Contact:
Nils Mulvad, nils.mulvad@dicar.dk
Brant Houston, brant@ire.org

May 5, 2003

Global Investigative Journalism Conference inspires growing network

Nearly 300 of the top journalists in the world attended the second Global Investigative Journalism Conference over the weekend despite a weak economy, the war in Iraq and the SARS virus.

"This conference not only offered dozens of panels and workshops in practical training, but it also brought journalists together at a time in which they need to share their experiences and their passion for the profession," says Brant Houston, executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors.

In addition to the conference - held in Copenhagen, Denmark - representatives from nearly 40 journalism organizations agreed to create an international network of investigative journalists that will share techniques, tips and resources and help plan the next conference in two years in the Netherlands. (See www.dicar.org/global2003/)

"We wanted to make sure that we kept sharing and talking after the conference," Houston says.

To get the network off to a strong start, IRE and DICAR (the Danish Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting) are dedicating their own resources to creating a Web directory of organizations and a listserv for the organizations. They hope to work with many organizations and to add other organizations throughout the year.

"I want to thank our Danish colleagues for hosting this conference a second time," Houston says. "Without Nils Mulvad [head of DICAR], this conference would have never come together. I also want to thank David Kaplan of U.S. News & World Report who helped us find the best possible speakers."

Houston and Mulvad came up with the idea of the conferences five years ago. The conference is a joint project of IRE and several European journalism organizations.

"The formation of the network was a highlight for me," says Mulvad. "It demanded a lot of talk with different people to ensure everybody felt comfortable with it."

Along with the international networking, the conference increased the ability of reporters to cross borders in pursuit of the story. The four days focused on the best stories and the latest techniques in investigative reporting. It provided an opportunity to be inspired by new journalistic methods and to learn more about cross-border journalistic collaboration. Attendees gained new insights into how journalists from other parts of the world work and passed on their own experiences.

"You could hear people networking and preparing stories cross-border," says Mulvad. "This is a really great meeting place for arranging these kind of stories. And that promises that there will be much to talk about in the coming conferences."

FOI and media law experts, such as Charles Davis, a Missouri School of Journalism professor who also runs the Freedom of Information Center there, held panel discussions and Q&A sessions on open record laws and sensitivity issues involved with publishing on the Web.

"The word that leaps to mind is 'humbling," says Davis, describing the conference.

Davis says he met international journalists who faced everything from government censorship to true physical threats in their day-to-day work … and yet they were enthusiastic and only wanted to know how to do their jobs better.

"It was, without question, the most interesting conference I've ever been to," Davis says.

"Of course, as with IRE conferences, some of the best learning happened in the hallways as journalists met one-on-one after panels," Houston says.

The event included reporting panels, hands-on training in computer-assisted reporting and informal discussion groups.

The conference featured speakers from over a dozen countries. Speakers included: the veteran investigative reporter James B. Steele from Time; Charles Lewis, head of the Center for Public Integrity; Maud Beelman, director of the center's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists; John Ullmann, director of the World Press Institute and a former IRE director; David Kaplan of U.S. News & World Report; Fritz Cropp, director of international programs at the Missouri School of Journalism.

Among the international speakers were: Leo Sisti from L'Espresso in Italy; Mark Hunter, a freelancer from France; Fernando Rodrigues of the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism; Luz Rimban of the Phillipines Investigative Center; Pedro Armendares of IRE-Mexico/Periodistas de Investigacion in Mexico; Noemi Ramirez of El Mundo in Spain; and Eva Joly from the Ministry of Justice in Norway.

"The quality of speakers from developing countries was so high," says Mulvad. "That tells us that there now is a really good basis for working together."

Panel topics included the environment and pollution; public health care, including issues related to terrorist attacks; the military and global weapons trade; how to investigate pharmaceutical trade; and many more.

Some of the topics of small group discussions included cooperating on crime and terrorism stories, electronic access after September 11, rapid-response teams and natural disasters.

The conference also included many CAR classes, including classes in Excel, Access, mapping software, statistical analysis and getting deep into the Web.

Handouts from the conference can be found by entering "Global Investigative Journalism Conference 2003" into the IRE tipsheet search engine (www.ire.org/resourcecenter/initial-search-tipsheets.html). More handouts can also be found on the DICAR Web site (www.dicar.org/global2003/).

Organizing groups included IRE, the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism, the Danish Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, the Mid-Career Institute for Journalism in Denmark, the Danish School of Journalism, the European Journalism Centre, Grävände Journalister in Sweden, The Association for a Critical and Investigative Press in Norway, Investigative Journalists in Bulgaria, Netzwerk Recherche of Germany, and Vereniging van Onderzoeksjournalisten, an organization of Dutch-speaking journalists in Flanders (Belgium) and the Netherlands.

Sponsoring the conference were Politikens Fond, Ophavsretsfonden, DagspressensFond and the newspaper Information.