Summer Conference Events

Private Eye investigative reporter Solomon Hughes recently exposed a loophole that allowed subcontracted "mini-umbrella companies" to avoid paying national insurance for staff of Covid-19 testing centres.

In 2012 a Kenyan called Agnes Wanjiru was murdered by a serving British soldier and her body hidden in a septic tank, a crime which was subsequently covered up. Winner of the 2022 Paul Foot award with her Sunday Times colleague David Collins, Hannah Al-Othman talks about how they worked with sources to bring the story to light, and their dealings with the police and the Ministry of Defence as they worked to investigative and publish it.

This session, led by an expert in leveraging the techniques of data journalism to produce deforestation and climate change investigations, takes attendees through the practice and pitfalls of covering the environment.

Earlier this year the journalist Daniel De Simone published a long-form investigation into the activities of a rogue, abusive MI5 agent, the end result of a months-long tussle between the BBC and the British government which ended with his employer being taken to court.

How do journalists go about investigating misconduct among media celebrities with many fans, and who might work for the same employers? Earlier this year, a joint investigation by reporters at the BBC and The Guardian uncovered allegations of sexual misconduct by the DJ Tim Westwood.

Romanian investigative journalist Emilia Șercan has won a niche reputation for uncovering plagiarism in the putative PhD theses of her country’s leading politicians. At the CIJ she talks about how she found the truth, and how to deal with the backlash; in her case, an organised, state-level campaign of intimidation and harassment.

Before the start of the war, Ukraine had a thriving investigative journalism scene, both on the national and local level. How did the war change it? What do Ukrainian journalists investigate now, especially when many were forced out of the country by the war?

Chris Mullin, journalist and former MP has won his fight against being forced to hand over material that would identify confidential sources relating to his investigations into the Birmingham Six. He will be joined by the veteran crime journalist Duncan Campbell and Gill Phillips, Director of Editorial Legal Services at the Guardian to discuss the case and the importance of source protection.

In August 2020, a plane travelling from Siberia to Moscow made an emergency landing. One of its passengers, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was deathly ill. Taken to a local Siberian hospital and eventually evacuated to Berlin, doctors there confirmed that he had been poisoned with Novichok, a nerve agent implicated in attacks on other opponents of the Russian government.

Director James Harkin‘s welcome message to #CIJSummer Conference 2021. He was joined by Reuters reporter and head of #CIJMasterclass programme, who launched  #CIJMasterclass 2021.