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Saturday, May 24
 

9:00am CEST

Coffee
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:00am - 9:30am CEST
Coffee served in the Mediacafe (ground floor, lobby area)
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:00am - 9:30am CEST
Mediaforum

9:30am CEST

How to investigate AI: beginner level
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
AI has moved from niche tech coverage to leading headlines worldwide. Opaque algorithms make life-changing decisions about millions across the continent in health, banking and social security systems. Meanwhile, Big Tech increasingly uses Europe as a base for the resource-guzzling data centres that power modern generative AI development. So where do you start? This hands-on session will walk through a framework for different story archetypes and an understanding of how to generate and pursue story leads. Then, we'll home in on a specific story and how to build an AI accountability investigation from scratch — including following the money behind digital infrastructure, using freedom-of-information laws and collaborating with data scientists to uncover algorithmic bias. Participants will leave the session with an understanding of how to investigate automated systems even when access to code is difficult. Participants who want to go deeper can attend the Level 2 session.
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Z1.15 - Aula Donche

9:30am CEST

The JuicyFields story - investigating the largest cannabis fraud of all time
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Russian gangsters, fake counts, golden Ferraris and shell companies in Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Investigating the JuicyFields case meant plunging into a wild maze of deception, false leads and spectacular turns. Hundreds of thousands of people were deceived by a group of serial scammers. They claimed everybody could become rich by investing in virtual cannabis. With losses amounting to more than half a billion dollars, the JuicyFields scam is one of the largest pyramid schemes ever investigated by European authorities. Gabriela Keller (Correctiv) and Elisa Simantke (Paper Trail Media) were part of an international team of journalists that uncovered how a bunch of criminals from Russia went on digital raids targeting Europeans again and again. In this panel, Gabriele and Eilsa will explain how they built up sources, what they learnt from OSINT and police documents, how they tracked the path of the criminals from St.Petersburg to Berlin, Switzerland and South America. They will also talk about how they analysed company structures – and learned how to avoid the traps set for them by the criminals. Because, as the investigation built up momentum, the fraudsters were trying to lure the reporters into their network of illusions. And while the JuicyFields website is now defunct, the masterminds behind it are setting up new scams. The business of the fraudsters continues in several countries – as is the international investigation. That means reporters can still learn how to carry on investigating in their own country.
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Z3.05

9:30am CEST

Unmasking a scam empire: leak processing at scale for collaborative investigations
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Prompted by nearly 2 TB of leaked data, a recent collaborative investigation co-run by OCCRP and SVT shed unprecedented light on the inner workings and processes of two major scam call centre networks that conned victims out of at least US$275 million over four years. This session will cover how we approached this leak, which included millions of multilingual audio and video media, among other data formats, and how we made it possible for journalists to search that data like any trove of documents.

Journalists should walk away with a better understanding of the challenges and breakthroughs of modern leaks and the methodologies and tools media organizations can employ today in investigations.
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Z0.10

9:30am CEST

How to find and use up-to-date beneficial ownership data to reveal the real owners of companies
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Understanding how companies are owned, controlled and managed is crucial for investigations. To reveal the real human owners with the right to share in a company’s income or assets, or the ability to control its activities, you need beneficial ownership data. Open Ownership drives the global shift towards beneficial ownership transparency and in this session we will share where to find and make use of up-to-date data on company ownership. We will also explain how journalists can find such information in unstructured data in a range of places.
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Z1.16

9:30am CEST

Exploring extreme heat: satellite imagery and spatial analysis in R
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Satellite imagery is a powerful tool for data-driven investigations, but getting started can be tricky. In this session, you'll learn how to navigate the U.S. Geological Survey's portal to access free satellite imagery from around the world - as well as common limitations when working with the data format. Then, using the *terra* package in R, you'll be guided through loading and analysing this data to identify urban heat islands. You will leave with practical skills, fresh inspiration and the confidence to tackle your own spatial analysis projects.

Participants should have a working knowledge of R. To get the most out of the session, please come with R & RStudio (or another coding platform of your choice) already installed on your computer and a (free) account on the USGS Earth Explorer portal
Moderators
avatar for Jonathan Stoneman

Jonathan Stoneman

Arena for Journalism in Europe
Speakers
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Z3.04

9:30am CEST

From source to chart 📈 : Using free tools to automate your data flows
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
DESCRIPTION:

For monitoring purposes and to inform our reporting, it’s helpful to keep an eye on trends over time in some datasets, for example when tracking the progress of an mpox outbreak, monitoring pre-election polls or investigating migration trends.

This is where automation comes in handy: with the data being automatically grabbed from the source, reconfigured and channeled into a chart for visualization, allowing data journalists and their colleagues to notice report-worthy trends early on.

To establish such a workflow, we have been relying on free tools like Datawrapper and Github Actions to run a Python script.

Participants will be guided through setting up such a workflow step-by-step.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

🚀 In this session you will learn how to...
- collect data from a url
- parse the data into the needed format using Python's `pandas` library
- use Python's `datawrapper` library to create a chart
- set up the script to run automatically on Github Actions

🔍 PREREQUISITES & TOOLS:

- ✅ Datawrapper API token
- ✅ Github Account (if you want to automate the chart update)
- optional: Code text editor (if you prefer working with your own code for automation), such as Atom or Sublime Text
- optional: Distill browser plugin (if you want to update on click)
- optional: basic understanding of Python/coding helpful, but not required
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Z2.08

9:30am CEST

Python Without the pain: write code with LLMs
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
In an age where data is an important part of impactful storytelling, journalists need tools that enable them to work with it effectively. Python is a powerful resource for analyzing and visualizing data, but it can be intimidating for those without a technical background. This workshop breaks down those barriers, showing how AI tools like ChatGPT can make coding basics approachable and accessible. By equipping journalists with these skills, the workshop aims to empower them to create richer, data-driven stories and visualisations without relying heavily on external technical support.

The session will start with an overview of Python and how AI-assisted coding works, showcasing how these tools can simplify technical challenges, followed by real-life examples. Afterward, participants will dive into a hands-on session using Jupyter Notebook to practice running and adapting Python scripts. By the end, they’ll feel more confident tackling technical problems independently.

Participants are encouraged to have Python (with Jupyter Notebook) installed on their devices, or a Google Collab environment ready. You will also need a ChatGPT account set up before attending. While familiarity with Python is helpful, it’s not required.
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Z2.09

9:30am CEST

Teaching LLMs to build your Machine Learning Models
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
In this practical session, participants will learn how LLMs like ChatGPT can assist in writing machine learning code for journalistic investigations.

We’ll start by prompting ChatGPT to generate code for analyzing a small dataset. Then, we’ll apply the code to a larger dataset locally. After attending this session, participants will be able to train and use this machine learning model on their own.

This method was used by Frontstory.pl to analyze thousands of messages on Telegram and reveal the scale of drug trafficking activity in Poland.

To follow along, participants should be comfortable using Python and Jupyter Notebook.
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Z2.10

9:30am CEST

Impact 101: how newsrooms around the world measure their echo
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
As the gap between journalists and the public continues to grow, how can investigative newsrooms convince people that they still matter? “Impact journalism” may be one solution.
For six months, Disclose and Rembobine, two independent news organisations from France, have been collecting best practices from newsrooms around the world to monitor, assess and evaluate the echoes of their investigations. Their brand new guide to impact journalism, based on 30 interviews with researchers, editors and impact producers, will be published at Dataharvest.
Impact provides not only room for hope, but also a promising approach to increasing reader loyalty and foundation support.
Speakers
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Z3.09

9:30am CEST

Uncovering court records - a beginners guide to hunting for legal data
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Court records can be a true treasure trove, containing vital nuggets that can jumpstart your investigation or judgements primed for reporting. It can be tough enough to access court documents in our home countries, but how do you find records abroad, sometimes in secretive jurisdictions? This session will show you how to find legal judgements from arbitration courts to property disputes in places like Russia, UAE and the UK. We will show you how to access them (VPN may be needed), how we found stories in them,  and will get you started on your quest for legal leads.
Speakers
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Z3.02

9:30am CEST

Welcome to the Brussels bubble: tips on how to investigate the EU
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Many journalists get lost trying to find information and data quickly in the institutional labyrinth that is the European Union. Finding specific amendments, understanding the issues surrounding a piece of legislation, establishing the position of specific member states in negotiations or the approach of the European Commission... so much information is unknown or inaccessible to the layperson - who will easily become discouraged from pursuing their EU investigation.

In this session, we will will use concrete and practical examples to show you how to navigate the institutional triangle (Commission, EU Parliament and the Council), as well as the Court of Justice of the European Union. We'll explain how to track the European legislative process, quickly find the relevant players, information and data you need. This won't be an ex-cathedra lecture, but a practical deep dive session, with, as a take away, a list of useful links organised according to journalistic needs. After the session, you are also welcome to join us in the EU Cafe corner for a further discussion or get your specific EU questions answered.
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Z1.14

9:30am CEST

Journalism educators unite - inspiration and skill sharing
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
In this session, we will share our best practices on helping participants in our courses to embrace data journalism. We'll present the results of the Crossborder Journalism Campus project, where two cohorts of 75 students from three journalism education institutions in Germany, France and Sweden collaborated on a European topic. We will also share examples of exercises, workshops, and assignments that data educators might use. The session is for practice-oriented journalism educators who want to share tips and be inspired by each other.
Speakers
avatar for Brigitte Alfter

Brigitte Alfter

Director, Arena for Journalism in Europe
Brigitte Alfter ist eine deutsch-dänische Journalistin, Geschäftsführerin für Redaktionelles bei Arena for Journalism in Europe und Dozentin Journalismus an der Universität Göteborg. Nach Jahren als Journalistin auf fallen Niveaus vom Lokaljournalismus bis zur EU-Korrespondentin... Read More →
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Z2.01 - Mediadrôme

9:30am CEST

Beyond bars and pie charts: creative and interactive data storytelling
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Data and visualisations are now everpresent in journalism, particularly in investigations and in cross-border collaborative projects (where often "data" is the common language). Additionally, diverse software and platforms provide us with different opportunities to reach our audiences, who are also more and more used to seeing data visualisations.

In this session we'll ask how we can continue to be innovative and creative in producing and publishing data visualisations, and how we can benefit from developing interactive visualisations, even including simple online games that push the boundaries of data storytelling.

Come to this session to get inspired. And do bring your own ideas and questions, so that we all can learn together!
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am CEST
Z2.02

10:45am CEST

Coffee break
Saturday May 24, 2025 10:45am - 11:15am CEST
Coffee served in the Mediacafe (ground floor, lobby area) and on the third floor.
Saturday May 24, 2025 10:45am - 11:15am CEST
Mediaforum

11:15am CEST

Expert-reviewed journalism: investigating corporate hired guns in the PFAS lobbying project with scientists
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Chemical, pesticide and food companies use refined strategies, abusing scientific channels, to manufacture or maintain doubt about the hazards of their products. They hire academic scientists or consultants with a science degree working for product-defence companies to science-wash their lobbying material by publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals. Learn how to investigate them and, in the process, benefit from expert knowledge and methodologies to help you through your investigation.
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Z0.10

11:15am CEST

Harnessing the power of OCCRP's Aleph: a look at its new features and how to use them to find the data you’re looking for
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Aleph is an open-source investigative tool, originally developed by a team at the OCCRP, but now developed by a wider open source community. In the last month, Alex and Simon (investigativedata.io) have developed new features for search and cross-matching within the open source software. It allows users to upload large quantities of documents and makes them fully searchable in several languages. In this hands-on session, we will show attendees ways of using the search feature as power users.
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Z2.02

11:15am CEST

How to be an effective data editor (and build a data-friendly newsroom for international investigations)
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Data is the beating heart of many cross-border investigations. But how do you build a data team capable of delivering groundbreaking work?
In this panel, we will discuss how to manage complex, multinational collaborations, juggle deadlines, and push back on unreasonable demands. We'll also explore best practices for leading data-driven investigations across multiple jurisdictions while navigating technical and editorial challenges.
This panel will also explore the relationship between a data editor and their team, as well as their role in embedding data journalism in newsrooms of different sizes.
This session is geared toward data journalists, editors (of all stripes), newsroom decision-makers, and cross-border organisations seeking to explore new investigative data stories or strengthen their existing offerings.
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Z1.16

11:15am CEST

Make your own investigative application with minimal code
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Getting the most out of your investigative data requires more than ad-hoc scripting. Deep research requires a persistent state, data model, user tagging, collaboration, access management, and automatic updates. In short, you need a research application. In this session, you'll learn to use an open source, low-code application to turn a simple ETL into a complex app.

To follow along comfortably, you should be familiar with basic python scripting and REST APIs.
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Z2.08

11:15am CEST

Making maps with code
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Data journalists have traditionally thought of maps and spatial calculations as a job for special mapping software, like QGIS. But it's often more efficient to do GIS work in the script in which you perform the rest of your analysis.

In this class, you will see how easy it is to work with maps within your code.

The class will be taught in R, so some familiarity is recommended, but the skills are generic to all languages.
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Z2.09

11:15am CEST

More than just the Wayback Machine: how to investigate deleted and archived content
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Even among investigative journalists, web archives tend to be underrated – and undertaught. This hands-on session introduces journalists to powerful techniques for using web archives.
Participants will learn how to recover deleted or hidden content and archive key material from platforms like Instagram and X.
Using real-world examples, we’ll demonstrate how these skills can strengthen reporting across a wide range of stories, from everyday reporting to investigative longreads.
After this session, you will be able to retrieve archived content, recover deleted posts (not necessarily the same things!), and preserve online material using advanced web archiving tools and techniques. We will teach participants how to tweak the URL and use the asterisk, and we will demonstrate why the "Golden Hour" of archiving is so important in breaking news situations.
No prior experience is required—just an interest in digital sleuthing and a willingness to explore new tools.
Please bring a laptop with you, preferably with the Chrome browser installed.
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Z2.10

11:15am CEST

Create our own impact strategy
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
This is probably one the most common nightmares for any journalist: you’ve been working for months on an ambitious investigation and, once published, it results in… nothing. To mitigate this, it’s time to develop effective impact strategies, tailored to your newsroom and your resources. During this participatory workshop, inspired by popular education techniques, we will collectively build a realistic impact plan for your next investigation. Whether it involves partnering with stakeholders, getting support from activists or building new editorial formats, we’ll look at several techniques for maximising the reach of your revelations and ensuring they produce impact in the real world.
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Z3.09

11:15am CEST

Let’s talk about fundraising!
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Funding journalism is a recurring issue. In recent years, we’ve focused a lot on the ’how’: How to phrase an application, how to develop a realistic budget, how to reach out to potential funders. And we’ll continue with that, of course: but the question of how to fund public interest journalism has, if possible, become even more urgent. But we also need a deeper understanding, a shared terminology and fora to discuss these questions.
Brigitte Alfter will talk about the freshly released Arena Paper on fundraising. She is also the author of a GFMD paper on public funding to journalists and has been a speaker at ’Saving Journalism’ events at Columbia University, an annual conference on a wide variety of funding sources and funding models for journalism in our time.
The session will be followed by a fundraising café with advice on your project or for your organisation.
Moderators Speakers
avatar for Brigitte Alfter

Brigitte Alfter

Director, Arena for Journalism in Europe
Brigitte Alfter ist eine deutsch-dänische Journalistin, Geschäftsführerin für Redaktionelles bei Arena for Journalism in Europe und Dozentin Journalismus an der Universität Göteborg. Nach Jahren als Journalistin auf fallen Niveaus vom Lokaljournalismus bis zur EU-Korrespondentin... Read More →
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Z2.03

11:15am CEST

Investigating corporate lobbying - tips and tools
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
In this session, we will share tips on tracking lobbyists and understanding how the PR campaigns and people behind them influence public policy. We will look into the available databases, registries and other methods that allow us to track lobbyists, their networks, topics they work on and their influence and the EU level and beyond. Lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory will introduce you to the Brussels lobby scene and show you how available lobby data can help you to nail your stories. Ellen Ormesher from De Smog will talk how to investigate corporate influence through the PR industry. It's an industry which is loosely regulated and yet influences the wider public conversation, ensuring some topics are kept off the agenda, while affecting other policies and their implementation.
Moderators Speakers
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Z3.05

11:15am CEST

Taking your authorities to court
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
If you are denied access to information, you can fight for your rights in court. What can you gain, and when is it worth the hassle? Staffan Dahllöf has taken the Swedish state to court for denying access to environmental information, invoking the Aarhus Convention.Eva Belmonte has repeatedly challenged Spanish authorities in court, seeking transparency on multiple fronts: the passengers of official planes, the true cost of government-procured medicines, the identities of public advisors, and most recently, access to the algorithms governing social policy decisions. Alexander Fanta has sued the German government for documents about its support for Ukraine, and inspired a court case in which the New York Times fought for access to text messages between Ursula von der Leyen's and the CEO of Pfizer during the Covid pandemic. Tarjei Leer-Salvesen won an FOI request from the US State Department, when civilian vessels from his area turned up in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's navy. Hear their thoughts and tactics – and how they use the fight for transparency in their journalism.
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Z1.14

11:15am CEST

Get off the screen, look me in the eye: offline and in-person journalistic storytelling
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Journalism is almost never delivered live. These days, always there seems to be a screen between the journalists and the audience. But before the online and digital world swallowed everything, journalism reached people through the pages of a newspaper or magazine, on a TV screen, or on a crackling radio (if you are too young to know what we're talking about, ask your parents).

It doesn't have to be like that -- even today when most people start feeling sick and anxious at the mere thought of being away from their smartphones for a few hours.

There are offline and in-person ways for us to present, deliver and disseminate our investigations and other reporting. And there seems to be a growing appetite among audiences and (some) media organisations to explore ways to get together and experience journalistic storytelling live.

In this session, three journalists who've been experimenting with different offline and in-person ways of journalistic storytelling will share their experiences, the lessons learnt, and how it feels to have your audience look you in the eye and talk to you in person as you present or deliver your story.
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:15am - 12:30pm CEST
Z3.04

11:45am CEST

Watching the watchers: investigating AI, surveillance & the loopholes of Europe’s AI Act
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:45am - 12:00pm CEST
With the EU’s new AI Act introducing a historic regulatory framework, there are high hopes for greater oversight of artificial intelligence. But significant loopholes remain — especially when it comes to surveillance, policing, and the algorithmic control of workers.

In this session, journalists will share how they’re reporting on AI systems hidden in plain sight — from biometric surveillance to algorithmic monitoring in the workplace. Through these cases, they’ll show how the AI Act opens doors for investigation, while also leaving dangerous blind spots.

Participants will leave the session with practical strategies for reporting on AI and power: how to trace lobbying and regulation, use FOI requests, and uncover the real-world impact of automated systems — even when those in charge prefer to keep them invisible.
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:45am - 12:00pm CEST
Z3.02

12:30pm CEST

Lunch
Saturday May 24, 2025 12:30pm - 1:45pm CEST
Lunch is served in Mediacafe ground floor, lobby area), and on the first floor (Z1.06 and Z1.07). Vegan food and special meals (gluten free, diary free, all allergies and special dietary requirements) are available on the first floor only.
Saturday May 24, 2025 12:30pm - 1:45pm CEST
Mediaforum

1:45pm CEST

How to investigate AI: advanced level
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Investigating algorithms is not just about obtaining code. On the contrary, there's so much we can learn from an automated system – whether Al-driven or rule-based – by looking the impact it has on individuals, minorities and marginalized communities. We can examine the people involved in its development and deployment; the companies who profit; the data it generates; and the weight given to the parameters it relies on to make decisions. How do we find this data and approach the investigation? This session is aimed at journalists with previous experience in reporting about automation and AI and those who attended our beginner level session (Saturday, 0930). In this practical workshop we will explore two real, successful cases of investigative algorithmic accountability reporting. These investigations uncovered how automated systems are used for welfare allocation in different European countries. This will be a hands-on session – don't expect ready-made answers. Instead, all participants will start with the same, limited information about the case. Together, we will explore the different methodologies and approaches we can use to uncover how an algorithm works, even when we have little data to start with. During the workshop, we will aim to obtain as many techniques and methods as possible and inspire new investigations.
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Z1.15 - Aula Donche

1:45pm CEST

Exploding pagers – investigating while jumping from stone to stone
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Z0.10

1:45pm CEST

Investigating the business of outsourced war crimes prosecutions in Europe
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
For the past decade, EU countries have been falling over themselves to prosecute suspected Syrian war criminals hiding in Europe, relying on ‘Universal Jurisdiction’ laws. Among the most prevalent are Germany, France and Spain.

Globally, there are dozens of organisations that claim to hunt down former regime agents, ISIS fighters, and military officials accused of committing serious war crimes before slipping into Europe. These organisations raise millions in government funding and garner significant praise from the world's media.

Behind the scenes, however, we find an untransparent, shadowy alliance between police, prosecutors, and intelligence, with some NGOs blurring the lines between activism and policing. The result is an enthusiastic but deeply flawed application of universal jurisdiction, with a growing trail of ill-fated prosecutions built on flimsy evidence and unreliable witnesses. These have been collected by inexperienced investigators with questionable procedures – and much of this activity is hidden from public view.

There are currently around 120 universal jurisdiction cases across Europe. The fall of the Syrian regime in December 2024 will only increase the need to understand the intricacies of war crimes cases and how to report on prosecutions in Europe.

This session proposes to provide journalists with the tools and prompts to examine cases in their own countries critically. We will tell the journalists exactly how to do this, how to find information and sources, and how to avoid traps, not be drawn in by PR, but to see and assess evidence for what it is.
Moderators
avatar for Jose Miguel Calatayud

Jose Miguel Calatayud

Freelance journalist and writer
I am a freelance journalist and writer based in Berlin, focusing on feature writing and investigative journalism, mainly about Europe. As of March 2025, I’m working on The Guide to Corporate Influence in Europe, a series of articles on how big companies act very strategically t... Read More →
Speakers
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Z3.02

1:45pm CEST

Scientific laboratory analysis applied to journalism: what you need to know
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Journalists are increasingly using laboratory analyses as part of their investigations. However, they often approach laboratories without fully understanding what this entails. In general, laboratory analyses can be used to trace the origin of goods (food, lumber, or steel) through methods such as DNA or isotopic analysis. They can also be used to analyse environmental matrices, such as water or soil, to detect pollutants. But how exactly does this process work? What are the right “research questions” to ask before contacting a laboratory? Which laboratory should you choose? How much does it cost? How long does it take to get results? And how relevant are these results to a journalistic investigation? These questions are often overlooked. It turns out that laboratory analysis is not a magic wand that can instantly solve an investigation.By the end of the session, participants will have learned simple but essential rules to ensure that laboratory analysis becomes a key component of their investigations—not just a superficial add-on.
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Z3.04

1:45pm CEST

EU's defense spending frenzy: where to find the data
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
As global tensions continue to rise amid shifting security dynamics, the need for transparent, reliable, and impartial data has never been greater. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has been at the forefront of independent research on conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament since its founding in 1966. Its comprehensive datasets serve as essential tools for policymakers, researchers, and analysts seeking to understand military spending patterns, arms industry developments, and their broader geopolitical implications.
In this session, SIPRI's researcher will share the methodology, scope, and significance of SIPRI's data on Military Expenditure and Arms Production. Understanding the databases reveals trends and stories within two of the most topical subjects of the past years.
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Z1.16

1:45pm CEST

Extract all relations in Game of Thrones using AI and Python
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
AI-models are great tools for structuring unstructured data, especially if you know some basic Python. Those language models can be used to find and classify all arguments in a bunch of documents, make statistics of political debates or hunt for greenwashing in corporate reports. In this session we will extract all relations in the Game of Thrones series and plot them as a network map. Come along if you want to know who slept with whom! (Here is an example of what it looks like: https://lasseedfast.se/got/ ). After this session, you will be able to use AI in combination with Python to systematically extract pieces of information from a large volume of data.

To follow along, participants need a basic understanding of Python.
Install Ollama  and download one of the models to follow along on your own laptop.
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Z2.08

1:45pm CEST

Spreadsheets with superpowers: LLMs for data extraction and classification
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Lots of data and investigative journalism takes place in spreadsheets. Frequently, we want to  perform a task for every row in our spreadsheet. For instance, we may have cells containing:

- Quotes from a speech by a European politician that we want to classify into “Pro-EU”, “Anti-EU” or “Neutral”

- Company annual reports from which we want to extract the ultimate controlling party

- Political ads which we want to sift according to whether they mention immigration, directly or indirectly

In this session, participants will learn to write a custom AppScript function in Google Sheets that will enable them to apply Large Language Models (LLMs) from OpenAI and Anthropic to their spreadsheet data.

By the end, attendees will be able to write a formula like =LLM(A1, “gpt-4o”, “Is this text about immigration?”), then drag it down to apply it to hundreds of rows at once. This will enable us to apply the astonishing natural language capabilities of LLMs en masse to cells within our spreadsheet.

Attendees will acquire the following skills:

- Using AppScript to write custom functions in Google Sheets

- Using LLMs via APIs

- Some basic LLM prompting techniques and tips

- Understanding when an LLM is likely to be reliable (when its output is based entirely on data within the spreadsheet) and when it is more likely to hallucinate (when its output draws on its own limited knowledge of the world)
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Z2.09

1:45pm CEST

Together at last: R and Python united in the Positron IDE
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
For years datajournalists have been forced to choose between learning R or Python in order to do data analysis with a scripted language. This meant the choice of IDE (integrated development environment – the app for writing and managing scripts and files) was always a  defining decision.

R users mostly turned to RStudio to maintain R and run scripts, make plots etc. Python users have had a variety of options – Google Colab, Jupyter, Anaconda etc to manage their scripts and projects.

Now there’s a program built to handle both languages in parallel (but not quite simultaneously!) - it's called Positron.

In this session we will introduce you to the Positron program. We will show you the interface, and how to get started with your usual coding language, before working through some scenarios where being able to move quickly from one language to the other is desirable. (And if you have examples of times when you’ve needed this facility, please bring them to this session)

You will ideally have some experience of R or Python, and some appetite for using the other language, perhaps even on deadline. If you want to follow along in the session, install Positron beforehand from https://positron.posit.co/
Speakers
avatar for Jonathan Stoneman

Jonathan Stoneman

Arena for Journalism in Europe
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Z2.10

1:45pm CEST

Going beyond traditional media and truly engaging with communities
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
What can journalists do to break the mould of traditional media and build connection with audiences and communities? FADA Collective is experimenting with new ways to report and connect — through open-air exhibitions, theatre journalism, and community assemblies in marginalised areas and news deserts. This session will explore how journalism can be a tool for civic participation and systemic change.

At a time when trust in the media is declining and polarisation is rising, reaching the margins, geographical and social, is more urgent than ever. This session will showcase how journalism can foster informed communities and drive real impact.

Who is this workshop for? No prior expertise is needed — this is for anyone interested in alternative ways of storytelling and civic engagement.

You will take away a new perspective on journalism as a process rather than just a product, along with concrete examples of how media can work hand-in-hand with communities to challenge dominant narratives and create lasting change.
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Z2.02

1:45pm CEST

Oligarchs and media ownership: Diving into registries
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Solomon's investigation "Who Owns the media" mapped the media owned by the top oligarchs behind the biggest media conglomerates in Greece and, more importantly, the oligarchs' broader businesses. We identified 800 companies in sectors such as shipping, energy, sports, banking, and real estate, and searched business registries in more than 30 countries. The data were published in an interactive network diagram and a dedicated website.

This session will present the methodology for dealing with large amounts of data, finding companies of the same owner, and investigating registries that sometimes disclose ownership and others that do not. We will work on case studies of companies and deal with the possible obstacles and difficulties involved.
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Z2.03

1:45pm CEST

How to find stories in private finance data
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Private finance data aggregators are a powerful - if often expensive - tool for understanding the investment and ownership structures of the funds or companies that are the subject of your investigation. With the right approach, they can also help generate stories by identifying suspicious or controversial flows of money. This sessions shows you how. We will share a case study from a recent series that revealed supposedly ethical public pension funds held investments in controversial businesses  - including tankers for Russian fossil fuels and crypto, all via opaque private equity intermediaries.
Speakers
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Z3.09

1:45pm CEST

Using WhatsApp to crowdsource data
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Using WhatsApp to Crowdsource Data
Speakers
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Z3.05

1:45pm CEST

Transparency talks: Networking roundable for journalists working with FOI
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
The goal of this informal get-together is to bring together journalists using access to documents procedures within European Institutions and national countries. It is the first (in person) meeting of the informal network of journalist using access to documents procedures, launched at last year's Dataharvest conference, but it is also open to all the journalists and researchers who are knowledgeable about the right to information & getting documents in different (European) countries. During the meeting, we’ll exchange various tips and best practices, and if there is interest, try to create, together, a knowledge repository that would identify and compile useful strategies, tactics, and sources for obtaining documents in different Eu Member States.
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Z2.01 - Mediadrôme

1:45pm CEST

Check your phone for spyware
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Android Quick Forensics (AQF) and the Mobile Verification Toolkit (MVT) and forensics tools widely adopted by the community that allow you to check your phones for spyware. In this hands-on workshop, the participants will gain basic knowledge on how to install these forensic tools on your own systems and use them on your devices. We will also share troubleshooting tips to navigate common challenges. 
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:45pm - 3:00pm CEST
Z1.14

3:00pm CEST

Coffee break
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:00pm - 3:30pm CEST
Coffee served in the Mediacafe (ground floor, lobby area) and on the third floor.
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:00pm - 3:30pm CEST
Mediaforum

3:30pm CEST

An investigative method to measure content on TikTok
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:15pm CEST
In this session, we will show the methodology developed by The Guardian to gather and measure content published on TikTok during the UK election campaign. Using this methodology, we revealed how far-right Reform's leader, Nigel Farage, [outperformed all other parties and candidates](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/26/nigel-farage-outperforms-all-other-uk-parties-and-candidates-on-tiktok) on the platform. We also exposed the [political content shared during the campaign](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/04/ukpolitics-how-the-2024-general-election-has-played-out-on-tiktok) aimed at young audiences.
During the session, we will also show how to set up accounts that are located in countries different to the one where the reporting team is based. We will also show the scraper to automatically gather content associated with particular hashtags at various times over several days. TikTok is relatively hostile to scrapers, forcing us to resort to advanced scraping techniques including residential proxies. We will also show how we identify the main content creators, using some metrics from TikTok as well as the number of videos recommended by the algorithm, and how we used the algorithm to manually find more related videos - and therefore Tiktokkers - similar to those we were investigating.
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:15pm CEST
Z1.15 - Aula Donche

3:30pm CEST

How to use data to investigate Big Pharma — secret medicine prices, industry funding and tax havens
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
Europe's pharmaceutical industry is notoriously opaque – and powerful. Big Pharma doesn't want us to know how they determine the prices of the medicines they market, where they store their profits or to whom they hand out millions in funding. The Investigate Europe's investigation Deadly Prices revealed that millions of Europeans lack access to medicines that save or prolong lives in other European countries, and in six EU countries one in four of 32 important medicines analysed is missing, often because they are priced out of reach. This presentation will share tips and techniques on how to investigate Big Pharma – and be transparent about what still remains hidden. From using company and national data that can reveal the true costs of critical medicines to finding public disclosure data that shows who and where the industry's millions go, we will help you with ideas and case studies on how to scrutinise Europe's secretive pharmaceutical world.
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
Z0.10

3:30pm CEST

The Investigative Commons - how to share structured data, document collections and build knowledge collaboratively
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
The Investigative Commons is a collaboratively maintained repository of datasets and document archives useful for investigative reporting to ensure long-term access to evidence.

Currently, datasets (evidence) for investigative journalism are maintained by several media organizations and journalism networks, which can’t be reliable long-term partners for data accessibility due to changing priorities of newsrooms and the specific funding situation of investigative journalism. Even further, organizations involved in investigative research and publishing stories should not even take the burden off providing long-term equal access to evidence data (though it’s appreciated if they can afford it for some time).

We want to launch this new project and show the different available datasets and how everyone can use them. Further, we will explain how to contribute to this open and community-driven project and discuss further plans and ideas from the community.
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
Z2.02

3:30pm CEST

Protests, TikTok, and More 🎥: Analyzing images and videos with AI
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
Learn how AI can sort through images and video to help you wrangle footage from protests and riots (NYT), analyze trends on TikTok (Washington Post), keep an eye on your local school board meetings (Hearst), measure the effects of congestion pricing (Bloomberg), and a hundred other tidbits for when the cameras might be rolling.

With a little Python and a dash of foundational knowledge, this session will tackle downloading videos, building and evaluating transcripts, splitting scenes, categorizing images, and detecting/counting/tracking objects.

Participants will get the most out of this session if they have a working knowledge of Python. To follow along, you should have Jupyter installed on your computer or a Google account to use Google Colab. Additional materials and installation tips will be available at https://github.com/jsoma/dataharvest25-ai-images-video
Speakers
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
Z2.08

3:30pm CEST

Start looking: finding patterns in data with your eyes 👀
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
You've just obtained a big dataset. Where do you begin? How do you find the story buried within the rows and columns?

In this session, you will learn how to quickly become familiar with your data by making a series of charts that will illustrate not just the contents of your data but unveil patterns that can help guide your reporting.

This class will be taught in R, so some familiarity is recommended, but the skills are generic to all languages.
Speakers
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
Z2.09

3:30pm CEST

💡Streamlit for building tools and collaborate with non-coders
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
With Streamlit, you can set up a web page in just a few lines of Python code to share your findings with your team or audience – or to collect information from them. Use it to swiftly try out an idea for publication before asking your IT department to develop it, or to let a colleague make use of a Python-scripted tool you've written. Or build yourself a chatbot to help navigate your own research, local and safe on your computer.
In this session, we’ll cover the basics of Streamlit and build a page where users can upload a PDF along with some information, send it to a Python function for processing, and display the results. More advanced users will learn how to build an LLM-powered chatbot.
Streamlit is a Python library, so you should have a basic understanding of Python. You also need to be the admin of your computer, or at least have permission to start a local web server on it. If you want to build a chatbot, you’ll need to install Ollama (ollama.com) and download a model such as Gemma3 (ollama.com/library/gemma3) before the session starts.
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
Z2.10

3:30pm CEST

Cracking the code: How to sustain your newsroom with mixed funding
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
With traditional revenue streams under strain, independent media outlets are turning to innovative models that combine grants, memberships, subscriptions, events, and more. But how does this approach work in practice? What challenges come with balancing diverse income sources?
This session explores the ethics, sustainability, and practicalities of mixed funding. How can outlets develop a long-term strategy while navigating financial and ethical dilemmas? Join us to discuss the opportunities and pitfalls of funding independent journalism in today’s landscape.
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
Z3.09

3:30pm CEST

How to research the arms industry in times of a defence boom
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
The arms business is booming. Between 2014 and 2023, EU countries have increased their defense spending by more than half, reaching 632 billion euros annually, and the defence budget is to explode in 2025. With defense budgets surging globally, how can journalists effectively investigate the defense industry during this period of rapid growth? In recent years, two reporters from Investigate Europe have uncovered hidden aspects of the German Rheinmetall Group's operations, including its covert trade in ammunition factories. This workshop will share their insights and techniques, demonstrating how to investigate companies, employees, and trade flows in the defense sector. Participants will gain practical knowledge of investigative tools and strategies to uncover the concealed practices driving the arms industry's expansion.
Speakers
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
Z3.05

3:30pm CEST

Skill take away - come and learn four skills/tools in one session
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
In this session , you will have three different speakers presenting skills/tools that can be valuable in different aspects of your next investigation.

1) Learn how to create compelling before-and-after visualizations of satellite images using free tools. We'll walk through a basic workflow and share tips to quickly visualize change over time — no prior geospatial knowledge needed!

2) How to reveal metadata and other hidden information in PDF documents? We will walk our audience through the command line tool that can be used to explore PDFs in depth, and address issues that a journalist faces when they upload a PDF to an investigative tool like open source Aleph and discover that the OCR produced no text output.

3) How can journalists use AI to build a customized assistant that digs through a large number of documents? In this skillshare, you will get examples of a combination of skills and tools to screen, systematize, and analyse content in a cross-border investigation.

4) AI-powered search through audio - how do you find what you want without falling prey to hallucinations? Using the example audio transcription with Whisper, we showcase the issues of search through audio and how we've solved it in several recent use cases of ours.
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
Z1.14

3:30pm CEST

Using the Aarhus Convention to access environmental information
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
Did you know there is a tool which can set aside the protection of business secrets? Journalists have used it to access details on Russian bitcoin-mining near a Nato-exercise, from privately owned salmon farms and overseas fracking-operations. In this session you learn about the Aarhus Convention.
The beauty of this tool is not only that it in some cases overrules secrecy of business interests but also the vague or wide defintion of environmental information. Welcome to learn how this can be done, and how to argue in order to open otherwise closed doors.
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
Z1.16

3:30pm CEST

Maps-Not-Maps: visualising qualitative data in investigative journalism
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
This session explores the powerful potential of visualising qualitative data – interviews, archives, testimonies, police reports, and more – within investigative journalism. We’ll delve into how these rich, often non-georeferenced sources can be transformed into compelling maps, diagrams, and visual narratives, offering unique insights into complex stories.

Moving beyond traditional hard data visualisation, this approach can reveal hidden patterns and connections within qualitative information and illuminate the human dimension of investigations, adding depth and clarity to narratives that might otherwise remain opaque. We’ll also examine how combining qualitative visualisation with hard data, such as satellite analysis, can strengthen the accuracy and impact of investigative reporting.

During this session, Federico Caruso (editorial coordinator, European Data Journalism Network) and Riccardo Pravettoni (journalist cartographer, Le Monde) will explain the mechanisms and choices involved in creating some of Le Monde’s most impactful visual stories, drawing from examples such as the Mazan trial, Saydnaya prison, and events in Lebanon and Gaza. We’ll examine how they analyse information, select sources, and craft the aesthetic look of these formats.

No prior knowledge or expertise is required to attend. You also won’t need to bring any specific materials.

You will leave this session with a better understanding on how to:
- Identify and extract valuable information from qualitative sources
- Apply various visualisation techniques to represent this data effectively
- Combine qualitative and quantitative data for stronger investigative narratives
- Appreciate the importance of scale and aesthetic choices in visual storytelling
- Gain a practical understanding of the processes involved in creating compelling visual journalism
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
Z3.02

3:30pm CEST

Taking data to the people: building up and using databases as investigative storytelling
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
Most investigative journalists have by now become used to getting data and building up datasets and databases as part of their research. And that's also most often the case in cross-border collaborative investigations, where data is normally the common language of the journalists and media participating (as well as English).

What is less common is then publishing or making those databases accessible, and using them as part of the storytelling when presenting and disseminating our investigations. And that's a shame, because the databases behind our research can provide us with an opportunity to reach and engage our audiences in interesting and novel ways.

In this session, two [OR three] investigative journalists, from two very different contexts, Serbia and Switzerland, will present how they went about building up or compiling complex databases as part of their investigations, and then making those databases publicly available and accessible to their audiences, and using the databases as part of their storytelling.

Come to this session to get inspired and learn how you can compile and use databases, not only as part of your research, but also making them part of the story to increase the reach and engagement of your investigations.
Saturday May 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm CEST
Z2.03

4:45pm CEST

Coffee break
Saturday May 24, 2025 4:45pm - 5:15pm CEST
Coffee served in the Mediacafe (ground floor, lobby area) and on the third floor.
Saturday May 24, 2025 4:45pm - 5:15pm CEST
Mediaforum

5:15pm CEST

Advanced prompting for investigations
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
How can can journalists use metaprompting to let AI build system instructions for assistants that empower their investigations? Through examples of iterative metaprompting Rune Ytreberg will show you how to master the art of efficient prompting to empower your investigations. You can use metaprompting to build AI assistants that unlock the black box of AI.

After attending this session you will be able to use advanced prompting techniques (meta-prompting) to use a large language model (LLM) to make system instructions. These advanced prompts are detailed instructions that customizes AI assistants to support investigations. They are amomg others used in Open AI and Anthropic projects, and RAG platforms like Kotaemon or Anything LLM.

You can attend this session without any prior knowledge, but you would need some basic knowledge of prompting using tools like Chat GPT, Claude or similar, if you would like to do this as a hands on session.

If you like to follow this as a hands on session, have a paid version of Chat GPT, Claude or similar ready before the session starts.
Speakers
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
Z2.08

5:15pm CEST

AI cookbook 🥧: 6 recipes for the modern journalist
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
What if you could harness AI to automate repetitive tasks, extract meaningful insights from complex datasets, or even assist in storytelling? In this session, you’ll learn how to create practical, customizable workflows—“AI recipes”—designed to tackle real newsroom challenges.

Drawing inspiration from cutting-edge techniques in AI agent design, we’ll guide you through building tools that can annotate maps, analyze documents, and much more. Whether you’re a data journalist, editor, or simply curious about the potential of AI, this session will provide hands-on insights to integrate AI agents into your work.
Speakers
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
Z2.09

5:15pm CEST

Scraping the unscrapable: advanced approaches to deal with complex sites and evade anti-scraping systems
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
Scraped data can often be the backbone of an investigation, but some websites are more difficult to scrape than others. This session will cover best practices for dealing with tricky sites, including coping with captchas, IP blocks, and browser fingerprinting. This is an advanced session aimed at people who already have experience of writing code to scrape websites and want to move up to the next level: participants will leave with an understanding of how to approach hard-to-scrape websites, plus the tradeoffs and costs of these approaches.
Speakers
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
Z2.10

5:15pm CEST

Supply chain investigations -- how to trace ingredients from factory to supermarket shelf
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
In this session, De Smog's journalists will share their experience and tips from a recent investigation that
traced the supply chain of feed used in farmed fish that are sold in
UK supermarkets. The attendees will gain an understanding of where to obtain different data for a supply chain investigation: such as trade data (including via FOI), boat voyage data, and hidden information on supermarket product packaging. The session will also showcase examples of how to interpret and analyse these data.
Speakers
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
Z3.02

5:15pm CEST

Effective Investigations on Telegram for Journalists
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
In recent years, Telegram has evolved beyond a simple messaging application, becoming a platform for audiences to consume information and a tool for journalists to monitor and track conflicts, wars, and other incidents around the world. However, alongside its general use, Telegram has become a widely used platform for malicious actors to spread disinformation and smear campaigns, spread hate speech and fear, and orchestrate influence operations aimed at shaping public opinion. This session will equip journalists with essential investigative techniques tailored for Telegram, providing a comprehensive guide for effective research. Journalists will learn about the tools and methods available to monitor, collect, and analyze Telegram data effectively.
Who should join:
If you have never conducted an investigation focused on Telegram channels, this session is for you.
This session is also valuable for those who occasionally report on manipulation and disinformation on Telegram, as it provides new tools, insights, and available resources. Experienced journalists who have participated in this session have reported learning at least one new tool, method, or tip for investigating Telegram.
What to expect:

Learn tools and tips to identify, monitor, and investigate public Telegram channels.
Explore methods and tools for collecting Telegram data.
Gain insights into the challenges of working with Telegram data and ways to leverage and interpret it.
Participate in exercises: If you already have a Telegram account, we will practice exercises together. It is recommended to have API keys if you want to experiment with data collection in real-time.
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
Z3.05

5:15pm CEST

Using Bluetooth in your investigations - lessons learnt and approaches to adopt
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
Bluetooth trackers can help you develop interesting investigations. This team started using trackers while following two cars from Germany to Siberia, then a parcel from Prague to Moscow. In late 2024, they tracked more than 230 letters sent within Germany, using up to 80 trackers simultaneously. For almost 1,5 year,  they tracked 24 items of electronic waste from Germany to places as far as Pakistan. In this session, the team will share the learnings and the technology behind all these projects and the scraping tools and software behind them. They will also bring some trackers and covers to inspire colleagues to use these devices, and share lessons learnt from ongoing collaborations in different countries where other journalists and newsrooms licensed their forward for their respective projects.
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
Z0.10

5:15pm CEST

Networking roundtable for AI practitioners
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
Are you working on topics of algorithmic accountability? Join this meeting of AI "practitioners” to share tips and ideas from your investigations, discuss common challenges and obstacles, share lessons learned and good practices, and get peer support. (A more detailed description to follow)
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
Z2.01 - Mediadrôme

5:15pm CEST

By word of mouth: producing investigative podcasts
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
In the last decade or so, podcasts have gone from being niche to becoming a widespread media format and are now a well established and mature medium. Podcasts bring about their own kinds of opportunities and challenges, and, from the point of view of storytelling, seem to be particularly suited to long reportage and investigations.

In this session, we'll hear from two journalists with experience in producing independent investigative podcasts in two different parts of Europe: Portugal and Poland.

How do journalists and newsrooms think of topics for an investigative podcast? What are the key editorial and non-editorial issues to consider? And the main pros and cons for independent newsrooms that want to produce investigative podcasts? How to conduct interviews about complicated issues and get people to be candid on the record? How to narrate investigations that rely on documents and can include complex, abstract issues? What are the lessons learnt after trying things that didn't work out that well?
Saturday May 24, 2025 5:15pm - 6:30pm CEST
Z3.09
 
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