Opening Remarks: Richard Logan

Richard Logan, President of the Reva and David Logan Foundation, kicks off the 4th CIJ Logan Symposium: Collective Intelligence.

Opening remarks from Hatice Cengiz on the murder of her husband Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul and its implications for Saudi Arabia.

Hatice is a Turkish academic and researcher in middle Eastern studies, and has published academic articles and a book on Gulf Countries. She is the partner of slain Washington Post editorialist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Since that day, Hatice has campaigned for truth and justice in the killing of her fiancée, and for the international community to hold accountable those who ordered and planned the killing. She has testified her campaign to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the European Parliament, the US Congress, and various other national parliaments. Hatice has studied and lived in Egypt, Oman, Jordan and the United Kingdom.

What does it really mean to be an investigative journalist in the 21st Century, and how is the profession changing? Do the current threats to investigative journalism come from governments and the law, or from elsewhere – terrorists, mafia states, the purveyors of “disinformation” or the big technology companies, and foundations which increasingly fund it? What can we do to make our case to the public, and to keep journalism genuinely independent?

Featuring:

Edwy Plenel
Jennifer Robinson
Christophe Deloire.

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The opening session concludes with a keynote from Stella Moris, South Africa-born human rights lawyer, and the fiancée of Julian Assange and mother of his two children. Stella is fighting against Julian’s extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States.

Autumn 2020: The trials of Rui Pinto in Lisbon and Julian Assange in London, at almost exactly the same time and on similar charges, have made even more pressing the question of how to defend the new intermediaries working in and around investigative journalism to challenge power.
Featuring:

Clive Stafford Smith
William Bourdon

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Tyler Schultz is the whistleblower who first raised the alarm on Elizabeth Holmes's $10billion company Theranos. In conversation with Delphine Halgand-Mishra, Executive Director of The Signals Network, he discusses the experience of turning whistleblower against fashionable big business and venture capital, the legal archipelago which often confronts those who speak out, the experience of dealing with journalists, and the wider implications of the case.

Featuring:

Delphine Halgand-Mishra
Tyler Shultz

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Ai Weiwei in Conversation with Edward Snowden

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Executive Director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation presents the Foundation's work on their Press Freedom Tracker.

With the rise of the Gilets Jaunes and Black Lives Matter movements and the furores over police brutality everywhere from France to the US to Belarus, how best do we defend and protect freelance journalists from attack by police, government and the state?

Featuring:

Banjo Damilola
Eloïse Bajou
Jiayang Fan
Rebecca Vincent
Trevor Timm

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Dubbed by the media as "the biggest trial of fascists since Nuremberg", the trial of the Greek neo-nazis concluded in late October with the conviction of the organisation’s leadership in long prison sentences. This panel is a collaboration between the CIJ Logan Symposium and Reporters United.

Featuring:

Chrisa Papadopoulou
Ioanna Meitani
Ioannis Papadopoulos
Nikolas Leontopoulos
Stefanos Levidis

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From troves of leaked documents to huge datasets and scraped collations of public records, what are the priorities of those that need these resources to dig deeper and use the information to hold the powerful to account, and to what extent do those needs fit with the possibilities and opportunities available to the experts working to build, open and maintain them?

In this roundtable, investigative journalist Katherine Eban moderates an expert panel, drawn from those who both build and use such databases for investigative research. The participants address a whole range of relevant questions, including automation and AI, funding models, and the balances that need to be struck between source protection and transparency, or between technical functionality and front-end usability.

Featuring:

Delphine Reuter
Friedrich Lindenberg
Georg Neumann
Jacinta Gonzalez
Jack Poulson
Jeremy B. Merrill
Katherine Eban
Lieke Ploeger
Micah Lee
Naoise Boyle
Rebecca Lee
Steve Day

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Eyal Weizman, Director of Forensic Architecture discusses being banned from the US by algorithm with CIJ Director James Harkin.

Jack Poulson, Executive Director of the tech accountability non-profit Tech Inquiry gives a presentation on tech lobbying and his new work and research.

With the resort to facial recognition technology and algorithms by governments and the private sector, big data and the “artificial” intelligence required to process that data are being deployed without any real accountability. What can journalists and their allies do to investigate these opaque new technologies, and how can we support them?

Featuring:

April Glaser
Cory Doctorow
Eyal Weizman
Jack Poulson
Tim Maughan

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Doing investigative reporting in Italy can be dangerous and complex. Overall, Italian journalism lacks a strong investigative culture comparable to the one of the Anglo-Saxon world and, with some exceptions in broadcasting and other actors, Italian media tend to dedicate little attention to investigative reporting.

Featuring:

Alberto Nerazzini
Cecilia Anesi
Philip Di Salvo
Sasha Joelle Achilli

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OpenCorporates is the largest open database of companies in the world and the first port of call for any investigator wanting to find out information about a company. Rebecca Lee, Chief Impact Officer at OpenCorporates, introduces their mission and explains why it is critical that we all fight for open data about companies – their existence, ownership, activities and the people connected with them. As an ex-investigator, she takes us through how to use their website and some useful tips and tricks.

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Siarhei Satsuk, is Editor of the online newspaper Yezhednevnik and is well known for his investigative reporting on Belarus’ healthcare system. For the last three years Satsuk has focused on uncovering corruption inside the Ministry of Health in Belarus. On March 25 2020, officers of the State Control Committee, which oversees the country’s financial investigations, detained Satsuk for his reporting. He faced up to ten years in prison for an editorial casting doubt on the official Covid-19 statistics and criticising an order issued by President Alexander Lukashenko to “deal with” media outlets that are “sowing panic” about the epidemic. Most recently he has published a series of investigations exposing a huge level of corruption in the state procurement of drugs and medical devices. The investigations lead to some high level officials in the law enforcement agencies and even to Lukashenko’s eldest son.

Here he speaks about his experiences reporting on the pandemic in Belarus.

Have the convulsions of Covid-19 opened to the door to a creeping censoriousness, surveillance and authoritarianism? Are big tech companies shutting down debate and stoking conspiracy theories by excluding controversial voices, and is the technology for coronavirus surveillance and the social measures to combat it as useful as it seems?

Featuring:

Barbora Bukovská
David Rose
Martin Williams

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Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi discusses his experience of being detained by the UK's counter terrorism police for his research into the Islamic State.

How far should a journalist go when it comes to investigating radical Islamism, and what are the dangers? What methods work best - undercover reporting online, the interpretation of documents, social media analysis, documentary or on-the-ground reporting?

Featuring:

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
James Harkin
Janina Findeisen
Kevin B. Lee
Tam Hussein

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Few people have put the Freedom of Information Act to such good use in pursuit of the public interest as Jason Leopold, the investigative journalist the FBI referred to as a ‘FOIA Terrorist’.

In this Masterclass Jason shares his experience, as he explains how to navigate the often complex request and appeals process of the US FOI Act; get access to documents and data for your own stories; and help to push forward transparency and accountability for everyone.

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From the NSO Group to Wirecard via the activities of groups like Black Cube, Hacking Team and FinFisher, the last few years have seen a worrying trend - especially in collaborative, cross-border investigation - for governments and shady corporates to deploy spyware and private investigators to hack the phones of journalists and political dissidents.

Featuring:

Dan McCrum
John Scott-Railton
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
Runa Sandvik

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Moderated by Tatiana Bazzichelli, this talk on how open-source intelligence tools and collective strategies reconfigure investigations brings together investigative television journalist Natalie Sedletska, software artisan and ethical hacker Denis “Jaromil” Roio, and data team lead at OCCRP Friedrich Lindenberg.

Featuring:

Denis Roio
Friedrich Lindenberg
Natalie Sedletska
Tatiana Bazzichelli

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The global response to COVID-19 has put procurement in the spotlight. Masks, school lunches, potholes: that’s where the government put taxpayer’s money to work. Globally, US $13 trillion is spent on contracts with private companies.

This session explores tactics and tools to investigate public procurement and provide tips for monitoring red flags and using public data provided by the government. Georg Neumann from the Open Contracting Partnership looks into specific case studies and share some of the most outrageous stories.

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Nearly a decade ago, while investigating the possibility that the United States had used biological weapons in the Korean War, one of America’s most inventive and challenging novelists Nicholson Baker requested a series of Air Force documents under the provisions of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Thus began the odyssey of non-discovery and a frustrating paper trail in search of the truth which he documents in his new book Baseless. For Symposium Baker talks about the limits of FOIA and what can be done about them.

Presentation: Nicholson Baker vs the CIA Nearly a decade ago, while investigating the possibility that the United States had used biological weapons in the Korean War, one of America’s most inventive and challenging novelists Nicholson Baker requested a series of Air Force documents under the provisions of the U.S.

Featuring:

Ian Cobain
Jason Leopold
Nabiha Syed
Nicholson Baker
Paul O’Connor

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Opening speeches from the 2018 CIJ Logan Symposium.

Featuring:

Patrick Loughrey, Warden of Goldsmiths, University of London
Richard Logan, President The Reva & David Logan Foundation
James Harkin, Director of The Centre for Investigative Journalism

Footage shot on 19 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Many serious reporters now make their living as freelancers, with even less support than they enjoyed before. With mafia states, organised crime, and international jihadism circling the profession, what are the contemporary occupational hazards for independent journalists, and what can be done to protect them?

Featuring:

Chair, Sarah Giaziri, Director Frontline Freelance Register
Laurent Richard, Founder Forbidden Stories
Pavla Holcova, Founder Czech Center for Investigative Journalism
May Jeong, Investigative Journalist
Michael Scott Moore, Investigative Journalist and Author

Footage shot on 20 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

From official British censorship during the Troubles to the “chilling effect” involved in navigating the peace, getting to the truth about the conflict in Northern Ireland has never been easy, and may even be growing more difficult. In a climate thick with political sensitivities and legal intimidation, a writer, a reporter and a documentary-maker talk about how best to get to the truth in Northern Ireland, and what stands in the way.

Featuring:

Ed Moloney, Investigative Journalist, Author and Filmmaker.
Sinead O'Shea, Journalist and Director of "A Mother Brings Her Son"
Eoin McNamee, Author "The Vogue"
James Harkin, Director The Centre for Investigative Journalism

Footage shot on 20 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

A presentation from veteran investigative journalist and documentary film-maker Ed Moloney on the challenges of reporting the troubles.

Footage shot on 20 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

A presentation on The Yemen Data Project from investigative journalist Iona Craig.

Footage shot on 20 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

A presentation on how artistic methods can be used to subvert censorship.

Featuring:
Molly Crabapple, Author and Illustrator "Brothers of the Gun"

Footage shot on 19 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

On 4 April 2017 the release of toxic chemicals killed scores of people in the Northern Syrian city of Khan Sheikhoun. The OPCW attributed the deaths to the Syrian Air Force. Two investigative experts bring very different tools try to shed light on what happened that day, followed by a conversation between them.

Featuring:

Theodore Postol, Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology and National Security Policy at MIT.
Eliot Higgins, Founder Bellingcat.
Moderated by James Harkin, Director The Centre for Investigative Journalism.

Footage shot on 20 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

A presentation on the misuse of Schedule 7 of the UK Terrorism Act (2000) and the work of the grassroots advocacy organisation CAGE.

Featuring:

Muhammad Rabbani, International Director CAGE

Footage shot on 19 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

While the United States is well-known for its draconian punishments for hackers, the United Kingdom is quietly following suit. Using examples from their own work, hackers, activists, and journalists discuss the legal framework which governs cyber crime on both sides of the Atlantic, and why we should all be worried.
Featuring:

Gabriella Coleman, Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill University.
Lauri Love, Hacktivist.
Barrett Brown, Founder Pursuance Project.
Mustafa Al-Bassam, Security Researcher and Co-Founder LulzSec.
Naomi Colvin, Whistleblower Advocate Blueprint for Free Speech.

Footage shot on 20 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The first panel of the symposium investigates the landscape of contemporary surveillance and official secrecy in the UK, the US and beyond.

Chair: Betsy Reed, Editor The Intercept

Duncan Campbell, Veteran Investigative Journalist
John Goetz, ARD-Hauptstadtstudio
Ian Cobain, The Guardian

Footage shot on 19 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

A presentation on the cultural history of the hacking movement from Gabriella Coleman.

Footage shot on 20 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

A presentation on source protection from Pulitzer Prize winner Frederik Obermaier.

Footage shot on 20 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

A thicket of legislation in the UK and US aims to frustrate whistleblowers, and the digital era throws up whole new threats to their interests. What is the best way to protect whistleblowers, both before they make the decision to speak to a journalist and once the story is published?

Featuring:

Frederik Obermaier, Süddeutsche Zeitung
Stéphanie Gibaud, UBS Whistleblower
Jesselyn Radack, Expose Facts
Delphine Halgand, The Signals Network
Chair: Julie Posetti, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford University

Footage shot on 20 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Data is often described as the new oil. Technology companies are the gatekeepers of this wealth of information; many also own the algorithms and artificial intelligence required to extract and refine it. In the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, is “surveillance capitalism” simply the business model of the internet? What is its effect on journalism and democracy, and our understanding of truth itself?

Featuring:

Yasha Levine, Author of Surveillance Valley
Andy Mueller-Maguhn, Founder Data Travel Agency
Andrew Orlowski, Editor, The Register
Chair: Will Davies, Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Centre

Footage shot on 19 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The American authorities are increasingly resorting to The Espionage Act 1917 to prosecute journalists, and the British Government prepares its own Espionage Act which conflates journalists, whistleblowers and spies. As TV channels and NGO’s are asked to register as a “foreign agents” and Wikileaks is identified as a “hostile intelligence service”, we ask questions about the relationship between journalism and espionage. Are journalists still being used as spies and informants by intelligence agencies? How best can we best protect ourselves and those we work with against the allegation of spying?

Featuring:

Anna Belkina, Deputy Editor in Chief RT
Stefania Maurizi, la Repubblica
Betsy Reed, Editor The Intercept
Gill Phillips, Director of Editorial Legal Services for The Guardian
Paul Lashmar, City University

Footage shot on 19 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

As Italian investigative journalist, Stefania Maurizi, started a multi-jurisdictional FOIA litigation she experienced a true Odyssey. Three years later, the litigation is still ongoing. What do the UK, Swedish, US and Australian governments have to hide on Julian Assange and Wikileaks?

Featuring:

Stefania Maurizi, la Repubblica

Footage shot on 19 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

A presentation on the work of The Murder Accountability Project.

Featuring:

Thomas Hargrove, Founder The Murder Accountability Project

Footage shot on 19 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

From art to architecture, investigative journalism is increasingly borrowing from other disciplines and sources of professional expertise for its presentation and, sometimes, its research. Aesthetic journalism opens up fruitful new avenues for investigation and storytelling, but what are the issues that it raises?

Featuring:

Chair: Natalie Kane, Curator of Digital Design at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Eyal Weizman, Director Forensic Architecture
Molly Crabapple, Artist and Author "Brothers of the Gun"
Charlotte Cook, Co Founder Field of Vision

Footage shot on 20 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

A presentation of new investigative methods from Forensic Architecture.

Featuring:
Eyal Weizman, Director Forensic Architecture

Footage shot on 19 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

What is the evidence that the Russian Government colluded with the Trump campaign and pro-Brexit campaigners to win the 2016 Presidential Election and the UK Referendum in the same year? Is there a real and growing body of evidence of Russian disinformation, collusion and assassination, or are we witnessing a new Cold War mentality in which the country is blamed for all of our woes?

Featuring:

Glenn Greenwald, Co-Founding Editor, The Intercept
James Risen, National Security Correspondent, The Intercept
Jane Bradley, Investigations Correspondent, BuzzFeed News
Mary Dejevsky, The Independent
Chair: Vanessa Gezari, National Security Editor, The Intercept

Footage shot on 19 October 2018 at The Centre for Investigative Journalism's Logan Symposium: Conspiracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The presentation of the Whistler's 2018 Gavin MacFadyen Memorial Award to Andrew Hosken.

Presented by Eileen Chubb and Susan Benn.

Julian Assange talk for the CIJ Logan 2014

Julian Assange - Guide to Whistleblowers

The inaugural talk by CIJ founder, held at The Barbican centre London in December 2014.