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2025-08-15 15:00:24

It was July 8, 2025 when journalists from the Spanish data journalism organization Civio went to the Supreme Court in Madrid for a hearing to fight for transparency. The cause? A years-long project to investigate how an algorithm used by the government decides who is eligible for low-income electricity payment works — and to understand why it sometimes fails.

The team at Civio has been trying for years to get the authorities to share the source code behind the algorithm, but unsuccessfully.

The court is still deliberating, and the outlet expects a decision imminently. If they win the case, they believe it will establish a new transparency standard in Spain.

“Whatever happens, our commitment is unwavering,” the team wrote in a recent newsletter. “We will continue to report and monitor public algorithms and demand accountability, because we know that what you can’t see, you can’t control.”

This case, known as BOSCO because of the Spanish term for the payment is “bono social,” is one out of eight court-cases Civio has been involved in in recent years, all of the same nature and with the same goal — to open up data to the public.

This crusade for transparency was part of the initial idea behind Civio, which was founded by David Cabo, a software engineer and open data expert, and Jacobo Elosua, an entrepreneur with a banking and investment background, back in 2012.

Cabo had been living in the UK, where that country’s freedom of information laws had been working “very well, so I wanted to do something like that,” he tells GIJN. “At that time, Spain was one of the few countries in Europe that didn’t have an access to information law.”

Just two years after Civio was founded, in 2014, Spain enacted the Law on Transparency, and one of Civio’s first battles had been won.

Although the passing of the law was a cause of celebration, it soon became clear that opening up data alone was not enough.

“Initially, they believed that opening up data… would have some impact,” explains Eva Belmonte, Civio’s co-director, who spent nearly a decade working for El Mundo before joining the team. “Over time, they realized that publishing data wasn’t enough. Data needed to tell a story.”

Marrying Cabo’s passion for data with Belmonte’s experience as a reporter brought them new avenues — and ever-growing reach.

As Cabo explains: “We made a great team working together on investigations, because when I saw data, I could sense what could be interesting for a journalist, and Eva, being a journalist, was also able to understand a little of what was technically possible. It’s important that journalism and the technical side talk to each other and that each understands the needs or possibilities of the other to design an investigation together.”

With mutual understanding, they began pushing the boundaries to become an impactful player in the Spanish media landscape. Civio, which was registered as a Madrid-based nonprofit, has been a pioneer of data journalism in Spain, handling long-term data-based investigations with real impact.

Nowadays, they have 10 staff members, a network of collaborators, and more than 2,000 associates that help fund their work through an annual or monthly subscription. And there has been recognition, too, with national and international awards to their name, such as the Gabriel García Márquez Prize, the Premio Rey de España, and Sigma Awards for data journalism. CIVIO joined GIJN not long after its founding in 2012, and is a member of the European Data Journalism Network (EDJNet).

Data as Public Interest Tool 

A graph showing the number of pardons granted in Spain by year. After the investigation was published, the numbers dropped dramatically — see the years in green. The interactive tool let users search for pardons granted according to the type of crime, compare annual data, and evaluate how different governments made use of this privilege. Image: Screenshot, Civio

One of their iconic and most impactful investigations was an early one — The Pardonometer, or El Indultómetro in Spanish — which dug into how pardons were being used in the justice system and how “forgiveness has evolved over time.” The team extracted information from the Official State Gazette (BOE), analyzed it, visualized it, and revealed how the system works and how, in some cases, pardons were being misused.

“Previously, pardons were only discussed when there was a controversial one. But we compiled all the data: how many pardons, what crimes, how long it takes, who is pardoned,” Belmonte explains. “It was the first time context was put into it and that had a huge impact: the number of pardons suddenly dropped, because suddenly it became clear that it wasn’t an exceptional event, but an everyday occurrence.”

Belmonte had started digging into the data hidden with the BOE before joining Civio, and finding interesting stories in it. “BOE seemed to me like a treasure trove for journalism that no one was reviewing,” she says.

Although Civio works on long-term projects, some of them lasting for a number of years, they still keep an eye on the Official Gazette, keeping it as one of their special beats.

Another thing that distinguishes Civio from a traditional newsroom is their focus. “We’re focused on the public sector: on everything related to the public sector, and not from a general critical perspective, like ‘the public sector is bad,’ but the other way around,” Belmonte explains. “We believe that we must take care of the public sector, and to take care of it, we must monitor it: that public resources are used well, that healthcare works, that there is no corruption.”

They spend a lot of time becoming experts on a certain topic and only then start to publish. Projects have focused on health, the environment, public spending, technology, public contracts, and on secret governmental advisors, a topic for which they have been struggling to get data for years. Along with Pardonometer, projects like Where Do my Taxes Go? (¿Dónde van mis impuestos?) and Spain on Fire (España en llamas) also had a huge impact. Spain on Fire was the first database offering data in context to show what was happening with the forest fires ripping through parts of the country: where they were happening, when, how many, and how often.

“We don’t use data to corroborate a theory, but to understand what’s happening in a given area, without preconceived notions,” Belmonte says. In general, Civio’s impact has been in making public information accessible and understandable. “Information that was widely discussed, but without context or analysis,” she added. And their guiding light throughout all these projects? “Let the data speak.”

Eva Belmonte and David Cabo speaking about the BOSCO investigation. Image: Courtesy of Civio

Grappling with Data 

Journalists from Civio usually ask for data using FOIA, but that can become part of the struggle, with some requests for information leading to multiple court cases and years-long processes. Sometimes, the team notes, there isn’t a single source for data so they have to build everything from scratch.

One example was when Cabo programmed a robot to call every 30 minutes the helpline for people needing assistance with the minimum living income support payment — the ingreso mínimo vital. For 17 days, no one answered. “Social measures are useless if they do not reach those who need them most,” the team wrote, following that investigation.

“If you pose an unanswered question and build a foundation for answering it, the approach changes completely and has much more value. It’s a different level. It’s more fun, too,” says Belmonte.

And even when they get the data, it’s not always plain sailing: sometimes the format is unusable, or different regions in the country collect data in different ways so they spend weeks cleaning it and looking for a way to use it.

In recent newsletters, Adrián Maqueda, a data journalist in charge of analysis and visualization at Civio, has set out the challenge of updating the databases they have when the authorities change the methodology and way of collecting data.

For data analysis and visualizations, they use programming languages such as R, Python, and Javascript.

“The good thing here is that each visualization is created with a specific topic in mind. We can reuse parts of the code or certain elements, but each visualization is created from scratch based on the information we have — everything is super personalized, super specific, new, and handcrafted,” said Maqueda.

This personalized approach can be seen not only in the way of doing work, but also in their relation with readers and supporters.

Keeping your Readers Close

An event for Civio supporters. Image: Courtesy of Civio

Civio started developing its associates program in 2017, with the idea that it could become a more significant source of funding and that there could be benefits to having readers directly financing their journalism. Today, around 35-40% of their budget — which is published annually, true to their campaign for openness — comes from this program, another 40-45% from private funding sites like European AI Fund, Civitates, and Limelight. The rest comes from European projects.

“We started by holding annual meetings with our supporters in the office at Christmas, first with 20 people, then 50, then growing. People knew our office, our refrigerator, the bathroom, knew where we worked, and we could get to know each other,” remembers Javier de Vega, journalist and communication officer at Civio, and a team member from the very beginning. “That’s a very nice thing, and although it’s harder to maintain that close relationship as we grow, we still try to maintain it.”

Civio has been recognized as an organization that always goes one step further, developing multiple tools to help readers navigate their way through complex legislation, creating video games, and being very transparent with their methodology and data.

“For example, when we investigate public contracts we make that database available to organizations that monitor corruption or we create an interactive video game to explain how difficult it is to obtain European citizenship, with engaging and easy-to-understand information,” de Vega explains.

When they were doing the investigation on the social bonus story, they created an app so people can easily find out if they are eligible for this support. It took three months to understand the regulations, but the impact and usefulness was clear: it has been used more than 1.5 million times since 2019. That “usefulness” is something they are very proud of — but it is also valued by their associates and builds trust.

“With the minimum living income or the social bonus tools, we make an extra effort to reach vulnerable people who truly need help. We contact more than 250 NGOs, social services, and associations that use our tools to directly help people,” de Vega explains. “One NGO set up a call center to help people apply for the social bonus using our app, helping 17,000 people.”

Democracies Also Struggle with Open Data and Media Trust

While Spain ranked relatively highly on the 2025 Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Global Press Freedom Index — 23rd place, out of 180 — both RSF and the team at Civio think there is room for improvement.

RSF notes that press freedom is “threatened by an increase in abusive lawsuits (SLAPPs) and the political targeting of journalists,” while Civio suggests the government can be slow to collaborate or respond.

“You have to fight for every piece of information, and when you do get the data, it’s bad. Sometimes even the judges are ignored,” Belmonte explains. “These processes take a long time: the transparency process can take a year, and then the trial, four more, so when the information arrives, it doesn’t matter anymore — we do it more to set a precedent than for the content itself.”

Eduardo Suárez, the head of editorial at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, and a former reporter for Spanish newspaper El Mundo, said that despite Spain’s transparency law, the government sometimes acts “as if the law didn’t exist.”

That, he said, makes Civio important in the media ecosystem.

“Civio stands out for the quality of its work, with a focus on investigative journalism, promoting transparency in government, and holding power to account,” he says. “They are a rare organization in Spain, where so many outlets are hyper-partisan. Their work is thorough and crucial for democracy and they punch way above their weight.”

Ana Ćurić is a freelance investigative and data journalist from Serbia, based in Spain. She has worked with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, Investigate Europe, and OCCRP, and her work has been shortlisted for both national and international investigative journalism awards. She holds a Master’s degree in Advanced Journalism and is currently completing a PhD in Communication at Blanquerna – Universidad Ramon Llull in Barcelona. 

2025-08-14 17:54:54

Portraits of the legacy of mining on an Indigenous community in Colombia. A data project that unveils the number of migrants who have perished crossing the Rio Bravo. A journalist driven into exile for uncovering stories of the disappeared and state violence in El Salvador. An investigation revealing apartheid-style policies in the Dominican Republic targeting Haitians and their descendants.

These were just some of the powerful stories featured at the 2025 Gabo Festival, which took place in the Colombian capital Bogotá.

Held from July 24 to 27, this year’s Gabo gathering once again proved to be one of the most important gatherings of journalists from across Latin America. Drawing media professionals from the region, as well as from Spain, Portugal, the Middle East, and beyond, the festival served as a space for deep dialogue, renewed connections, and bold visions for a sustainable and impactful future of journalism.

One of the most poignant moments came during the announcement of the 2025 Gabo Awards for Excellence. Mónica González, the celebrated Chilean journalist and president of the Gabo Foundation’s Governing Council, told the audience: “Journalists are a light of hope to build a world in which everyone has the right to exist and to express themselves.”

Her words resonated even more deeply as the festival highlighted some of the most urgent challenges facing journalism today, particularly in Latin America, including violence, disinformation, democratic backsliding, migration, the climate crisis, and the growing volatility of digital ecosystems.

Chilean journalist Mónica González, second from the right, delivered remarks at the announcement of the 2025 Gabo Awards for Excellence. Photo: Andrea Arzaba

Five Outstanding Stories

The festival celebrated five winning pieces, one for each of the categories: audio, image, photography, coverage, and text. The selected pieces stood out among more than 2,100 entries submitted from all over the region.

The coverage award went to Rio Bravo, the Waters of a Thousand Dead Migrants, a cross-border investigation led by Mexican journalist Miriam Ramírez in collaboration with El Universal, The Washington Post, and Lighthouse Reports. Combining forensic evidence, government records, and personal testimonies, the project revealed how military strategies by Mexico and the United States have transformed the Rio Bravo into a deadly route for migrants.

Humo: Murder and Silence in El Salvador, a podcast produced by professionals from El Salvador and Mexico for Sonoro and Revista Factum, was recognized in the audio category. The series opens with the story of a serial killer but quickly expands into a deeper investigation, revealing state negligence, press suppression, and the erosion of democratic institutions. Backlash from the courageous reporting eventually forced Salvadoran reporter Bryan Avelar into exile.

The winning piece in the text category was Searching for Mikelson: An Apartheid in the Caribbean, written by Juan Martínez d’Aubuisson and published by Redacción Regional and Dromómanos. The story starts with a disturbing video showing police pushing a man off a rooftop, an image that leads to a powerful investigation into systemic racial discrimination against Haitians in the Dominican Republic.

“In the Heat: Stories of a Reggaetón Warrior,” a documentary by Cuban director Fabien Pisani, was the image category winner. The film follows a pioneer of Cuban reggaetón, whose music confronted state censorship during a time of deep social crisis.

Yolüja, by Colombian photojournalist Fernanda Pineda, was given the photography prize. The series explores the psychological, spiritual, and environmental toll of coal extraction on Indigenous lands.

Additionally, the festival paid tribute to three exceptional figures in Latin American journalism, each recognized with the 2025 Gabo Award for Excellence:

• Argentina: Laura Zommer, director of Chequeado, for her pioneering work in fact-checking in the age of disinformation.
• Brazil: Patrícia Campos Mello for her reporting on disinformation, political violence, and human rights.
• Venezuela: Armando.info for their important investigations into corruption and organized crime, continuing even in exile.

Andrea Arzaba is GIJN’s Spanish editor and director of the Digital Threats project. She holds a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and a BA from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. Her work has appeared in Palabra, Proceso Magazine, Animal Politico, and 100 Reporters, among other media outlets.

2025-08-14 01:14:40

Apply for the position here.

2025-08-14 01:13:38

Code for Africa (CfA) has immediate vacancies for a full-time bilingual Community Coordinator (French and English speaking), to join our Communities team. This role can be based in one of our hubs in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda, though exceptional candidates from other African countries will also be considered.

Candidates must have demonstrable experience in community management or a related field, project management skills, and excellent written and verbal communication skills. Bilingual applicants in French and English will have an advantage.

The role offers an exciting opportunity to help nurture CfA’s Communities of Practice(CoP). CfA’s Communities Team is building and nurturing CfA’s flagship networks, such as the africanDRONE community, African Fact-Checking Alliance network (ACFA), Hacks/Hackers, sensors.AFRICA network (EcoSense Collective), WanaData, and the African Wikipedian Alliance (AWA) and the Wikipedian-in-residence (WiR) community, with a network of more than 1500 members across Africa. These networks engage professionals from various fields such as journalism, data science, fact-checking, technology, research, and more.

The successful candidates will work as part of a multinational and multilingual team using digital collaboration tools to create content for a global audience and international media partners.

See vacancy

2025-08-14 01:10:03

We are seeking an experienced researcher with extensive knowledge of tracking down public records in Ukraine to support our partners and projects in the region. We are looking for someone with a proven track record of doing investigative research and are open to candidates coming from journalism, law, finance or a related field. This is a remote position, but regular calls require you to be in a timezone between UTC and UTC-4, ideally in Ukraine.

Our Research and Data Team is the brainpower behind OCCRP ID, a service that helps investigative journalists in the OCCRP network conduct research quickly and effectively. You will join a team of research and data experts who use a combination of commercial and self-compiled databases, coding skills, as well as publicly available open sources, to help journalists track down people, companies, and assets anywhere in the world and build out data-heavy investigations.

See vacancy

2025-08-13 15:00:53

After Hurricane Ida slammed into the southern coast of the US in 2021, AP reporter Michael Biesecker asked several environmental regulators for information about oil spills from hurricane damage to petrochemical facilities in the region. All of the agencies replied to say they were unaware of any spills.

As a climate reporter, Biesecker knew that research aircraft from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration routinely overfly affected areas in the aftermath of hurricanes, so he immediately scrolled through the latest images posted to the NOAA website, looking for “rainbow sheen” associated with slicks. He quickly found two major spills in the Gulf of Mexico near the Louisiana coast, and effectively alerted national and local agencies — as well as the owner of the relevant refinery — to these disasters by emailing them screenshots. Then he broke the news that divers had identified a ruptured 30cm-diameter undersea pipe as the source of the offshore slick.

In 2023, he used satellite images and other investigative techniques to find the climate change-fueled causes of the lethal Maui wildfire in just four days — more than a year before government agencies reached the same conclusion.

Biesecker says it’s increasingly important for reporters to do their own incident investigations like these, in an era in which populist governments and oligarch-influenced sectors actively limit the gathering, storage, and dissemination of climate-related information.

At the other end of the impact chain, fellow climate reporters, such as Nina Elkadi, an investigative reporter at Sentient, say it’s also important to be more creative when interviewing victims, with many either influenced by disinformation, or uncomfortable with the topic, or fearful of repercussions, ranging from social media harassment to potential forced relocation.

Evidence of a miles-long post-hurricane oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that the Associated Press identified from NOAA images and emailed to government agencies. Image: Screenshot, Associated Press, NOAA

Source Development Techniques for Climate-Related Stories

These were among a wealth of tools and techniques described at the recent Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in the US, which encouraged deeper digging on climate issues with several major sessions on the topic. In a panel on “Investigating Climate Change,” Biesecker was joined by Tracy Wholf, a senior coordinating producer of environmental coverage for CBS News and Stations, and Allison Prang, a freelance journalist who focuses on climate issues. And Elkadi’s panel on “Crafting Climate Investigations with Legal Documents” also featured Audrey Mei Yi Brown, an environmental health equity reporter at the San Francisco Public Press, and Luis Méndez González, an award-winning environmental investigative reporter for Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism.

Both these panels noted that lawsuits — and the plaintiffs’ attorneys behind them — are a rich, underused source of climate-related stories, and that exhibits and footnotes often offer terrific detail on incidents of climate-related harm.

But Brown, who uses they/them pronouns, defined a common problem reporters encounter when engaging with the victims of impacts: “We are often interviewing people who don’t think they’re at the center of a climate story.”

As a result, several speakers suggested a surprising technique for identifying harms and disparities in incident response: chit-chat, and even gossip.

“Gossip may have a negative connotation in the social world, but in the world of environmental investigations, I think it’s one of the most important tools,” they said. “Gossiping with your sources about what’s going on in their small town; does this city councilor maybe have something to do with this polluting facility; you may hear that this or that is ‘probably’ going on. That’s where a lot of these story threads start for me, allowing that open dialogue before or after the interview.”

For instance, gossip with residents or union members can offer clues to a later discovery that toxic clean-ups are taking much longer to happen in marginalized communities within the same city.

Elkadi noted that it is sometimes advisable not to mention “climate change” at all in interviews with skeptical, non-expert sources.

“Farmers know more about the weather than most of us — it’s core to their job — and I find just talking about the weather is a really helpful strategy in learning about what is going on with their situation,” said Elkadi. “In many cases, saying “Oh, that’s because of climate change, right?’ can derail conversations for me. What sources say will speak for itself, and the context will speak for itself in the reporting. It can be better to frame it in terms of ‘Has this gotten worse over recent years?’”

For Biesecker, climate change is the major topic of our age — and newsrooms should therefore try to treat every news beat as a climate beat.

“It’s about accountability, so it’s really important to try to have an investigative mindset on climate issues,” he argued. “And climate cuts across the newsroom. So if you’re covering the school board, are they planning to install new HVAC systems to deal with warmer summers? If you’re covering city hall and they’re planning new roads, are they talking about roads being built higher than the old roads due to the risks of increased flooding?”

Biesecker offered the following tips to help power climate incident investigations:

• Secure a channel to experts and officials. If you don’t already have a Premium LinkedIn account, fill in a simple online form to apply for a free, messaging-enabled LinkedIn for Journalists account to find experts and current and former officials. Freelancers can also apply, by including work samples on the form. “LinkedIn is your friend for source outreach,” he said. “A free premium LinkedIn for Journalists account lets you find and message the right people in this space.”

• Learn the basic science of climate change and what is known. Biesecker recommends the book “What we know about climate change,” by MIT atmospheric scientist Kerry Emanuel. One reason to study up on basic science knowledge is that reporters need to be ready for public relations spin about the hazards of emissions and spills by corporations. As an example, Biesecker pointed to his investigation into arsenic contamination from coal ash pits, where the energy company spokesman claimed: “There’s more arsenic in a kid’s juice box than in these wells.” “Well, that’s perfectly true, if you don’t know the difference between inorganic and organic arsenic,” Biesecker explained. “There’s so much disinformation out there, so be very careful about what sources you look at.”

• Find easy stories with the Carbon Mapper methane tool. While methane emissions are invisible to human eyes, this remarkable data portal identifies, measures, and maps major greenhouse emissions that are otherwise not noticed. Designed for use by researchers and journalists and run by a nonprofit group, it shows major methane and CO2 emissions based on sensing data from research aircraft, space satellites, and even the International Space Station. Biesecker says his team sometimes simply visits a site at the coordinates of the otherwise invisible plumes shown on the portal to see what’s going on beneath, and to find site ownership, for low-intensity climate stories — or uses it to check corporate zero-emissions claims. “Using this, we found that firms were vastly underreporting their emissions,” he noted. “This project started as a NASA program, and is now a privately funded nonprofit. They have satellites that circle the globe and see methane emissions. Methane is about 80 times more potent than carbon at heating the planet. Carbon Mapper lets you see where there are big plumes of this invisible gas going into the atmosphere.” It can be used in conjunction with other data tools, such as the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Methane Emissions Observatory. To check company claims about being “carbon neutral,” try the free OffsetsDB tool, which collects data about carbon offset credits and projects around the world. GIJN also has reporting guides on investigating methane as well as landfill methane emissions.

  

  Carbon Mapper’s data portal page shows 25,000 major methane plumes around the globe. Image: Screenshot, Carbon Mapper

• FOIA the FOIAs. “Many public agencies have a FOIA webpage where you can look up record requests filed previously. If there are competitors on the climate beat that are dominant and you’re new, look at what questions they’re asking.”

• Always briefly include the “big-picture” climate change facts. Given the broad misinformation on this issue, Biesecker suggests that reporters relentlessly include the basic statistics — such as those showing that each year has been warmer than the previous in the past decade — no matter how narrow the climate issue in your story. “I try to preach that you should really drop these statistics into almost any story that involves climate, just to make the public aware of the level of warming going on.”

• Watch the watchdogs. “We’re at a time when regulators are frequently not doing their jobs,” Biesecker cautioned. “They’re often very friendly to industry and polluters. Ask: ‘Are they favoring specific industries or corporations?’ Look at lobbying records; see who is trying to influence whom.” Also look for red flags for “regulatory capture” — where industries effectively gain control of a regulator. “If you’re in a place where the governor has appointed the former head of an electric utility to be the head of your environmental agency, that’s a warning flag. Look at the resumes of regulator appointees; look for conflicts of interest.”

• Look for local databases compiled by climate reporters and researchers, and collaborate. Climate reporters tend to help each other, sometimes by open sourcing their own data. As an example, the panel pointed to the Renewable Rejection Database, which has been compiled by climate writer Robert Bryce, and which shows the restrictions and rejections of wind and solar projects in North America since 2015.

• Do a “pencil check.” “I always like to print everything out pre-publication, and go through each and every fact,” Biesecker said. “If you make one little error in a story, believe me, hostile firms and agencies will inflate those and use them against you. Bulletproof yourself against potential blowback: you’re going to be going up against very well-funded organizations that are polluters, and pollution is profitable.”

• Turn online sources into human voices. “The data is going to allow you to find people, and people are what make stories work,” Biesecker added. “People read stories about other people. They may not read stories about a climate issue, but they will read about someone struggling with that issue — especially if you can show the reader might be similarly impacted in future. Paint pictures with words so your reader sees what you see on the ground.”

Source Reluctance Beyond Climate Skepticism

González told attendees that there are numerous reasons beyond climate skepticism why people vulnerable to climate impacts can be reluctant to speak.

“Reporting on the connection between rural infrastructure problems and climate change in the southeast of Puerto Rico, I found it was extremely hard to talk to people about the problem,” he said. “They feared that talking about sea level rise and coastal erosion might ultimately cause them to have to leave their homes, because the permanent solution being discussed by government and experts was relocation to other places. So you need to be sensitive to these communities.”

Even talking to officials is increasingly difficult in populist-run nations. Brown says they have had to phrase questions differently to regulators under the Trump administration, for reasons far beyond the government’s skepticism around human-caused climate change.

“Officials at the EPA told me they can no longer discuss anything related to DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) or inequities — and I report on equity!” they added. “In order to do those interviews, I’m still asking the same content, but I am changing the way I’m phrasing the question.”

Wholf noted that it is often necessary to “peg” climate stories to popular subjects such as sports, entertainment, or cultural events to highlight the issue for disengaged audiences, and to persuade editors — and especially TV news producers — to run prominent investigations. So for a story on greenwashing, for instance, her team found data showing a high proportion of fossil fuels advertising in college sports in the US, and hyper-popular events such as the March Madness basketball tournament.

“Or you can look at something like Christmas trees — there are a lot of climate issues involving Christmas trees, and that will make it even onto morning television, I guarantee you,” said Wholf. “Don’t be afraid to find those compelling story markers.”

Rowan Philp is GIJN’s global reporter and impact editor. A former chief reporter for South Africa’s Sunday Times, he has reported on news, politics, corruption, and conflict from more than two dozen countries around the world, and has also served as an assignments editor for newsrooms in the UK, US, and Africa.