GIJN’s original stories are designed to equip watchdog journalists with practical insights and tools to help them dig deeper into accountability issues in tough press environments. Produced by staff writers, regional editors, and guest contributors, most of these pieces involve picking the brains of investigative reporters and subject experts for innovative techniques and their real-world experience on projects, and applying these to pressing topics around the world.
In 2022, many of GIJN’s original stories focused on reporting techniques relevant to global threats that grew or emerged this year, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, democratic decline and the growth of far-right populism, the challenge of accountability journalism in the Arabian Gulf, the abuse of migrants and minorities, and the exiling, assault, and legal harassment of independent media. (In our list of Top Stories from 2021, some of the dominant themes included COVID-19 vaccine corruption, journalism innovation in the Global South, digital surveillance, and the global recognition of investigative journalism with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to two watchdog editors.) Many other notable 2022 articles detailed both the threats and data applications presented by emerging technologies and digital platforms.
We encourage readers to search search our site to find stories that set out practical tips, open source tools, and detailed databases that just might trigger new leads or approaches in tough investigative stories. But if you’d like a shortcut, we’ve curated below a list of 12 notable GIJN articles from this past year — a mix of our most popular stories, game-changing tipsheets, topical coverage, and important pieces you might have missed. Many are available in multiple languages (you’ll see the links to available translations at the top of each piece).
9 Watchdog Reporters and Lessons Learned from Their Mistakes
Reporting errors and missteps made during journalistic investigations are especially interesting to other reporters because they often show the difference between techniques that make sense in theory, and their outcomes in real-world reporting. In this piece, GIJN interviewed a diverse group of nine watchdog reporters on mistakes they have made on accountability stories, and the lessons they learned from those experiences. The story quickly emerged as one of the most popular on GIJN in 2022. The most common lessons revolved around the need for extra preparation before interviews with uncooperative sources.