We are preparing next year’s conference – and we would like to hear, what you need! Who would you like to hear, what do you need to learn? Would you like to share your expertise with the Dataharvest community? Who from your country or working on your beat would be a great keynote speaker? Send us your ideas by filling out this form!
Category: News
We listen to your feedback
Don’t think that your work filling in the feedback form is wasted. We read every answer carefully and consider criticism and advice.
Let’s admit it, we frolic in comments such as “Good organisation, good topics, great networking and story ideas” or “great atmosphere, great input, impressive cooperativeness”. We love reading “No bullshit – everyone’s there because they actually do or want to do data/investigative journalism” or “It is a great gathering of genuinely interesting colleagues from all over. Inspiring!”.
But we also go through the critical points one by one and consider how things can be changed. The layout of the conference rooms? – well, there is a limit to what we can do, but it can maybe be improved somewhat. The technical set-ups, so sessions are not delayed because of trouble with PCs and projectors – yes, we should be able to solve that. Better representation from Eastern Europe – we are fundraising specifically for that, so please cross your fingers!
A number of you pointed to the fact that we are journalists and editors – not speakers! So for next year we plan a full day pre-conference workshop for speakers who want to improve their presentation skills – plus a set of online guidelines on how to make good and concise presentations.
And then the food! We are wringing our brains to find ways to vary and improve lunch, but there are also limits on both economy and practicalities: How can we serve 500 people lunch in one hour? We have been working on making lunch greener, and feedback shows that it worked some days, but not all. (It did feel a bit unfair, though, when someone complained about sandwiches 4 days in a row, when the conference only has 3 lunches!). But there is always room for improvement, and we work on it again 2020.
Did you forget to send your comments after the conference? You can still access the feedback form if you have comments that are not pitches for the 2020 program.
Arena and the EJC partners for the #EIJC19
PRESS RELEASE – We are delighted to announce a partnership between Arena for Journalism in Europe and the European Journalism Centre (EJC), for the European Investigative Journalism Conference & Dataharvest 2019 (EIJC19), taking place in Mechelen from 17-19 May 2019.
Earlier this year, the EJC launched DataJournalism.com, a new space for journalists to learn and improve their data skills. Its DataJournalism.com team will co-organise two panels, one on local data journalism and one on the path for learning data journalism. EJC team members will also speak at further relevant panels.
Furthermore, the EJC provides four full DataJournalism.com scholarships for data journalists and journalism students from peripheral European countries and/or small newsrooms to attend the conference.
Brigitte Alfter, director of Arena for Journalism in Europe, says: “We are happy to continue the cooperation between the European Journalism Centre and the European Investigative Journalism Conference & Dataharvest. This cooperation started in 2018 and continues now that the conference is organised by the Arena for Journalism in Europe. We think this partnership brings excellent synergies and hope to develop it further in the years to come.”
Adam Thomas, director of the European Journalism Centre, says: “We think data journalism skills are a cornerstone of resilient newsrooms that are able to find and tell stories in new ways. DataJournalism.com offers free resources and courses for data journalists. With this partnership we hope to bring together the communities of Dataharvest and DataJournalism.com to support data journalists at all levels.”
Arena for Journalism in Europe is a foundation established in the Netherlands. Its purpose is to stimulate and support cross-border collaborative and investigative journalism in Europe, including collaboration with other professions, proceeding from the belief that such journalism contributes to information exchange, critical thought, mutual understanding and democracy in Europe.
DataJournalism.com provides data journalists with free resources, materials, online video courses and community forums. Once you sign in, you can enroll for free into one of the premium online courses or join the 9k members and discuss with other like-minded data journalism enthusiasts in our forums. DataJournalism.com is an initiative of the European Journalism Centre, sponsored by the Google News Initiative.
For further information please contact
Brigitte Alfter, director, Arena for Journalism in Europe, brigitte@journalismarena.eu
Adam Thomas, director, European Journalism Centre, thomas@ejc.net
Come prepared to the conference
Two weeks to the EIJC & Dataharvest 2019 opening! We are sooo ready to welcome you! This is what YOU can do to get the most value out of the conference:
- Join the Facebook event and follow the news!
- Follow @EIJConference on Twitter and see what people are saying before and during the conference!
- Join the discussion at the EIJC Arena and start the networking about themes, tools and new investigations now!
- Download the Sched app to your phone, so you get updated on the latest changes to the program!
- And make or update your profile on Sched, so others can see who you are! Maybe you are just the person they need for their next investigation! On Sched you can also organize your program for the conference days and reserve a seat on the sessions with a limited number of seats.
Be prepared! – that way you will bring home the best output from Mechelen!
Decades’ work for cross-border collaboration rewarded
Sunday April 28 was our director Brigitte Alfter’s birthday. But that was not the only reason for her being happy. She had been told to go in secret to the congress of the Danish Union of Journalists to receive the prestigious Carsten Nielsen prize.
After the congress dinner, the union chairman, Lars Werge, went on stage to announce the surprise to the 400 delegates to the assembly. They welcomed Brigitte onto the stage with the birthday song.
Here is Lars Werge’s speech to Brigitte Alfter:
Dear Brigitte,
Congratulations on the award. And thank you for your contribution to the professional strengthening of Danish journalism and for your consistent work to promote journalistic cooperation.
You were nominated to receive the prize by a group of colleagues who among other things write:
“Brigitte Alfter is a freelancer, she is an award-winning cross-border and data journalist, and she is the epitome of collaboration and journalistic community.
She works in the area of European politics, which others may be reluctant to enter because it is such a complicated issue.
Brigitte has been central to many European journalists working together across borders today. For example, she has been:
- Committed to SCOOP since 2005 – SCOOP supports, through the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism (FUJ), investigative journalists in Eastern Europe
- co-founder of the annual European Conference on Data and Investigative Journalists – EIJC & Dataharvest. Brigitte developed it, and in eight years it has grown from 30 to 500 participants from about 50 countries
- co-founder of Journalismfund.eu, which provides funding for research for groups of investigative crossborder journalists. For this, in 2013 she got the Leipzig Prize for the Freedom and the Future of the Media
- co-founder of Wobbing Europe, a network of journalists working for public access to EU and national administrations
This year’s Cavling prize (the annual Danish Press Prize) went to the money laundering case in Danske Bank – a work that would not be possible without collaborating across borders, the kind of collaboration that Brigitte is helping to develop.
That’s why we recommend that this year’s Carsten Nielsen scholarship goes to Brigitte Alfter.”
The award is named after Carsten Nielsen, who was the first chairman of the Danish Union of Journalists.
Christo Hird will be keynote speaker
Christo Hird is a giant in rethinking journalism in society, and he is our keynote speaker for Saturday May 18th!
An investigative hack and filmmaker himself, he is deeply involved and was for a while the editor in chief of the London Bureau for Investigative Journalism.
Like so many other journalists, he wants to make the world a better place. Once upon a time, as a younger journalists, he believed that ”knowledge is power” and that the mere publication would indeed change things for the better. The world is different now. Networked societies, decline of sound models to pay for public interest journalism and other challenges loom.
But rather than mourn lost days, Hird uses his life time insights and experiences in journalism and filmmaking to ponder possible ways into a future, where journalism takes it place in today’s societies – in the public interest!
Going local: Local journalists – unite for impact!
We focus on the journalism close to the audience’s concerns and how we can cooperate across borders to make an impact on national and European level.
Political and economic crises are often accompanied by a crisis of trust in mainstream journalism. In the last couple of years vested political interests have systematically cast doubt on established media, which many disaffected citizens perceive as being out of touch with their day-to-day reality.
Have the media and we journalists contributed to this creditability crisis ourselves? Have the news media failed to see beyond those leaders shouting the loudest and focused on sensationalist stories that bring in more clicks. How can then journalism regain its audience’s trust?
In a way, the answer is quite simple. Journalists should aim to responsibly fulfil their most fundamental roles: engaging with citizens to hear about what affects them most in their everyday life, bringing the public interest into the political agenda, and facilitating public debate to hold those in power to account.
The journalists reporting on local issues are particularly well suited to carry out such tasks, as they are themselves part of the communities they are reporting about. They can engage with and listen to the people in their communities and then report on what’s affecting people’s lives.
However, what local journalism often lack is the capacity and critical mass to take those issues into the political agenda to reach those in the centres of power.
That is why this year’s EIJC & Dataharvest is having a Local track: to discuss how journalists covering local issues all over Europe can come together for their reporting to have greater visibility and impact – also at the EU level.
The Local track will also explore other questions regarding local journalism. What are the business models of new local media? How do their newsrooms function and how do they engage with their local communities? How are local journalists carrying out investigations? Is it possible to establish country-wide networks of many local investigative journalists? What tools and platforms are available for small newsrooms to crowdsource local data?
On top of that, the Local track will focus on the coverage of housing, a topic that has become highly relevant across different countries, cities and towns all over Europe.
In particular, and even though there are localised contextual differences, access to affordable and decent housing is becoming increasingly difficult for more and more people. The young can’t afford leaving their parents’ home, migrants are discriminated against in the housing markets, the number of homeless people is increasing, and many from the middle class can barely afford decent housing.
The Local track will showcase excellent local, data and investigative reporting about housing being done around Europe, and it will bring together editors, journalists, academic researchers and other experts to discuss how their work on housing may end up having a greater impact on the public debate.
Would you like to discuss this further or network with other reporters about local collaboration and housing? Join the discussion at discussion.dataharvest.eu (conference participants only) – people are discussing there already!
Masterclass: Tactics of FOI in Europe – Thursday 16th of May 2019, 10-17
The Masterclass is a pre-conference opportunity of the European Investigative Journalism Conference & Dataharvest, taking place at the Thomas More University College in Mechelen.
Continue reading “Masterclass: Tactics of FOI in Europe – Thursday 16th of May 2019, 10-17”
OPENING KEYNOTE – Uncovering a Global €200 bn Money Laundering Scandal
Journalist Eva Jung from Danish newspaper Berlingske will open this year’s EIJC & Dataharvest with a keynote on how she and two colleagues uncovered one of history’s biggest money laundering cases.
Continue reading “OPENING KEYNOTE – Uncovering a Global €200 bn Money Laundering Scandal”
Reminder: Take the Survey on Cross-Border Journalism
Have you worked in a cross-border investigation? If so, help science! Annett Heft from the Weizenbaum Institute at the Freie Universität Berlin asks former participants’ support and experience!
Continue reading “Reminder: Take the Survey on Cross-Border Journalism”