Category: Allgemein

Day Moderators: Lutz Kinkel (ECPMF) and Neus Vidal (ECPMF)

MARCH, 31 | 13:00-18:30

12:30 – 13:00 Registration

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13:00 – 13:20 Opening Ceremony | Conference Hall

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13:20
Keynote Speech

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13:50 – 14:40
Looking East: Investigating the EU’s “Near Abroad” | Conference Hall

Long before Russia invaded Ukraine, investigative journalists had countries on the EU’s eastern flank in their sights. IJ4EU grantees discuss cross-border projects linked to Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. 

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13:50 – 14:50
Workshop: New Tools for Fact Checking | Press Room

Interactive workshop with the Lie Detectors and WeVerify: A short presentation about the work of Lie Detectors, followed by a series of practical fact-checking exercises, and a demonstration on how teams of cross-border investigative journalist can use WeVerify’s toolkit to collaborate and provide evidence to back up their stories.

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14:40 – 15:10 Coffee Break

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15:10 – 16:00
Countering SLAPPs: How to Protect Journalists? | Conference Hall

In this panel, the use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) to target and restrict journalists and media workers across Europe will be discussed in line with the latest developments in the legislative process to protect media freedom.  

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15:10-16:00
IJ4EU Showcase: Into the Shadows | Press Room

From dark corners of the web to unlawful mass surveillance, IJ4EU grantees discuss cross-border crime.

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16:10-17:00
New Donor Strategies: How to Fund Your Investigation? | Conference Hall

The world is changing and so are the ways of funding investigative cross-border journalism. ​This panel discusses the new trends and challenges in supporting journalism, including the use of both public and philanthropic money. 

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16:10-17:00
IJ4EU Showcase: Chasing Environmental Issues | Press Room

Environmental issues do not stop at borders; IJ4EU grantees showcase their investigations. 

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17:00-17:30 Break: Can We Tempt You to a Glass of Prosecco? 

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17:30-18:30
IJ4EU Award Ceremony | Conference Hall

The winners of this year’s Impact award will be announced. Ten cross-border investigations have been shortlisted for the second IJ4EU Impact Award. An independent jury chaired by Attila Mong has chosen three winners. Each will receive €5,000 for further investigations. 

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APRIL, 1 | 09:45-13:15

09:15-09:30
Registration

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09:30- 09:40
Opening Remarks

Věra Jourová – Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency will talk about how the European Media Freedom Act is a pillar of freedom and protection for investigative journalism. 

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09:45 – 10:40
Dangerous Journeys: The Dark Side of EU Migration Policy | Conference Hall

Underage migrants convicted of human trafficking. Families unable to identify loved ones who perished en route to Europe. Cross-border tragedies fuelled by private and public funds. IJ4EU grantees look at failures of EU migration and asylum policy.

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09:45 – 10:40
Workshop: Under Pressure but Resilient | Press Room

This workshop focuses on ways to take care of your and your colleagues’ mental health while working on your investigations; helping you differentiate between different types of trauma, understand strategies for resilience, and recognise the impact of trauma for you and your team.

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10:50 – 11:40
Surveillance: Is Pegasus the Tip of the Iceberg? | Conference Hall

Who is targeting journalists with surveillance and what does it mean for investigative journalism?  

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10:50 – 11:40
IJ4EU Showcase: Following the COVID Data  | Press Room

Three IJ4EU cross-border investigative teams present projects unlocking hidden stories behind the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and beyond.

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11:40 – 12:10 Coffee Break

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12:10 – 13:00
Duty of care: Who’s Responsible for Protecting Freelancers? | Conference Hall

Freelance journalists are the least protected group in the field of media workers. This panel discusses obstacles encountered especially by freelancers in Europe and potential solutions to their problems.

13:00 – 13:15
Concluding Remarks

Ten cross-border investigations have been shortlisted for the second IJ4EU Impact Award, celebrating excellence in collaborative journalism in Europe.

An independent jury chaired by Attila Mong, a Hungarian freelance journalist based in Berlin, will choose three winners, which will be announced on 31 March 2022. Each will receive €5,000.

The winners will take centre stage at the award ceremony during IJ4EU UNCOVERED, a conference organised by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), a partner in the IJ4EU fund.

Register here to attend the conference.

Below are the 10 shortlisted entries, in alphabetical order and selected from a pool of nominations by independent evaluators assembled by ECPMF.

⚡️ 10 cross-border investigations have been shortlisted for the 2022 #IJ4EU Impact Award.

An independent jury, chaired by @attilamong, will choose 3 winners who will be announced on 31 March 2022. Each will receive €5,000.

Let's meet the nominees! pic.twitter.com/dMvRmq04sd

— European Centre for Press & Media Freedom (@ECPMF) March 3, 2022

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The Abortion Pill Reversal Project

Doctors worldwide offer treatment to ‘reverse’ abortions: This investigation revealed how doctors on 4 continents – with support from US Christian activists – are providing women with “dangerous” and unproven treatments that claim to reverse medical abortions.

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Cities for Rent

Cities for Rent is a cross-border collaborative investigation into corporate landlords: companies that own and make money by renting out tens of thousands of homes across European cities.

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Frontex Files

The Frontex Files reveals the influence of private companies on the EU’s militarised borders, exposing the ties between Frontex and the defence and security industry. 

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Frontex Complicit in Pushbacks

An investigation by Lighthouse Reports, Bellingcat, Der Spiegel, ARD, and Asahi TV revealed the full extent of the role of Frontex – the EU Coastal and Border agency – in maritime pushbacks as part of a concerted operation to reduce the number of land and sea arrivals of asylum seekers.

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Hunting Lukashenko’s Wallets

An investigation uncovering schemes through which Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko allows his tycoons to collect supernormal profits at the expense of the state, also revealing offshore companies that these tycoons used to syphon money out of the country.

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The Logbook of Moria

In Europe’s most notorious refugee camp, a logbook was found. Written by workers there to protect unaccompanied minors, its pages reveal the horrific reality that the most vulnerable group of asylum seekers in Europe was left to endure.

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Money to Burn

An investigation to map the international trade in woody biomass as a renewable fuel, revealing how Europe’s renewable energy policies are accelerating clear-cutting in protected natural areas.

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The Passport Papers

An investigation into the sale of citizenship as a legalised transaction, who is buying Maltese passports, and how a points-scoring system is used to circumvent the need for physical residency.

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The Pegasus Project

A collaborative investigation into the global misuse of the Pegasus spyware against civil society around the world. The Forbidden Stories consortium and Amnesty International had access to records of more than 50,000 phone numbers selected by NSO clients.

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Radicals with Reach

The cross-border investigation revealed a growing network of connections and money transfers between ultra-conservative organisations in Central Europe, which expanded their political and public influence in the region.

We are delighted to announce Attila Mong as jury chair of the 2022 IJ4EU Impact Award.

Attila is a Hungarian freelance journalist based in Berlin. Working as the Europe representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Mong is also an innovation consultant for the DW Akademie and a board member for Hungarian investigative journalism outlet, Átlátszó. He was John S. Knight Journalism fellow (2013) and Hoover Institution research fellow (2011) at Stanford University. He is the author of several books and recipient of the 2004 Pulitzer Memorial Prize for Best Investigative Journalism and the 2003 Soma Investigative Journalism Prize.

The 2022 IJ4EU Impact Award will take place on 31 March 2022, the first day of the UNCOVERED Conference 2022, and celebrate the best investigative journalism carried out by three cross-border teams in the EU.

The IJ4EU fund has opened nominations for its annual award celebrating the best of European cross-border investigative journalism, with three cash prizes of €5,000 available for teams that collaborate on transnational issues in the public interest.

Nominations opened on 14 October for the second annual IJ4EU Impact Award, run by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), one of three organisations implementing the IJ4EU programme.

The deadline for nominations is 14 November 2021. Winners will be announced at IJ4EU’s #UNCOVERED conference in Berlin on 1 April 2022.

Nominate now

The IJ4EU Impact Award recognises innovation and excellence in cross-border investigative journalism in European Union member states. It is open to both IJ4EU grantees and any other teams that meet the eligibility criteria. Investigations must have been published between 1 October 2020 and 30 September 2021.

The Impact Award is supported by the IJ4EU’s other implementing partners, the International Press Institute (IPI) and the European Journalism Centre (EJC).

Anyone is welcome to nominate investigative projects, including their own journalistic work, as long as the projects were published via a credible medium (e.g. print, broadcast television or radio, online, documentary film, multimedia etc).

The eligibility criteria are as follows:

• Nominated investigations must have been published between 1 October 2020 and 30 September 2021.
• Nominated investigations must involve journalists from at least two EU member states.
• Nominated investigations need to highlight issues of common interest to citizens of at least two EU member states, and be seen to have strengthened European media.
• Nominated investigations may have been published in any language. However, for investigations not published in English, a translation in English of the core investigation/summary must be provided.
• Nominations should include any significant challenge to the honesty, accuracy or fairness of an entry, such as published letters, corrections, retractions as well as responses by the relevant newspaper or website.

A team of independent researchers will start to evaluate the impact of the nominated projects in mid-November. They will then be ranked according to:

• The investigation’s impact. This is assessed according to political reaction (for example, in the European Parliament or national legislatures); advocacy reaction (for example, among NGOs or activists); public reaction (for example, on social media or within an industry); and media reaction (among outlets not involved in the investigation).
• The effectiveness of cross-border collaboration. How closely and productively did outlets and journalists work together?
• The process behind the investigation: challenges faced, obstacles overcome, techniques pioneered, information uncovered, sources relied on and so on.

In March 2022, an independent jury set up by ECPMF will review the ranked nominations (including a shortlist of the top 10) and select three cross-border investigations as winners. You can view last year’s jury here. Each award will be worth €5,000.

The winners will be announced in Berlin on 1 April 2022 at IJ4EU’s #UNCOVERED conference, organised by ECPMF. You can view last year’s winners here.
For more information, see the Awards page on the IJ4EU site and the relevant section in our FAQ.

The Investigative Journalism for Europe fund is back — bigger, better and with extra assistance for freelancers.

• IJ4EU relaunches in 2021 with €1.1 million for cross-border projects in EU
• Includes new support scheme for freelancers
• First call launches in June
• Stay informed via our newsletter and website

The Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) fund will disburse €1.1 million in grants to cross-border projects in EU member states in 2021 and launch an ambitious new support scheme for freelancers, the organisations that run the fund said on Wednesday.

Back for a third year, IJ4EU has secured core financing from the European Commission to continue its work strengthening the watchdog role of investigative reporting on transnational subjects in the public interest.

Led by the International Press Institute (IPI), IJ4EU has established itself as a trusted intermediary for channelling public and philanthropic money into quality investigative journalism without compromising editorial independence.

The same consortium that ran IJ4EU in 2020 will manage the latest edition of the programme. Along with IPI, the implementing organisations are the European Journalism Centre (EJC) and the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF).

“We’re delighted that IJ4EU is back with a full war chest of funds to help journalists collaborate across borders and launch complex investigations,” Timothy Large, IJ4EU programme coordinator for IPI, said.

“The upheaval of the past year has made watchdog journalism more critical than ever. It’s also amplified pressures on journalists, especially when it comes to doing the kind of resource-intensive investigations needed to do justice to transnational subjects.”

Following a successful pilot scheme in 2018, IJ4EU last year allocated €1.07 million in grants to 49 cross-border teams of journalists based all across Europe.

Subjects covered a spectrum of pressing public-interest topics, including public health, the environment, organised crime, corruption, disinformation, human rights abuses and surveillance.

In 2021, the IJ4EU fund will make €1.1 million available through two grant schemes for journalistic teams based in at least two EU member states (or at least one EU country and Britain). Money can be used for almost any relevant journalistic purpose, including paying salaries.

The backbone of the programme is the Investigation Support Scheme, which offers grants of between €5,000 and €50,000 for new cross-border investigative projects.

Run by IPI, the Investigation Support Scheme aims to disburse €835,000 in 2021. IJ4EU expects to announce the first call for applications in June, with a second call scheduled for the autumn.

The scheme is aimed at helping cross-border investigations of all sizes — from the very local to the pan-European — and is open to teams that include at least one news outlet or investigative journalism organisation, or a staff member of one of these.

Focus on freelancers

In addition, a new Freelancer Support Scheme will provide teams of journalists working entirely outside of newsroom structures with grants of up to €20,000 plus an extra cushion of tailored assistance including training, mentoring and networking opportunities.

Managed by the EJC, the Freelancer Support Scheme will have a pot of €265,000 for grants. There will be a single call for applications in 2021, expected in June.

“Freelance journalists are often a crucial, but overlooked, part of the investigative journalism ecosystem,” EJC Director Adam Thomas said. “This programme will directly fund vital reporting produced by freelancers. Moreover, we will support innovation, new skills and professional development by connecting them to resources, training and a global community of journalists.”

The latest edition of IJ4EU will also feature events familiar from the last round of the programme, including an award celebrating excellence in cross-border investigative journalism in Europe and a conference designed to foster collaboration and innovation.

Managed by ECPMF, both the IJ4EU Impact Award and the #UNCOVERED conference will take place in 2022.

ECPMF Managing Director Lutz Kinkel said:

“Through the IJ4EU Impact Award, ECPMF established the first prize for European cross-border investigative journalism. It honours outstanding investigations of reporters in the field. We are proud to use the prize to amplify the prize-winners’ topics and to strengthen a common European public sphere.

“The #UNCOVERED conference is the perfect frame for the award ceremony, showcasing the IJ4EU grantees and reflecting on the conditions of investigative journalism in Europe. This is where journalism meets media, and where media meets politics.”

Along with funding and networking opportunities, all IJ4EU grantees will benefit from practical, editorial and legal assistance, allowing them to work independently in a supportive environment.

In the event of any threats or intimidation, journalists will have full access to the Media Freedom Rapid Response mechanism managed by ECPMF as well as advocacy support from IPI, the world’s oldest press freedom organisation.

To be eligible for the IJ4EU programme, teams must consist of journalists and/or news organisations based in at least two EU member states.

Despite Brexit, British journalists are still eligible to take part on the same terms as their counterparts in EU countries since the latest round of IJ4EU funding comes from the bloc’s last multi-year budget, to which Britain was a contributor.

IJ4EU also welcomes applications from journalists based in official EU candidate countries, as long as they team up with colleagues in at least two EU member states.

Independence sacred

Proposed investigative topics must be of public interest and cross-border relevance.

Teams working in all types of media — including print, broadcast, online media, documentary filmmaking and multi-platform storytelling — will be considered. Proposals will need to be submitted in English, and provide a project description, publication plan and budget.

Independence is a central pillar of the IJ4EU funding model. All projects funded under the Investigative Support Scheme and Freelancer Support Scheme as well as IJ4EU Impact Award winners are selected by independent expert juries.

Donors to the IJ4EU fund are not permitted to influence the selection of projects and the IJ4EU project partners are committed to protecting the editorial independence of grantees.

In 2020, IJ4EU received core funding from the European Commission with co-financing from Open Society Foundations, Fritt Ord, Luminate and the City of Leipzig.

In 2021, the programme has again received funding from the European Commission as a Preparatory Action. Other donors will be announced as further partnerships are confirmed.

More details of the grant schemes on offer and the timing of calls for applications will follow shortly. Interested journalists are encouraged to visit the IJ4EU site and sign up to our newsletter.

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Press contact:

• IPI: Timothy Large, IJ4EU programme coordinator, tlarge[at]ipi.media, +43 1 512 901 122
• EJC: Zlatina Siderova, project manager, siderova[at]ejc.net, +31 43 325 40 30
• ECPMF: Andreas Lamm,deputy managing director, lamm[at]ecpmf.eu, +49 341 200 403 22

Summaries

Watch Day 1 of #UNCOVERED 2021, as it happened, here.

Watch Day 2 of #UNCOVERED 2021, as it happened, here.

Day 1 panels

Watch the Opening Remarks and Where’s My Money Going? Funding Cross Border Journalism panel here.

Watch The FinCEN Files: The Power of Networks to Enable Cross Border Journalism panel here.

Watch the Reporting on Influence: ‘Following the Money’ Across Borders panel here.

Watch the Cross-Border Chronicles: Investigating the Pandemic panel here, from 00:00:40

Watch the Cross-Border Chronicles: Investigating the Environment panel here, from 00:49:03

2021 #IJ4EU Impact Award Ceremony

Watch the 2021 #IJ4EU Impact Award Ceremony here.

Day 2 panels

Watch the SLAPPs: A Legal Threat to Cross Border Journalism panel here.

Watch the Lessons for Europe: Cross Border Journalism Around the World panel here.

Watch the What’s Next? Innovation in Cross Border Journalism panel here.

Watch The Ibiza Affair: Behind The Headlines panel here.

by Jane Whyatt (ECPMF)

Day 2 of the #UNCOVERED 2021 online conference took participants behind the scenes of some of the most important stories of the decade.

The themes of collaboration and innovation ran through all the sessions and workshops, and the way the media freedom community has united to oppose SLAPPs was eloquently explained in the debate chaired by Flutura Kusari, legal advisor of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF). SLAPPs are Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation – in other words, lawsuits that represent an abuse of the legal system to try to intimidate journalists and publishers or ruin them financially.

SLAPPS aim to silence criticism

As Flutura Kusari pointed out, the ECPMF is playing a leading role in the new CASE group of organisations calling for a European Union Directive to combat SLAPPs.  It already has some support in Brussels – panel member Viola von Cramon-Taubadel MEP stressed:

The situation is depressing, but I’m optimistic that we can achieve something.”

Swedish SLAPP victim Per Agerman described the Realtid case at the High Court in London: “In Sweden, you can only sue the editor responsible. By going to London they could bypass the Swedish constitution”.

Cross-border collaboration is clearly essential in such cases, and this is one of more than 70 which ECPMF’s Legal Support helps to fund. Through a partnership between ECPMF and the Justice for Journalists Fund (JFJ), SLAPP cases can be identified, checked, challenged and publicised, and JFJ’s Maria Ordzhonikidze joined the panel to describe their role.

Today, @JFJfund Director Maria Ordzhonikidze participated in the #UNCOVERED conference organised by the @ECPMF . Ms Ordzhonikidze participated on the panel: SLAPPs: A Legal Threat to Cross-Border Journalism. Read the full speech: https://t.co/MUNAw0gPl1

— Justice for Journalists Foundation (@JFJfund) April 15, 2021

Many investigations featured at #UNCOVERED tackle global themes such as environmental threats, corruption in the shipping industry (Black Trail) and in fishing (The Insatiables). So the panel on “Lessons for Europe” was a good fit, bringing insights from investigative journalists across Africa, Latin America and the Phillipines (pictured below in a screenshot from the panel) to show how cross-border collaboration works in different regions of the world. and share expertise with European colleagues.

#Ahora? | Comienza el panel ‘Lecciones para Europa: periodismo transfronterizo alrededor del mundo?’, en el marco del segundo día del #UNCOVERED de @ECPMF.

Participan: @theawjp, @PCIJdotOrg y @globalfreemedia.

Sigue el panel aquí ? https://t.co/LK3CMlqnTI pic.twitter.com/cJtRJAEzhv

— CONNECTASLab (@ConnectasLab) April 15, 2021

Facing a future where data-driven journalism and digitisation are widely perceived as a threat to journalists’ jobs suddenly seemed easier for participants in the Innovation panel. It was moderated by ECPMF Executive Board Chair Yannis Kotsifos, a board member of the European Federation of Journalists. His three experts showed how new technology is enabling reporters to work with data scientists and produce ground-breaking results like the IJ4EU-funded Money to Burn exposé of Europe’s energy policies

AI – promise or problem?

Conference participants got an even more detailed picture of the possibilities for Artificial Intelligence in news at a workshop with data scientist Morteza Shahrezaye and freelance journalist Sylke Gruhnwald. Like the “good cop/bad cop” duo, he enthused about the ability of algorithms to search documents for stories in up to 50 languages, to find veiled Nazi symbols in Facebook posts and to write Guardian newspaper articles all by themselves with only a human proof-reader. Meanwhile she warned about the in-built race and gender bias of most datasets, the need to make algorithms transparent and accountable and the questions about employees’ rights at big tech companies such as Google.

#UNCOVERED: AI can replace journalists by researching and writing its own articles: https://t.co/4msewwx82I. Should we worry? @MorShahrezaye worries more about vast CO2 emissions from GPT-3 and other massive datasets. Join here: https://t.co/4msewwx82I #RobotNews #PressFreedom pic.twitter.com/V1Neqp6cWU

— ECPMF (@ECPMF) April 15, 2021

For the grand finale, conference participants were given the chance to discuss and watch an exclusive preview screening of “Beyond the Headlines” – a feature-length documentary showing how Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Bastian Obermeyer and Frederik Obermaier (no relation) of Der Spiegel worked together with Austrian colleagues, transcending the traditional rivalry between the German-language titles. The film gives intimate glimpses of them contacting whistleblowers and verifying a secretly-filmed sting that brought down the Austrian government. It showed that the then-Deputy Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache was talking to a couple in a villa on the island of Ibiza about taking Russian money to buy political influence.

Corruption charges

Just hours before the screening at #UNCOVERED, Strache was charged with bribery by Austria’s Economic and Corruption Prosecutor. It was another example of the impact of collaborative cross-border journalism to add to the Impact Award winners and many other projects that were showcased at the conference.

Yet this was not a time for resting laurels or self-congratulation. Summing up, ECPMF Managing Director closed #UNCOVERED with a reminder of the physical perils and political machinations that independent journalists face:

Firstly: We will not rest until the murder of our colleague Giorgios Karaivaz, an investigative reporter in Athens, is fully investigated. Secondly: Poland’s constitutional court has forced Adam Bodnar, the Commissioner of Human Rights, to leave office. Bodnar is an ardent fighter for press and media freedom and the government is not. We will not let them get away with this.”

Tomorrow’s struggles are still to be tackled. #UNCOVERED gave us two days of encouragement, achievement and a sense that we are working together in those struggles.

You can read about the Day 1 debates and #IJ4EU Impact Award here.

The #UNCOVERED conference is part of the IJ4EU programme funded by the European Commission. It is organised by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), in partnership with the International Press Institute (IPI) and the European Journalism Centre (EJC).

IJ4EU (Investigative Journalism for Europe) is a fund for cross-border investigative journalism in the EU. It provides grants to teams of journalists or news organisations in Europe investigating topics of public interest.

The content of this website and the topics discussed during the #UNCOVERED conference reflect the views of the authors and speakers, and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained.