Dataharvest 2025 - the European Investigative Journalism Conference

All over Europe, small, independent media outlets are emerging, countering the decline in traditional media and the rise of misinformation. But they are still outnumbered and face significant challenges to their survival.
For the first time, facts about this new sector have been collected: a survey of 174 newsrooms from 31 European countries has pulled together knowledge about these small, often non-profit newsrooms. The survey, conducted by Netzwerk Recherche, shows fiery souls, great enthusiasm and professionalism, but also big challenges in funding and sustainability. What is the situation? Are some business models more suitable than others? What should be done to support the sector – and where could support come from?

Independent newsrooms are sprouting up all over Europe. Countering the decline in traditional media and the rise of misinformation, they are still outnumbered and face significant challenges to their survival. The Journalism Value Project (JVP) aims to advance knowledge of and debate around Europe’s independent media. As part of advancing the debate, the JVP partners have consulted with stakeholders from multiple sectors to better understand how they view, value and support journalism now and in the future and how public interest journalism is bringing social, cultural, democratic, and financial value to their community and society at large.
The Journalism Value Project (JVP) has put the spotlight on the societal value of independent journalism and the challenges it faces. The project includes a whitepaper about the needs of the future: Is there a place for these media? Are they a priority for funders, or for politicians at national and EU level? Must the newsroom find their own ways to become sustainable?

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!

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.

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.

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.