TOL, in cooperation with the Czech Center for Investigative Journalism, will present a week-long course that will provide participants with an introduction to investigative reporting, with a special focus on economic crime and the benefits of data journalism. Over the course of the week, participants will hear lectures from some of the region’s top investigative journalists, led by the award-winning Paul Radu, the executive director of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting project. Trainees will also undertake a practical project while in Prague, using publicly available data to search for possible economic crime. They will complete article outlines and receive feedback from the instructors on how to pursue their stories to completion.

What will participants learn?

By tapping into the trainers’ first-hand experiences, participants will learn the essential skills of investigative reporting, including:

• How to organize a story, from start to finish;
• How to use tools for investigations, both traditional (business registers) and new (the Investigative Dashboard);
• A basic understanding of money laundering;
• The elements of digital security;
• The strategies of “power reporting”, finding and tracking connections among a society’s important players;
• Tactics for investigating organized crime through publicly accessible data;
• How to track companies across borders;
• How to interpret and visualize data (for beginners).

Plus, with the course’s special focus on Central and Eastern Europe, participants will learn:

Paul Radu

Paul Radu (@IDashboard) is the executive director of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and a co-creator of theInvestigative Dashboard concept, of the Visual Investigative Scenarios (VIS) visualization software, and of the RISE Project, a new platform for investigative reporters and hackers in Romania. He has held a number of fellowships, including the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship in 2001, the Milena Jesenska Press Fellowship in 2002, the Rosalyn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism in 2007, the 2008 Knight International Journalism Fellowship with the International Center for Journalists, and a 2009-2010 Stanford Knight Journalism Fellowship.  He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Knight International Journalism Award, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, the Global Shining Light Award, the Tom Renner Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, and the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting.

Laura Ranca

Laura Ranca works with the RISE Project, a community of investigative journalists, programmers, artists, and activists from Romania who investigate cross-border corruption and organized crime and develop advanced research and data visualization tools. Laura coordinates the development of Visual Investigative Scenarios(VIS), an online data visualization platform for representing complex information and networks. Her current work also includes research into the ownership of the mainstream media in Moldova and an investigation into the “shares trade” in three major Moldovan banks. Laura previously worked as a public communication officer with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and as a researcher with the Center for Media and Communications Studies (CMCS) in Budapest, Hungary.

Pavla Holcová

Pavla Holcová is the founder of the Czech Center for Investigative Journalism. Among other activities, she cooperates with investigative journalists in international projects through theOrganized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. She has been involved in cases concerning Serbian organized crime suspects, Russian investments in Montenegro, money laundering, and mapping offshore companies. Before founding the Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism, Pavla worked for six years at the People in Need humanitarian and human rights organization as the head of the Cuban section. In October, she was one of the co-recipients of the Global Shining Light Award for a series of articles on the illegal business activities of the Azerbaijani president and his family members.

Venue

The course will be held at space provided by Cafe Lajka, which is located at U Akademie 366/11, Prague 7 – Bubeneč.

Who should apply for the course?

How to apply?

We allocate places on a first come, first served basis, so please apply as early as possible. Here’s what you need to do:

Step 1

To apply for the course, complete the online application form including:

• A brief ‘statement of purpose’, stating your reasons for applying for the course and what you would like to gain by attending.
• A copy of your résumé (curriculum vitae).

Step 2

We will then consider your application and inform you of our decision within 5 days.

Step 3

Should your application be accepted, you will receive an email confirmation with payment instructions.

What did the participants say about our other courses?

To make sure that we maintain high standards, we asked students to fill out an evaluation form at the end of each course. We’re pleased to report that 100% of the students who completed the forms for our latest course, the TOL summer 2013 Foreign Correspondent course, said that they would recommend it to a friend or colleague. Here are a few quotes from them.

• “This has been a really inspiring week. I feel much more courageous. Thank you!”
• About the ‘life as a foreign correspondent’ session: “SO INSPIRING! Made me want to jump on the next plane anywhere. He really opened up the world. Nice balance of realism and optimism.”
• About the reporting project: “one of the best – if not the best – part of the course. Going in the field and confronting the real situation of being in a foreign country was a tremendous experience! It was the thing I liked the most and I want to congratulate the person who had the idea for this course!”
• About the photojournalism session: “A very useful session. I liked that it was a little technical, but not too much. Another aspect I liked was him taking us through a photo essay, photo by photo and explaining each photos purpose related to the others and the general story of the project.”
• About the ‘reporting for radio’ session: “I really enjoyed Mr. Cameron’s presentation. Before this, I had not considered working in this medium, but now I am excited to learn more and use this medium to improve income and tell different stories.”
• About the ‘covering conflict’ session: “Absolutely brilliant. An honest and informative lecture on what it takes to be a journalist and foreign correspondent.