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.
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.
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.
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 →
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 rich sources, often lacking geographical locations, 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 using 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
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 sold in UK supermarkets.
Attendees will gain an understanding of where to obtain data for a supply chain investigation: such as trade data (including via FOI), shipping route data, and information hidden on supermarket packaging. The session will also showcase examples of how to interpret and analyse these data.
