May 2021: Invited to be a member of the advisory board of Re-Check, a Swiss nonprofit organization specialized in investigating and mapping health affairs.
March 2021: Next generation is coming! Two new textbook anthologies on investigative journalism published these days. For the English language Investigative Journalism 3rd Edition edited by Paul Lashmar and Hugo de Burgh I contributed a chapter on covering Europe and collaborative journalism. This book provides experience from practitioners describing trends in investigative journalism in the anglosaxon part of the world and beyond. In Danish language, editors Lene Rimestad and Jannie Møller Hartley offer an overview over Investigative Journalism Methods, structured along the work process from idea to publication. This anthology, too, is written by experienced practitions, and I contributed with a chapter on filing FOI requests in Denmark and the EU and with a chapter on cross-border collaborative journalism.
March 2021: The first Arena/Dataharvest pop-up session: The making of Open Lux, featuring Maxime Vaudano, Maxime Ferrer and Jeremie Baruch from Le Monde, who developed this crossborder, data journalism project. Open Lux unveils not only dodgy tax avoidance practices but also the structures allowing them.
March 2021: Why do cross-border journalism? And what are the obstacles? The cross-border journalism community as gathers at Dataharvest – the European Investigative Journalism Conference is becoming the object of acadamic study! Annett Heft from the Free University Berlin has interviewed “journalism pioneers” – Dataharvest participants and others to study cross-border journalism “from below”. In her article in the highly respected academic journal Journalism Studies, she looks at the why, the how, the advantages and disadvantages of cross-border journalism. A summary is available in German prepared by EJO-editor Tina Bettels-Schwabauer.
February 2021: Find myself in excellent company of co-authors with a chapter in the 3rd edition of Hugo de Burgh and Paul Lashmar’s Investigative Journalism text book by Routledge. My chapter is on journalism in and about The European Union and the rise of collaboration.
February 2021: Trying to make the point that reflection about the journalism we do is an integrated part of the work process in the last chapter of the N-Ost Playbook: The Importance of Following Up.
February 2021: Is foreign reporting in Germany too superficial? That was the question at the annual gathering of the journalists in North-Rhine-Westphalia/Germany. My argument: We’re in an era of massive change, in media and in journalism. There is a major renewal through #crossborder #collaborative #journalism, and rather than trying to adapt reporting about a given country, journalists now collaborate about topics of shared interest – such as tax evasion, for example.
February 2021: Cross-border journalism experience and inspiration is now being handed over to the next generation! I dearly enjoy accompanying precious and promising students at MIJ/University of Gothenburg and a big thank you to Bastian and Frederik Obermay/ier from Süddeutsche Zeitung for presenting their work with the Panama Papers investigation. Bastian and Frederik kindly agreed to an inspiring talk initiated by students themselves! In great collaboration with Ulla Sätereie and the rest of the MIJ-team.
December 2020: So it’s out – the big #moneytoburn collaboration. It’s the sad tale on how the rush towards green energy fuelled a European market for wood pellets to a level that threatens Estonian forrests. I feel a particular veneration for this team of 16 journalists from 8 newsrooms in 8 countries because I was there from the meeting where they first discussed the story idea and composed the team in February – kindly invited by the Töpfer Foundation. Arena provided a digital working environment to the cross-border team and I had the pleasure of being entrusted a mentoring role to the editorial coordinator, the competent Hazel Sheffield. UPDATE January 2021: Now also published in the Guardian and out there on Twitter where Greta Thunberg commented. Thanks to Hazel for crediting my role as mentor – it was a pleasure.
