Last Saturday morning at 5am, as many were winding down from their BNO, I was gearing up for my first trip ever to Luton Airport. If I had to compare it to the other London airports I’d say it was the size of Gatwick with the vibe of Stansted, but that’s beside the point. I was on the 8am flight to Glasgow to attend a workshop day hosted by the Centre For Investigative Journalism (CIJ). Tiring though it was, I’m so glad I made the journey.
For a while now, I’ve wanted to learn how to take my research skills to the next level so that when I’m working on stories, I get more information than from a basic Google search. I want to write longer form articles (3000-worders not just 800) that allow me to really tell a story, interrogate a subject or expose the truth — and these require investigative skills.
My most investigative stories have all been commissioned as features with word limits of 800-1200 words — and I’ve broken the limits every time. They have also been the most satisfying to write, whether it’s uncovering the untold story of a Soviet theatre icon, getting all the gossip about Thomas Straker, or exposing the DVSA for their incompetence.
I’m working on a piece right now about an American actress’ fiancé that I cannot wait to share when it’s published because it’s been months in the making. And thanks to the CIJ event, I’ve found out information about the fiancé that I never would have otherwise. So, what did I actually learn on the day?
The first talk was called Tips for Investigative Journalists, given by Martin Tomkinson — a veteran with 50 years’ experience exposing financial crime and an expert user of Companies House.
Martin represents an entirely different era of journalism (he’s in his seventies) but lots of his advice rings true today. I felt like I was nodding and agreeing with him on a lot of what he said, rather than learning any new practical skills, but the later talks offered that in abundance.
Key points from Martin:
Always check your facts. This sounds obvious, but the amount of times I’ve read my copy back without questioning the statements I’ve written, or I’ve misremembered where I got a “fact” from and let an inaccuracy slip through the net… so check and check again.
Never assume. If your editor has to ask for clarification about something in your copy and you don’t immediately have the answer, you’ve assumed something — and you can’t publish something as fact if it’s an assumption.
Never rush. You’re only as good as your last article, so push back if your editor is rushing you to a deadline. It’s your name on the article at the end of it all and you don’t want it attached to work riddled with errors or legal issues.
The best scoops I ever got were over a pint at the pub. This is a romantic old world view of what journalism is, but I did get my scoop about the American actress’ fiancé at a dinner party… And, I’m meeting someone for a pint on Monday for an off-the-record conversation that I hope will turn into an on-the-record investigative article. Basically — talking to new people and just listening to what they have to say will lead to more stories than you realise if you train your ear.
The second talk was called Investigating Companies with Maxence Peigné, a journalist working for Investigate Europe. His presentation was a treasure trove of free databases that he recommends digging through to find stories.
Here are a few that have already helped me in my article research:
sec.gov/edgar/search (US equivalent of Companies House)
opencorporates.com (a global database of registered companies)
aleph.occrp.org (for offshore documents)
The third talk of the day was called OSINT: Uncovering Digital Footprints by Sarah Cammarata. OSINT stands for Open Source Intelligence. It basically means how to use publicly available resources online like databases and all types of social media to gather more information than a Google search or profile stalk would yield.
Sarah works in corporate intelligence and it sounds like her work is very interesting. So interesting in fact that her company does not exist on LinkedIn… Anyway, Sarah showed us how to get archived webpages from deleted websites, how to find a person’s profile after they’ve changed their username multiple times, and other tips and tricks for investigating people or businesses online.
The penultimate talk was on Supply Chain Investigations with freelance journalist and author Tansy Hoskins, who specialises in investigating the fashion industry. She and a local reporter managed to expose fashion brands that were forcing factory workers in Guatemala to keep making garments in April 2020 during the first lockdown leading to major COVID outbreaks and deaths. While the local reporter Tansy was working with spoke to workers on the ground, she was tracking freely available shipping trackers and supplier lists published online by the guilty brands.
Last of all was a talk by Imogen Barrer, Head of Investigations & Special Projects at ITV News. She led the investigations into Partygate, Britain’s social housing scandal, and the UK’s hidden homelessness crisis. When she played the clips of the Partygate and social housing scandal during her presentation, they were just as powerful as when I watched them the day they aired.
The talk was meant to end at 5pm but it overran and I couldn’t stay any longer because the last train back to London was at 5:30pm. I snuck off with a head full of information, ideas and inspiration to propel me towards a new investigation.
The workshop day has already helped me find some information that I thought I would not be able to access in corners of the internet that were always there — I just needed to know where to look.