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 The Centre for Investigative Journalism
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Summer Conference

28–29 June 2023

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Wed 28 Jun
Thu 29 Jun
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Keynote Course Workshop Talk Gavin MacFadyen Memorial Lecture
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International Journalism Ukraine Data Methodology Narrative Environment Financial Documentary Investigation Undercover Law Podcasts Business OSINT NHS Tax Whistleblowing AI Technology Local Journalism Freedom of Information Poverty Infosec Sources Collaborative Journalism Fact-checking Health Science Northern Ireland
 
Wednesday 28 June
  • 28 June 2023 09.30–10.30
Summer Conference Event
 — Keynote

Olga Rudenko: How to Run a Successful Media Start-up in Times of War

The Kyiv Independent, an English language start-up in Ukraine, was only a few months old when Russia invaded. When - in one of the biggest media scandals of the Zelensky's presidency - the editorial team of an older English language publication, the Kyiv Post, were fired for defending editorial independence, they came together to form the Kyiv Independent in November 2022.
People
  • 28 June 2023 10.50–11.50
Summer Conference Event
 — Course

Data Journalism: Getting the Most out of Data Classes

We will be teaching a range of data journalism skills at the #CIJSummer Conference 2023. This session will give a brief description of the skills taught and is designed to help you identify the best sessions to attend, given your own experience level and your objectives for incorporating data-driven research into your work.
People
  • 28 June 2023 10.50–16.10
Summer Conference Event
 — Course

Story-Based Inquiry Method 1-4

The course sets out the Story-Based Inquiry (SBI) method, which has been successfully used by thousands of journalists, academics and NGO researchers since its publication by UNESCO in 2009. The method can be used for feature writing or documentary filmmaking as well as reportage.
People
  • 28 June 2023 10.50–11.50
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

Breaking into Investigative Filmmaking

With a proven track record of producing hard-hitting major network investigations, BAFTA and International Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist Gesbeen (Gesh) Mohammad will share her journey of becoming a documentary filmmaker.
People
  • 28 June 2023 10.50–11.50
Summer Conference Event
 — Workshop

Oil Trade Tracking. Hands-on.

Hands-on. This class will introduce participants to approaches to tracking and reporting on the opaque oil trade. The trainers will explain the value of commodity tracking through the presentation of some powerful stories that relied on the practice.
People
  • 28 June 2023 10.50–11.50
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

Of War Crimes and Libel Laws: The Case of Ben Roberts-Smith VC

In one of the most important libel trials for decades, this month three Australian newspapers won a historic victory over Ben Roberts-Smith VC, Australia’s most decorated soldier, after they accused him of killing three Afghan civilians in cold blood and he sued.
People
  • 28 June 2023 12.00–13.00
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

How to Make a Successful Podcast

Two award-winning podcast creators Maeve McClenaghan (The Tip Off Podcast) and Basia Cummings (Tortoise Studios) share their experience of how to make investigative podcasts. They’ll discuss how to identify compelling subjects for audio stories, provide tips and tricks on sound design and the differences in writing and interviewing for the ear, rather than the eye.
People
  • 28 June 2023 12.00–13.00
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

Broken Promises: Greenwashing Uncovered

Recent years have seen significant improvement in both recognition and rhetoric from those in power around the need for action to address the looming impacts of the climate crisis. However, in too many cases, positive words have served only to obscure inaction at best and continued harm at worst.
People
  • 28 June 2023 12.00–16.10
Summer Conference Event
 — Course

Data Journalism: Spreadsheets 1-3. Hands-on. [B+I]

Hands-on. Beginner-Intermediate. This three-part hands-on express data journalism course will introduce you to the basics of data analysis in Google Sheets. Suitable for beginners (part I) and intermediates (parts II and III).
People
  • 28 June 2023 12.00–13.00
Summer Conference Event
 — Workshop

Satellite Imagery: First Steps

Hands-on This talk will build participants' knowledge of the available sources of satellite imagery, what their respective strengths are and how to use them effectively. - Review of different sources: Planet, Sentinel-2, LandSat-7 and Maxar — we set out the main options in more detail in a recent Substack post.
People
  • 28 June 2023 14.00–15.00
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

Deny, Evade, Threaten: Dan Neidle on His Nadhim Zahawi Investigation

During his months-long investigation into the former Tory Chairman Nadhim Zahawi's tax affairs, which resulted in Zahawi's sacking, Dan Neidle was sent many threatening legal letters. They claimed repeatedly that Zahawi's taxes were in order and he was not under HMRC investigation - claims that we now know to be false.
People
  • 28 June 2023 14.00–15.00
Summer Conference Event
 — Workshop

Web Basics: How the Web Works and How to Scrape It. Hands-on. [B]

Hands-on. Beginner. Have you ever wondered how exactly your stories reach your readers? Ever wanted to know how to build a simple webpage? Or how to scrape information from a website onto your computer?
People
  • 28 June 2023 14.00–15.00
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

BBC Data Team on Missing and Confusing Data

All the analysis tools and techniques in the world cannot land you a story when the data is missing or so messy as to be incomprehensible. Data journalists from BBC News share insights on how to tackle missing and confusing data in two subject areas.
People
  • 28 June 2023 15.10–16.10
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

Flash Floods: How to Report when Climate Disaster Strikes

Disasters triggered by climate change are many years in the making, but when they reach critical points the effects can unfold fast. If journalists are to capture and show the impacts of such events on affected communities, they too must act fast.
People
  • 28 June 2023 15.10–16.10
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

Open-Source: Finding Russia’s Filtration Camps

After the mayor of Mariupol warned that tens of thousands of people from the city were being interrogated in Russian filtration camps and forced across the border, the i newspaper’s award-winning investigations correspondent Dean Kirby set out to try to find them.
People
  • 28 June 2023 15.10–17.30
Summer Conference Event
 — Course

Data Journalism: Scraping 1-2. Hands-on. [B+I]

Hands-on. Beginner-Intermediate. Scraping 1 You may have heard of scraping, you may even have done a little yourself. These two sessions set out to demystify the process of getting data from websites where there is no download or export button, and copying and pasting is getting you nowhere.
People
  • 28 June 2023 16.30–17.30
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

Josie Stewart: Whistleblowing and the British State

In the wake of the chaos surrounding the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Josie Stewart, then a senior official at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, became concerned that the truth was not being told by the government and talked to a journalist.
People
  • 28 June 2023 16.30–17.30
Summer Conference Event
 — Workshop

No Business as Usual: Multinationals and the Climate Crisis

Luuk Sengers is a seasoned investigative journalist specialising in the impact of large corporations on the environment, public health, and the climate. In recent years he has found that the traditional way of business reporting is no longer sufficient: because of the decisive impact of many multinationals on the climate crisis, it has now literally become a matter of life and death.
People
  • 28 June 2023 16.30–17.30
Summer Conference Event
 — Workshop

Data Journalism: SQL. An Introduction. Hands-on. [B+I]

Hands-on. Intermediate. Take the next step after interviewing spreadsheets, and learn how to handle large datasets with SQL. SQL allows us to expand the scope of our data-driven work, to safely share data with others, and most importantly, to combine tables together through joining.
People
  • 28 June 2023 16.30–17.30
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

Investigating Sexual Assault at the Workplace: the Case of  Crispin Odey

Crispin Odey reigned over London’s hedge fund scene for more than three decades. At its peak his firm, Odey Asset Management, was one of Europe's largest hedge fund companies. But behind the scenes, and known to the company's executives, persistent sexual misconduct and abuse was taking place.
People
  • 28 June 2023 17.40–18.30
Summer Conference Event
 — Keynote

‘Fisayo Soyombo: Undercover in Lagos

A fearless Nigerian investigative journalist who has gone under cover on numerous occasions to expose corruption, 'Fisayo Soyombo is best known for spending several days in a police cell and a prison to expose corruption within the country’s criminal justice system.
People
Thursday 29 June
  • 29 June 2023 09.00–10.00
Summer Conference Event
 — Course

Understanding Company Accounts: Getting the Most out of Companies House

Any UK-based investigative journalist or aspiring journalist should have a working knowledge of Companies House. Companies House is the central registry for all UK registered limited or PLC companies and contains a wealth of useful information for those who know how to use the site.
People
  • 29 June 2023 09.00–10.00
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

The Keys to the Algorithm: Inside an AI System

Across Europe, secretive algorithms are making life-changing decisions about millions of welfare recipients. An international team of journalists led by Lighthouse Reports gained unprecedented access to an AI system designed to predict which welfare recipients were committing fraud.
People
  • 29 June 2023 09.00–10.00
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

Corderoy vs State Secrets: Freedom of Information Act as a Tool and a Career

In this session, openDemocracy's Jenna Corderoy will lift the lid on how she has used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain vital documents for her investigations. She will talk about how and why the FOIA is such a vital tool in holding the powerful to account, and discuss her favourite investigations and stories obtained via the Act.
People
  • 29 June 2023 09.00–10.00
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

Keeping It Local: Inspiring Regional Reporters to Use Data Journalism Tools for Their Stories

Helena Bengtsson is Data Editor at Gota Media, Swedish publisher of 13 local titles. In this session she explains how to educate, train and work directly with local reporters to produce both title-specific data stories and projects which can be shared across other titles.
People
  • 29 June 2023 10.10–16.40
Summer Conference Event
 — Course

Understanding Company Accounts 1-4

This mini-course taught by a journalist-friendly forensic accountant will show you how to understand company accounts and get beyond the corporate PR spin. The emphasis will be on teaching practical skills rather than a series of lectures.
People
  • 29 June 2023 10.10–12.30
Summer Conference Event
 — Course

Using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 1-2

This two-part practical course will guide you through the basics of freedom of information legislation and equip you with the skills necessary to make successful information requests and appeals.
People
  • 29 June 2023 10.10–11.10
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

The Prepayment Meter Scandal

In different ways, the i newspaper's Dean Kirby and Paul Morgan-Bentley from The Times forced the pre-payment meter scandal into the open, their investigations leading to substantial industry change. Both come to Summer Conference to talk about their methods, which in the case of The Times involved undercover video, and the impact of their work.
People
  • 29 June 2023 10.10–15.30
Summer Conference Event
 — Course

Data Journalism: Investigating Data with R 1-3. Hands-on. [B+I]

Hands-on. Beginner-Intermediate. Sooner or later you know you’ll come up against a dataset so big it’s going to crash Excel if you even try to open it. Maybe your questions are becoming too complex for Excel’s built-in analytics tools to handle.
People
  • 29 June 2023 10.10–11.10
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

Investor-State Disputes: Exposing Shadowy Threats to Democracy

Multinational corporations and investors have filed almost 1,000 legal cases against entire countries at an obscure branch of the World Bank. Such cases have been successfully used by corporations to circumvent environmental regulations, as well as post-apartheid policies in South Africa designed to empower black communities.
People
  • 29 June 2023 11.30–12.30
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

Ukraine: Investigations in the Shadow of Invasion

The Russian invasion of Ukraine changed many of the topics covered by Ukrainian investigative journalists, though the key investigative techniques have often remained the same. Elena Loginova speaks about an investigation by the OCCRP, The Banality of Brutality.
People
  • 29 June 2023 11.30–12.30
Summer Conference Event
 — Workshop

Source Protection Programme: Phishing 101

Phishing is a digital attempt by a bad actor (e.g. hackers, data-mining companies) to persuade you to reveal your personal information (e.g. passwords, credit card numbers) often received via email or text message.
People
  • 29 June 2023 12.40–13.30
Summer Conference Event
 — Gavin MacFadyen Memorial Lecture

José María Irujo: How the CIA Spied on Assange

José María Irujo, senior staff writer and investigative reporter for El País, comes to London and the CIJ to deliver the annual Gavin MacFadyen memorial lecture. He will detail his explosive allegations about the CIA’s alleged capture of a private security firm whose job was to protect the Ecuadorian Embassy and Assange himself.
People
  • 29 June 2023 14.30–15.30
Summer Conference Event
 — Workshop

OSINT: Finding People

Taught by Paul Myers, one of Europe's top open-source intelligence specialists, this session will demonstrate techniques for locating and investigating people using various resources and detective skills like jigsaw identification.
People
  • 29 June 2023 14.30–15.30
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

Investigating Covid Loan Fraud: How to Overcome Obstacles and Win an Award

British Journalism Awards winner in the Crime and Legal Affairs category, Stefania Spezzati speaks about her investigation into a massive taxpayer-funded fraud which the UK government tried to keep secret.
People
  • 29 June 2023 14.30–15.30
Summer Conference Event
 — Workshop

Getting Green Scoops Using Environmental Law

Learn how to leverage the law to obtain ‘green’ information from government departments, regulators and even some private companies. The Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) - the ‘Sister Act’ of FOIA legislation - is a simple and powerful tool that allows access to public-interest information about the environment.
People
  • 29 June 2023 15.40–16.40
Summer Conference Event
 — Talk

Making It Count: Using Data to Tell Stories from the Climate Crisis

We are already seeing the impacts of the climate crisis, and many are so wide-ranging and devastating that they are difficult to comprehend. Many journalists are taking the skills and techniques of data journalism and applying these to the disastrous ramifications of climate change.
People
  • 29 June 2023 15.40–16.40
Summer Conference Event
 — Workshop

OSINT: Investigation Using Images

Taught by Paul Myers, one of Europe’s top open-source intelligence specialists, this session will focus on using images in an investigation. It will show how to find images, including searching by face, finding locations and verifying information using reverse image searching.
People
  • 29 June 2023 15.40–16.40
Summer Conference Event
 — Workshop

Time Travel for Beginners: How to Create and Use Web Archives. Hands-on.

Hands-on. Ever relied upon an online source, only later to find it deleted or changed? Ever wanted to travel back in time? This class will cover the next best thing: web archives. We'll look at getting the most out of resources like the Wayback Machine -- what they're good for, and what they're not.
People
  • 29 June 2023 15.40–16.40
Summer Conference Event
 — Workshop

Source Protection Programme: Collaborating Across Borders

This session will cover a practical mix of data security tips and models for workflows that journalists can use when collaborating across borders. The session will be most useful for participants who already have some of their own digital security practices in place or have basic knowledge of digital security fundamentals.
People
  • 29 June 2023 17.00–17.50
Summer Conference Event
 — Keynote

Patricia Devlin: Investigating Crime and Paramilitarism in Northern Ireland

Patricia Devlin’s investigations into crime and paramilitarism in post-Troubles Northern Ireland have left her with powerful enemies on all sides. At the CIJ she talks about how to investigate in sometimes hostile territory, and how to deal with the abuse and intimidation that follows.
People