Born 1966 in Germany, daughter of graphic designers Elisabeth and Gert Alfter.
1985 – Abitur from Rudolf-Steiner-Schule Wuppertal.
1985 – Moved to Skals, Denmark, chocolate worker.
1987-1991 – Car mechanic apprentice at Viborg and Århus Technical Schools and Piero’s Auto, Denmark.
1991-1992 – Car mechanic at Piero’s Auto, Århus, Denmark.
1993-1997 – Danish School of Journalism, Århus, Denmark.
1997-2001 – Local reporter, special reporter and the last two years leader of South Schleswig desk, Flensborg Avis, the Danish minority daily newspaper in Germany.
1999 – 2004 Interesting work on minorities in Austria when far-right party of Jörg Haider came into power in 2000 as one of my tasks as co-founder and deputy editor-in-chief of Eurolang, a European news agency about minority issues.
2001 – series of articles about Albanian virgins, about reconciliation, about Albanian hospitality and not least about medieval law “Kanun” in Northern Albania with photographer Lars Salomonsen.
2001-2003 – editor at Notat, a weekly about European affairs. Parted when editorial independence concept was changed.
2003-2004 – freelance journalist in Copenhagen. Focus on European affairs, media and minorities.
2003 – Co-founder of the Scoop project, a support structure for investigative journalists in the Balkans, the Ukraine and Moldova. Tools are peer-to-peer support, research grants and networking. The money – a bit more than 10 million Danish crowns in the period 2008-2012 – comes from the Danish government.
The Scoop model has functioned so well, that it since has been copied to three countries in the Caucasus, to Russia, two countries in Central Asia and five Western African countries. The initial development of the model was worked out in close cooperation with Henrik Kaufholz and Anne Haubek via Danish FUJ and in cooperation with IMS. Since 2008 I have been the Danish manager of the project coordinating the journalistic side of the project.
2004 – First work with FOI-requests on EU farmsubsidies at European level. In 2005 I co-founded the network Farmsubsidy.org along with European datajournalism pioneer Nils Mulvad amongst others. Filed an FOI-request for all EU-data on beneficiaries in 2004, was turned down by Commission the same year – wrongly, as the EU-ombudsmand stated in late 2007. Two court cases filed in Germany in 2005 lead to breakthrough stories in 2007 and helped improve case law in 2011.
2004-2008 – Brussels correspondent of Danish daily Information.
2007 – Co-founded Wobbing Europe with Ides Debruyne, the visionary leader of the Belgian Pascal Decroos Fund. Wobbing Europe is a network and website by and for journalists, who use freedom of information requests to get good, hard information for their stories. Until 2010 I was the editor of the website and network, in late 2010 Staffan Dahllöf joined me as co-editor.
Since 2008 – Freelance journalist in Copenhagen. Years of further work with cross-border research: The Big Pharma Lobby (2008) with Joop Bouma (NL) and Marleen Teugels (B). The Climate Change Lobby (2009) with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ICIJ (US). The Black Market in Bluefin Tuna (2010) with the ICIJ, read more at Journalisten.dk. Christoffer Guldbrandsen’s documentary on the selection of the first EU president, Præsidenten (2011) (DK). Spains 8 Billion Dollar Fish (2011) with the ICIJ.
2008 – Co-founded Journalismfund.eu with Ides Debruyne, where I hold the position of director with the task to establish and develop the model. Journalismfund.eu gives research grants to small teams of journalists for cross-border and European stories, the aim is to strengthen high quality journalism in Europe. In it’s advisory board Journalismfund.eu unites a large number of investigative journalism organisations and centres as well as individual journalists from all over Europe.
In irregular intervals I contribute to my two blogs about various aspects of journalism and transparency in Europe, the Watchdog Blog at the EUobserver is targetted towards a European audience, the Grænseoverskridende blog at the Danish journalists’ magazin Journalisten.dk targetted towards a Danish/Nordic audience.
