documents how primitive charcoal industries are
harming the health of residents of Ahgour and endangering the environment in the absence of state
measures to relocate this thriving industry amid
official procrastination.
16:0017:00 Cross border investigations [R]
Understanding Global Tax Dodging
Venue: Weidemann 5
Moderators: Guilherme Alpendre
Speakers: David Cay Johnston
How multinational corporations literally turn a profit
off taxes. How eliminating the corporate income tax
will hurt developing countries (which depend on it).
16:0017:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Cleaning Data with Open Refine
Venue: Weidemann 4
Speakers: Rob Gebeloff & Nils Mulvad
Open Refine is the best tool to clean really dirty
data the kind of data in which the same name
might be spelled in 30 different ways. It has built-in
cleaning tools for analysts and journalists.

16:0017:00 Data Hands-On [D]

data track: Python for Scraping 1
Venue: Messanin
Speakers: Tommy Kaas & Tom Meagher
An introduction to webscraping with Python: This
two-part, hands-on workshop will teach basic
newsroom programming concepts using the Python language. Prerequisites: Attendees should be
familiar with HTML and the command line and be
comfortable with databases and SQL. If youve ever
written a string function in Excel (=left(A2,5)), youll
be fine. Python has to be installed at your laptop
before the training. Somebody can help you at the
Data Pub on Thursday.
16:0017:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Stats for Stories 2 - Statistical
Significance
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Speakers: David Donald & Andrew Lehren
This session builds on skills learned in Stats for Stories 1. Now that you have a familiar way to thinking
statistically about your data, this session introduces
the notion of statistical significance and how to use
it to back up findings from cross tabulations. In a
sense, it helps answer the questions: Is what Im
finding in my data worth reporting?
16:0017:00 Data Presentation [T]
data track: Best Practices for Using Data in News
Stories
Venue: Weidemann 3
Speakers: Mark Horvit & Megan Luther
In this session, well take a global tour of the latest
in investigative and data-based stories, highlighting
innovations in analysis and presentation.
16:0017:00 Data Presentation [T]
data track: Investigating Organized Crime with
Open Data 1
Venue: Birkebeiner 2
Moderators: Helena Bengtsson
Speakers: Giannina Segnini
This session will show you all the amazing treasures
you can find digging into international databases
available online. Every commodity and commercial
transaction in this world, from shoes to military weapons to ivory or chemical products can be tracked
using online data, sometimes even in real time.
16:0017:00 Manage your investigations [M]
How Other Investigators Do It
Venue: Lillehammer 3
Moderators: Margo Smit
Speakers: Joe Davidson, Anne Koch & Jim Mintz
16:0017:00 Networking [N]
Cross-Border Projects (Global)
Venue: Meetingroom Laagen
Moderators: Marina Walker Guevara & Paul Radu
Heres a chance to meet your colleagues interested
in similar topics To better connect people, we have
arranged a dozen networking sessions, based on

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interests noted by our attendees in a pre-conference survey.

17:0017:30 Coffee break

17:0020:00
GIJN Membership Meeting
Speakers: Brant Houston & David E. Kaplan
Venue: Weidemann 5
The Global Investigative Journalism Network, our
conference co-host, is a global association of 118
nonprofit organizations in 54 countries dedicated
to the support, practice, and promotion of investigative journalism. Now a registered nonprofit with
an elected board, GIJN has grown quickly since the
secretariat was created in 2012, doubling its membership and drawing journalists to its website from
80 countries each day. Here in Lillehammer, GIJN is
holding its every-two-year membership meeting.
There will be reports and discussion on its past and
future, and presentations on where to hold the next
global conference, GIJC17.
NOTE: Admission is limited to GIJN member
organizations. For more information, contact
secretariat@gijn.org.
17:3018:30 Academic track [A]
Teaching Journalism and Trauma
Venue: Troll
Speakers: Trond Ids & Bruce Shapiro
Crime, accidents, and crises are often covered
by young journalists without training or working
experience. For first responders, handling human
tragedies and coping with stress reactions are part
of ones basic training. Some universities have experience giving these kinds of lessons. How they do
it will be presented at this seminar.
17:3018:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Python for Scraping 2
Venue: Messanin
Speakers: Tommy Kaas & Tom Meagher
This two-part, hands-on workshop will teach basic
newsroom programming concepts using the Python language. Prerequisites: Attendees should be
familiar with HTML and the command line and be
comfortable with databases and SQL.

Venue: Weidemann 4
Moderators: Jodi Upton
Speakers: Lena Groeger
During this session, well cover the fundamentals of
good presentation, layout, and design, looking at
lots of examples (both good and bad).
17:3018:30 Data Presentation [T]
data track: Investigating Organized Crime with
Open Data 2
Venue: Birkebeiner 2
Speakers: Giannina Segnini
This session will show you all the amazing treasures
you can find digging into international databases
available online.
17:3018:30 Data Presentation [T]
Google Search Methods How To Find What You
Didn't Know Existed
Venue: Weidemann 3
Moderators: Margot Williams
Speakers: Daniel Russell
In this session, Daniel Russel will demonstrate many
different methods and techniques for finding things
you didnt think could be found.
17:3018:30 Data Presentation [T]
Journalists & Programmers: A Crucial Partnership
Venue: Lillehammer 3
Moderators: Sanne Terlingen
Speakers: Helena Bengtsson, Mar Cabra, Rigoberto
Carvajal & Xaqun G.V
Meet members of data teams who have worked
together in successful investigations. They will talk in
very practical terms about the key aspects of their
relationship.
17:3018:30 Safety and security [S]
What's Happening in Russia?
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Moderators: Valeria Helander
Speakers: Roman Anin, Andrei Soldatov, Galina
Timchenko & Mikhail Zygar
Russia is one of the most powerful countries on
earth and yet it is also one of the least understood.
Find out from three long-time reporters from Russia
exactly what is happening in that country.

18:3020:00 Dinner
17:3018:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Stats for Stories 3 - Regression
Analysis
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Speakers: David Donald & Andrew Lehren
This final stats session, again building on skills
learned in Stats for Stories 1 and 2, introduces one of
the most powerful statistical procedures in the investigative reporters toolkit. Well cover regression analysis and the power it can add to your storytelling.
17:3018:30 Data Presentation [T]
data track: Design Principles for News Apps

60

20:0021:15 Investigative Film Festival [I]

World Premiere Assignment China: Follow the
money
Moderators: Christine Engh
Venue: Restaurant Lillehammer 12
Speakers: Mike Chinoy
Follow the Money is the final episode of Assignment China, a 12-part series chronicling the history
of American correspondents in China from the
1940s to the present day produced by the U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California.

21:1522:30 Investigative Film Festival [I]

India's Daughter
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Moderators: Christine Engh
Speakers: Leslee Udwin
Indias Daughter is the story about the gang-rape
that hit our TV screens around the world in mid
December 2012.
22:0023:30 Social event [V]
The Muckrakers Live!
Venue: Park Dancing
If youve been to any of the four last GIJCs, chances are you saw GIJNs own band, The Muckrakers.
Formed at a jam at the first Lillehammer conference
in 2008, the R&B group went on to play to packed
crowds from around the world in Geneva, Kiev,
and Rio. The international band featuring Ana
Simonovska on vocals (Macedonia), Mark Hunter
on guitar (France/US), Dave Kaplan on harmonica
(US), and Geir Aage Vollan on bass (Norway) will
return with its original cast to where it all began.
Bring your dancing shoes and come party as The
Muckrakers burn through a set list of great R&B,
boogie woogie, and rockin' blues, from Aretha and
Ray Charles to Dylan and The Stones.

SATURDAY 10th OCTOBER

09:0010:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Chat Encryption 1
Venue: Messanin
Speakers: Ola Haram & Runa Sandvik
This session will teach you how to establish encrypted chat. We will create a DuckDuckGo account,
install Pidgin (PC) or Audium (Mac) and the Off The
Record (OTR) plugin. Finally, we will exchange fingerprints and talk about general security surrounding the use of encrypted chat.
09:0010:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Mapping with CartoDB 1
Venue: Weidemann 4
Speakers: Tommy Kaas
In the two CartoDB sessions youll learn how to
create interactive maps for the web. Carto DB is a
free online tool so you don't need to install anything
on your computer prior to the session. Bring your
laptop to the session.
09:0010:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Structured Query Language (SQL) for
Reporters 1
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Speakers: David Donald & Luuk Sengers
This course introduces SQL with an emphasis on
how it can help reporters manage data for deeper

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investigative dives into that data. Familiarity with

spreadsheets is helpful but no experience with SQL
or databases is assumed.
09:0010:00 Data Presentation [T]
data track: MH17 : The Truth at Last?
Venue: Birkebeiner 2
Moderators: Rina Tsubaki
Speakers: Eliot Higgins
In this session award winning investigative journalist
Eliot Higgins reviews the open source evidence of
who was responsible for downing Flight MH17,
09:0010:00 Safety and security [S]
Investigative Reporting in Repressive Regimes
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Moderators: Patrick Butler
Speakers: Rafael Marques de Morais
Angolan investigative reporter and anti-corruption activist Rafael Marques de Morais is editor of
the newssite MakaAngola and author of the book
Blood Diamonds; Corruption and Torture in Angola.

10:0010:30 Coffee break

10:3011:30 Academic track [A]

roundtable: Creating and Maintaining an
Investigative Journalism Curriculum
Venue: Troll
Moderators: Anton Harber
Speakers: Rosental Alves, Ying Chan & Zhan Jiang
This roundtable will explore how to create and
maintain investigative journalism curricula in universities. It is expected to not only offer examples
and experiences but to also be a wide-ranging
conversation with all those in attendance.
10:3011:30 Cross border investigations [R]
How To Investigate Modern Slavery
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Moderators: Sidsel Wold
Speakers: Tobore Ovuorie & Sean ODriscoll
The aim of this talk is to instruct others, to learn
from our successes and failures and to alert them
to the best ways of reporting the issues realted to
modern slavery.
10:3011:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Chat Encryption 2
Venue: Messanin
Speakers: Ola Haram & Runa Sandvik
Heres how to securely communicate with sources
and colleagues around the world. This session will
teach you how to establish encrypted chat.
10:3011:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Mapping with CartoDB 2
Venue: Weidemann 4
Speakers: Tommy Kaas
In this second of two sessions youll learn to use
more features in CartoDB. You will see how to

create a cloropleth map like this, and we will style

the polygons so the different colors reflect different
values in the dataset, we are visualizing. To join this
session you must attend session 1 or have a basic
knowledge of CartoDB. Bring your own laptop to
the session.
10:3011:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Structured Query Language (SQL) for
Reporters 2
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Speakers: David Donald & Luuk Sengers
This session builds on skills learned in Structured
Query Language for Reporters 1. Now that youve
written your first SQL queries, expand you analytical
power by learning to summarize and aggregate
your data through SQL queries.
10:3011:30 Data Presentation [T]
data track: Trust Your Data? Learn How To
Evaluate It!
Venue: Birkebeiner 2
Moderators: Rina Tsubaki
Speakers: Giannina Segnini
This session will show you how to fully capture the
value of data and to evaluate its quality.

Moderators: Reg Chua

Speakers: Teun Gautier, Christian Humborg & Kim
Yong Jin
Teun Gautier will talk about the results of a new
study on new models, drawing on his own extensive
experience with startups. Kim Yong Jin will explain
the success of Newstapa, Koreas video-based
investigative nonprofit, which has more than 30,000
dues-paying members.
10:3011:30 Masterclass [1]
Smartmojo 101 Guerrilla Workshop
Venue: Meetingroom B (Under reception desk)
Speakers: Ivo Burum
The Smartmojo 101 Guerrilla Workshop is a threehour fast track introduction to mobile journalism.
Participants will learn how to shoot a basic sequence, use natural light, receive tips on recording
clean audio, and learn how to edit this into a short
UGSall on their iPhone. This is a practical mojo
workshop and youll need an iPhone loaded with
the iMovie app.

11:3012:00 Break

10:3011:30 Data Presentation [T]

data track: Viz for Journalists
Venue: Weidemann 5
Moderators: Megan Luther
Speakers: Lena Groeger
During this session, well cover the basics of how to
visually tell a clear, honest, and compelling journalistic story with data. Well learn how to think about
presenting data visually, how and why it works, and
how to do it the right way.

12:0013:00 Academic track [A]

New Approaches in Teaching Journalism and
Stories
Venue: Troll
Speakers: Werner Eggert & Marcel Metze
In this session Eggert will discuss training consists
of attendance phases and e-learning phases
and proposing that blended learning can enrich
continued training for working journalists and make
it more efficient.

10:3011:30 Manage your investigations [M]

Fact Check Your Story Before It's Too Late
Venue: Lillehammer 3
Speakers: Nils Hanson
In this session Nils Hanson tells about his methodological approach to fact-checking and bullet-proofing investigative stories that is now being
adopted in other newsrooms that he has developed. Participants will be taught tools to avoid
becoming the target of investigations themselves.

12:0013:00 Data Hands-On [D]

data track: Mapping with Arc 1
Venue: Weidemann 4
Speakers: Jennifer LaFleur & Andrew Lehren
This class will introduce you to analyzing data for
stories by using mapping software. This class is divided into two parts. No prior mapping skills needed.

10:3011:30 Networking [N]

Reporting on Corruption
Venue: Meetingroom Laagen
Moderators: Oleg Khomenok, Fredrik Laurin &
Christine Spolar
Heres a chance to meet your colleagues interested
in similar topics To better connect people, we have
arranged a dozen networking sessions, based on
interests noted by our attendees in a pre-conference survey.
10:3011:30 Non-profit track [F]
New Models and Startups
Venue: Weidemann 3

12:0013:00 Data Hands-On [D]

data track: Simple Visualizations with
Datawrapper
Venue: Messanin
Speakers: Anuska Delic
Do you crave a visualization tool that wont take
much of your time on a busy election night? Datawrapper is a simple yet effective tool for creating
interactive charts. Participants should create a free
account at datawrapper.de prior to the session.
12:0013:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Structured Query Language (SQL) for
Reporters 3
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Speakers: David Donald & Luuk Sengers
This final SQL session, again building on skills

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learned in Structure Query Language for Reporters

1 and 2, shows how to write SQL queries that join
separate data tables and databases together for
more powerful investigative analysis.

Germany to an investigative center in Brazil and an

online publisher in Malaysia.

13:0014:30 Lunch
12:0013:00 Data Presentation [T]
data track: Web Search under Pressure
Venue: Birkebeiner 2
Moderators: Eva Jung
Speakers: Henk van Ess
The news broke that Jihadi John, ISIS-executioner, is
Mohammed Emwazi and lived in a normal house
in London. How do you find his family? How do you
find videos from inside his house? Henk van Ess
will show you actual research he did for the Daily
Telegraph and Die Welt.
12:0013:00 Environmental [E]
How to Investigate Disasters
Venue: Lillehammer 12)
Moderators: Yohan Shanmugaratnam
Speakers: Natalia Antelava, Kunda Dixit & Yoichiro
Tateiwa
Three investigative reporters presents how to investigate disasters.
12:0013:00 Investigative Film Festival [I]
Documentary Filmmaker and Activist
Venue: Weidemann 5
Speakers: Leslee Udwin
Documentary filmmaker and activist Leslee Udwin
tells about her work in producing Indias Daughter.
In her own words:
12:0013:00 Manage your investigations [M]
The ABCs of Investigative Journalism
Venue: Lillehammer 3
Moderators: Terje Carlsson
Speakers: Nils Hanson
From idea to publishing this classic session gives
you important tips on how to make sure your investigative project becomes a success.
12:0013:00 Networking [N]
Data Journalism
Venue: Meetingroom Laagen
Moderators: Brant Houston & Giannina Segnini
Heres a chance to meet your colleagues interested
in similar topics To better connect people, we have
arranged a dozen networking sessions, based on
interests noted by our attendees in a pre-conference survey.
12:0013:00 Non-profit track [F]
Crowdfunding: Projects, Stories, and Startups
Venue: Weidemann 3
Moderators: Gabriela Manuli
Speakers: Nigel Aw, Sebastian Esser & Natalia Viana
Crowdfunding is the process of convincing typically
a large group of people to contribute small sums
of money toward a specific project, usually via the
Internet. Here are journalists with first-hand experience in the field from a million- Euro startup in

62

14:3015:30 Academic track [A]

Studies on how investigative journalists do their work
Venue: Troll
Speakers: James Hollings, Brant Houston & Peter Klein
This session will look at how investigative journalists
approach their work from the ethics of involving
fixers to help with work in foreign lands
14:3015:30 Cross border investigations [R]
Investigating Health Issues: Ebola
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Moderators: Maren Sb
Speakers: Ashoka Mukpo, Rosemary Nwaebuni &
Rodney Sieh
What kind of lessons can the coverage of an African
epidemic teach us about covering the next health
emergency?
14:3015:30 Cross border investigations [R]
Investigating on Foreign Ground
Venue: Weidemann 3
Speakers: Tom Heinemann
How do you conduct a critical investigation on
foreign soil? Award-winning documentarian Tom
Heinemann shares practical examples in this session.
14:3015:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Creating Timelines 1
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Moderators: Megan Luther
Speakers: Lena Groeger
In this workshop, well take a tour of current timelines in the wild and walk you through three opensource tools to help you make your own.
14:3015:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Mapping with Arc 2
Venue: Weidemann 4
Speakers: Jennifer LaFleur & Andrew Lehren
This class will introduce you to analyzing data for
stories by using mapping software.
14:3015:30 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Python for Scraping 3
Venue: Messanin
Speakers: Adriana Homolova & Tom Meagher
Well cover how to deconstruct a common reporting
task gathering a table of data from a public website and assemble a solution from useful Python
libraries that you can use again and again.
14:3015:30 Data Presentation [T]
data track: Top Online Techie Tools
Venue: Birkebeiner 2
Moderators: Kristoffer Egeberg
Speakers: Paul Myers

BBCs Internet investigations specialist, Paul Myers,

goes through his favourite online research tools.
14:3015:30 Environmental [E]
Investigating Environmental Crime: Pirate Fishing
Venue: Lillehammer 3
Moderators: Syed Nazakat
Speakers: Eskil Engdal, Juliana Ruhfus & Kjetil Ster
The Longest Chase is a story about the outlaw sea,
big money, tax havens, fraud, exploitation of the
poor and the emptying of the seas.
14:3015:30 Lightning rounds [L]
Great Stories You've Never Heard of
Venue: Weidemann 5 (Presentations/Panels)
Moderators: Yohan Shanmugaratnam
Speakers: Nisrin Ajab, Suchit Chvez, Mosabber
Hossain, Shin Inbo, Huub Jaspers, Jhann Pll
Jhannsson, Jn Bjarki Magnsson, Rachel Oldroyd,
Tobore Ovuorie, Sanne Terlingen, Estacio Valoi &
Natalia Viana
Meet the people behind ten exciting projects from
around the world and learn how they broke their
stories.
14:3015:30 Social event [V]
Data Pub
Venue: Bagler'n Data-Pub
Every day after lunch you can meet colleagues
ready to help with your data journalism ideas, data
problems, data security, program installation, data
challenges, data journalism opportunities... And,
yes, it's a pub!

15:3016:00 Break

16:0017:00 Academic track [A]

Tool Kits for Teaching
Venue: Troll (Academic track)
Moderators: Mark Horvit
Speakers: Anya Schiffrin
In this session we will review the many journalism
toolkits for various beats and topics that are offered
by Investigative Reporters and Editors and the
methodology behind them.
16:0017:00 Cross border investigations [R]
FOIAs, RTIs, & Access to Information
Venue: Weidemann 5
Moderators: Brigitte Alfter
Speakers: Sheila S. Coronel, Helen Darbishere &
Kevin Goldberg
In this session you will learn tips and tricks to get
information from various parts of the world.
16:0017:00 Cross border investigations [R]
Search for Data in 200 Countries
Venue: Weidemann 4
Moderators: Jennifer LaFleur
Speakers: Ed Long & Margot Williams
This session will look at tools to overcome the chal-

PROGRAM

lenges of cross-border investigations and uncover

an entitys global footprint.
16:0017:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Creating Timelines 2
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Speakers: Lena Groeger
In this workshop, well take a tour of current timelines in the wild and walk you through three opensource tools to help you make your own.
16:0017:00 Data Hands-On [D]
data track: Python for Scraping 4
Venue: Messanin
Speakers: Adriana Homolova & Tom Meagher
Well cover how to deconstruct a common reporting
task gathering a table of data from a public website and assemble a solution from useful Python
libraries that you can use again and again.
16:0017:00 Data Presentation [T]
data track: Facebook Tricks, Tips and Secret
Hacks
Venue: Birkebeiner 2
Moderators: Helena Bengtsson
Speakers: Paul Myers
BBCs Internet investigations specialist Paul Myers
goes through the dynamic, esoteric techniques for
conducting investigations on the worlds largest
social network.
16:0017:00 Manage your investigations [M]
Using Hypotheses: The Core of the Investigative
Method
Venue: Weidemann 3
Speakers: Mark Lee Hunter & Luuk Sengers
In this session participants will learn how to use their
imaginations to construct a hypothetical chain of
events (timeline), which can be used to guide investigators toward sources and documents with a high
degree of accuracy.
16:0017:00 Networking [N]
Reporting on Organized crime
Venue: Meetingroom Laagen
Moderators: Kassim Mohamed & Drew Sullivan
Heres a chance to meet your colleagues interested
in similar topics To better connect people, we have
arranged a dozen networking sessions, based on
interests noted by our attendees in a pre-conference survey.

17:0017:30 Break

17:3018:30 Data Hands-On [D]

data track: PDF Cracking with CometDocs
Venue: Birkebeiner 1
Speakers: Anuska Delic & Nils Mulvad
mporting PDFs and getting structured data out of
the files is a challenge. Well train you to use CometDocs and structuring in Excel.

17:3018:30 Data Hands-On [D]

data track: Python for Scraping 5
Venue: Messanin
Speakers: Adriana Homolova & Tom Meagher
Well cover how to deconstruct a common reporting
task gathering a table of data from a public website and assemble a solution from useful Python
libraries that you can use again and again.
17:3018:30 Data Hands-On [D]
Going Creepy: Fishing for Geotags in Social Media
Venue: Weidemann 4
Moderators: Minna Knus-Galan
Speakers: Ioannis Kakavas
In this practical session you will learn to use the
geolocation OSINT tool cree.py, created by Greek
software developer Ioannis Kakavas. Learn how
to trace peoples movements throughout the day
through social media.
17:3018:30 Manage your investigations [M]
Knowledge Management
Venue: Troll
Moderators: Jonathan Stray
Speakers: Friedrich Lindenberg & Smari McCarthy
Reporters are good at collecting data both paper
and digital and some even know how to scrape
or access databases. But then what do you do?
Most let their data sit idle and rarely use it to their
full potential. Find out how you can better manage
your information. Learn what some organizations
are doing to better use their data. Discuss how your
organizations can structure a system in which they
can access all their data safely and easily.
17:3018:30 Manage your investigations [M]
Mastering Timelines: The Road to a Successful
Project
Venue: Weidemann 3
Speakers: Mark Lee Hunter & Luuk Sengers
In this session, participants will learn how to use
their imaginations to construct a hypothetical chain
of events, which can be used to guide investigators
toward sources and documents with a good degree
of accuracy.
17:3018:30 Networking [N]
Cross-Border Projects (Asia)
Venue: Meetingroom Laagen
Moderators: Sheila S. Coronel & Syed Nazakat
Heres a chance to meet your colleagues interested
in similar topics To better connect people, we have
arranged a dozen networking sessions, based on
interests noted by our attendees in a pre-conference survey.
17:3018:30 Safety and security [S]
When Journalists Are Targets
Venue: Weidemann 5
Moderators: Erling Borgen
Speakers: Sami Al-Hajj & Emin Huseynov
Sami Al-Hajj knows from personal experience more
than anyone would ever want to know about hu-

man rights abuses and threats to journalists.

During his six years at Guanatanmo, the Al Jazeera
Cameraman was interrogated more than 200
times. His Crime? Journalism. He joins us to speak
about how Al Jazeera cover todays conflicts in
North Africa and The Middle East.
Emin Huseynov is an Azerbaijani journalist and
human rights activist. He was the chairman of the
Institute for Reporters Freedom and Safety. After
he was forced into hiding at the Swiss embassy in
Baku to avoid arrest for six months, Huseynov fled
Azerbaijan and has now asked for political asylum
in Switzerland.
20:0022:30 Social event [V]
Banquet and Awards Dinner
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Join your colleagues from around the world at the
GIJC Banquet and Awards Dinner. This is the final
night of the conference and it's time to party!
The gala evening will feature special entertainment
arranged by SKUP, plus GIJN's announcement and
presentation of the Global Shining Light Awards.
All participants at the GIJC15 are welcome to the
Banquet and Awards dinner. The food and wine are
included in your hotel package.

SUNDAY 11th OCTOBER

10:3011:30 Cross border investigations [R]
award winners: A Discussion with the New Global
Shining Light Recipients
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Moderators: David E. Kaplan
The Global Shining Light Award is the only journalism prize that honors investigative journalism done
in developing and transitioning countries while under threat or duress. It is given out only once every
two years by the Global Investigative Journalism
Network, and is now in its 6th year. Come hear
the winners of this years awards, chosen from 76
entries from 34 countries.

11:3012:00 Coffee break

12:0012:30
Farewell and Thank You!
Venue: Lillehammer 12
Join us for a final gathering before our community
returns to more than a hundred countries. We will
have some important announcements, including the
site of the next conference (GIJC17) and the results of
the GIJN board election.

63

Aftenpostens journalism
is knowledge-based
and hard-hitting.
We aim to scrutinize everything
and everybody with power
Espen Egil Hansen, editor-in-chief