Symposium Events
Using OpenCorporates for Investigations
OpenCorporates is the largest open database of companies in the world and the first port of call for any investigator wanting to find out information about a company. Rebecca introduces their mission and explains why it is critical that we all fight for open data about companies - their existence, ownership, activities and the people connected with them.
Building Databases for Transparency
From troves of leaked documents to huge datasets and scraped collations of public records, what are the priorities of those that need these resources to dig deeper and use the information to hold the powerful to account, and to what extent do those needs fit with the possibilities and opportunities available to the experts working […]
FOIA Terrorism
Few people have put the Freedom of Information Act to such good use in pursuit of the public interest as Jason Leopold, the investigative journalist the FBI referred to as a ‘FOIA Terrorist’. In this Masterclass Jason shares his experience, as he explains how to navigate the often complex request and appeals process of the […]
Digging Italy: Doing Investigative Reporting in Italy
Doing investigative reporting in Italy can be dangerous and complex. Overall, Italian journalism lacks a strong investigative culture comparable to the one of the Anglo-Saxon world and, with some exceptions in broadcasting and other actors, Italian media tend to dedicate little attention to investigative reporting.
Locking down Debate?
Have the convulsions of Covid-19 opened to the door to a creeping censoriousness, surveillance and authoritarianism? Are big tech companies shutting down debate and stoking conspiracy theories by excluding controversial voices, and is the technology for coronavirus surveillance and the social measures to combat it as useful as it seems?
The Limits of FOIA
Presentation: Nicholson Baker vs the CIA Nearly a decade ago, while investigating the possibility that the United States had used biological weapons in the Korean War, one of America’s most inventive and challenging novelists Nicholson Baker requested a series of Air Force documents under the provisions of the U.S.