Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing investigative journalism. Whether you're identifying perpetrators, verifying sources or fact-checking, AI-powered OSINT opens up new possibilities for journalism. Examples such as precise ChatGPT prompts for Overpass Turbo or AI-driven automated satellite image analysis demonstrate the immense potential of these technologies. We will look into techniques and tools AI can help us with, from leveraging the AI to analyse geographic data, reconstruct movement patterns and pinpoint locations, to using AI tools to create perpetrators' profiles, verify sources and analyse digital traces. This hands-on presentation will showcase how AI can be integrated into journalistic workflows to enhance efficiency and accuracy. Join us to explore the latest methods in data-driven investigations.
The choices made by consumers, corporations, and financiers in the Global North ripple across borders, often shaping the lives and environments of communities in the Global South. From sourcing raw materials to funding large-scale projects, some decisions result in exploitative practices, environmental degradation, and corruption in vulnerable regions. Journalism can play a critical role in unveiling these hidden connections by tracing supply chains and financial flows. The data and research team from the Pulitzer Center will share the techniques, data and tools they used to help journalists uncover the supply chains and financial enablers behind commodities and projects that contributed to environmental degradation and human rights abuse in the Global South. This session will dive into the reporting methodologies behind environmental investigations on rainforest and ocean issues that the team has conducted. The team will provide participants with an investigative framework and introduce them to both the open and private databases and tools used for such investigation. The purpose of this session is to allow participants to replicate the methodologies for their own investigations and to have practical guidelines to kickstart such investigations.
Satellite data has become a powerful resource in investigative journalism—but using it effectively comes with technical, ethical, and practical challenges. This session draws on several recent investigations to highlight how journalists are incorporating satellite imagery and geospatial data into their reporting.
We’ll explore how radar-based analysis was used to document destruction in Ukrainian cities, and how satellite-derived location data revealed movement patterns of German intelligence service employees. These examples show not just what’s possible, but also what can go wrong—and how journalists adapted when it did. From sourcing the data to picking the right tools and interpreting results responsibly, the session offers real-world insights into the craft of satellite-aided investigations.
No technical background is required. This isn’t a hands-on workshop, but a behind-the-scenes look at how satellite data fits into newsroom workflows.
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.
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.
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.
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.
