A separate ticket is required to attend this masterclass. If you would like to attend but haven't yet purchased a ticket, please contact us at info@dataharvest.eu
Peer into the murky underworld of financial crime in this masterclass on how to detect corrupt practices and laundered bribes. Using practical examples, we will explore how to approach different types of corruption investigation and some of the key techniques and datasets you’ll need to develop these stories, including:
– Common origins of corruption and money laundering investigations
– Key sources of data and where to find them
– How to read the telltale signs of corruption and laundered kickbacks
– How to avoid the dangers and pitfalls of these types of investigation
While investigating corruption and money laundering can take a lifetime to master, this class will introduce you to the skills you need to hold the world’s rich and powerful to account. You’ll need a laptop and your brain!
A separate ticket is required to attend this masterclass. If you would like to attend but haven't yet purchased a ticket, please contact us at info@dataharvest.eu
Peer into the murky underworld of financial crime in this masterclass on how to detect corrupt practices and laundered bribes. Using practical examples, we will explore how to approach different types of corruption investigations and some of the key techniques and datasets you’ll need to develop these stories, including:
– Common origins of corruption and money laundering investigations
– Key sources of data and where to find them
– How to read the telltale signs of corruption and laundered kickbacks
– How to avoid the dangers and pitfalls of these types of investigation
While investigating corruption and money laundering can take a lifetime to master, this class will introduce you to the skills you need to hold the world’s rich and powerful to account. You’ll need a laptop and your brain!
A separate ticket is required to attend this masterclass. If you would like to attend but haven't yet purchased a ticket, please contact us at info@dataharvest.eu
Peer into the murky underworld of financial crime in this masterclass on how to detect corrupt practices and laundered bribes. Using practical examples, we will explore how to approach different types of corruption investigations and some of the key techniques and datasets you’ll need to develop these stories, including:
– Common origins of corruption and money laundering investigations
– Key sources of data and where to find them
– How to read the telltale signs of corruption and laundered kickbacks
– How to avoid the dangers and pitfalls of these types of investigation
While investigating corruption and money laundering can take a lifetime to master, this class will introduce you to the skills you need to hold the world’s rich and powerful to account. You’ll need a laptop and your brain!
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 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
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.
The Church is one of the most important players in the European property market, yet it remains to be an opaque institution hard to investigate. Our collaborative project Sacred Grounds is the first one that brings a comprehensive picture on valuable assets the Church owns across European cities and its investment strategies impacting the shape of our cities For six months, we have cooperated across European media outlets to find out: Do the Churches manage their land holdings in the spirit of Christianity, in the service of the common good and in accordance with their own ethical codes? And what is the impact of church property dealings on the affordability of housing or public services? The coordinators of the Urban Journalism Network investigation will showcase major international and local findings, explain how to get data and how to investigate the non-transparent institution as the Church is.
