The early bird deadline for 
The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
Journalists can now carry many of the essential reporting tools — camera, voice recorder, notepad, phone, police scanner — with them in one hand-held device. But that same device can carry a police scanner, a document scanner, a photo editor, a video camera and a flight tracker. You can record audio and take time-stamped notes.…
Read MoreNavajo boys plow a corn field on the Navajo Reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico, date unknown. Photo from the National Archives and Records Administration. Monday is the last day to register for an all-expenses paid reporting workshop on covering agribusiness from The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting and Investigative Reporters and Editors, held May 30 to June…
Read MoreThe Charleston Gazette reports that “a state agency paid a Virginia-based company an estimated $118,000 to review West Virginia’s use of $126.3 million in federal stimulus funds to expand high-speed Internet, but Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s administration won’t release the consultant’s findings to the public.” The reason, Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette told the Gazette, is that at…
Read MoreLearning about sources of political spending can be “like unpacking a Russian nesting doll,” says Michael Beckel, a politics reporter for the Center for Public Integrity. Using tax filings as his primary source, Beckel investigated the third most politically-active nonprofit in 2012 as part of the Center for Public Integrity’s Consider the Source project. “In…
Read MoreThis car received a ticket from a Baltimore area camera while stopped at a red light. This case was one of the errors uncovered in the Baltimore Sun’s series on red light cameras. The Baltimore Sun’s investigation of red light cameras over the past year prompted changes to the system a city task force to…
Read MoreJournalists don’t need more reason to celebrate public records, but Sunshine Week provides a time for swapping tips and tricks, successes and horror stories. The EditorialMatters blog in Iowa spent the week posting tips like advice on requesting records, finding stories in those records, and avoiding all-too-common mistakes. Watchdog Wire shared their own tips on…
Read MoreIRE would like to congratulate IRE member Ryan Gabrielson of California Watch for winning the first place prize of the Al Nakkula Award for Police Reporting From the press release: “Gabrielson won for “Broken Shield,” an investigative series that exposed shoddy police work at California institutions for the disabled. His stories chronicle the activities of…
Read MoreAfter taking an introductory data journalism course, a small group in Argentina set out to transform the way data journalism was done in their country, a country where data was barely updated, let alone public. They fought for open data and analyze it in the public interest. The result of their efforts is La Nacion…
Read MoreIRE is proud to offer the ninth title in the beat book series, Investigating Religion: An Investigative Reporter’s Guide by Debra L. Mason and Amy B. White. Investigating Religion includes chapters on what public records you can request, finding sources and knowing which are credible and best practices on the religion beat. To order a copy, click here.…
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