The early bird deadline for 
The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
At the 2016 IRE Conference in New Orleans, Knight Scholar Ashley Jackson talked with Ian Auzenne, an executive producer at KATC in Lafayette, Louisiana. Jackson: Tell me about your journey and how you got into the position that you are in today? Auzenne: It starts back to 1998, when I was 10 years old. I…
Read MoreJocelyn Stargell-Zachery (left) and Breanna Molloy (right) at the 2016 IRE Conference. Photo by Jocelyn Stargell-Zachery At the IRE Conference in New Orleans, 2016 Knight Scholar Jocelyn Stargell-Zachery spoke with attendee Breanna Molloy, a multimedia journalist at KATC in Lafayette, Louisiana. Stargell-Zachery: What is your background? Did you originally go to journalism school? Molloy: Well, I originally…
Read MoreInvestigative Reporters and Editors has named the Department of Veterans Affairs as the winner of its annual Golden Padlock Award recognizing the most secretive U.S. agency or individual. The VA was selected for this honor for withholding records about the qualifications of medical staff who evaluated thousands of veterans for potential brain injuries following service to their country. When TEGNA…
Read MoreBy Moriah Balingit It’s an island few outside of Indonesia had ever heard of. Accessible only half the year because of violent monsoons, Benjina is located in the southernmost portion of Indonesia. The island held a shocking secret: it was where slaves languished — sometimes in cages — before they were forced onto boats and…
Read MoreBy Andrew Kreighbaum Working on a beat where most sources prefer to remain anonymous, VICE News reporter Jason Leopold has turned to extensive and aggressive FOIA work to get officials on the record. Leopold, who covers national security, said he has 1,500 FOIA requests out at any one time. “I then seek out the people…
Read MoreBy Taeler De Haes It’s important to understand where the information you’re getting comes from. At the recent IRE Conference in New Orleans, Ira Rosen of 60 Minutes, Tony Kovaleski of KMGH in Denver and Matthew Mosk of ABC shared tips on how to spot frauds – including unreliable sources, misleading or false documents and flat-out…
Read MoreBy Sarah Gamard T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong broke down their Pulitzer Prize-winning collaboration “An Unbelievable Story of Rape” to a packed conference hall at IRE 2016 in New Orleans. Last year, Miller was working on a series about rape for ProPublica when he got a tip that police had caught a serial rapist…
Read MoreIRE members elected seven new directors to the IRE board on Saturday evening at the organization’s annual conference in New Orleans. The newly elected members are: Sarah Cohen, The New York Times; Andrew Donohue, Reveal + The Center for Investigative Reporting; Ellen Gabler, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Jill Riepenhoff, The Columbus Dispatch; Nicole Vap, KUSA-TV-Denver;…
Read MoreBy Taeler De Haes We live in a world of billionaires who exert quite a bit of influence over our lives, especially as reporters. At the recent IRE Conference in New Orleans, a panel of investigative journalists discussed getting sued by billionaires, including Donald Trump. They gave tips on how to bulletproof their work, defend…
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