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IRE News
Behind the Story: How Chicago Magazine exposed the truth about the city’s crime rates
Chicago Magazine | June 2014 A story that helped change the way Chicagoans digest crime stats started with suspicion. Immersed in a different crime-related piece, Chicago Magazine Features Editor David Bernstein and Contributing Writer Noah Isackson noticed something amiss with the statistics. When their trusted police sources voiced skepticism, the early trappings of an idea…
Read MoreIRE remembers CNN photojournalist Sarmad Qaseera
2012 IRE Awards video IRE is saddened to hear about the passing of Sarmad Qaseera, a photojournalist to whom we’d awarded an IRE Medal for his 2012 work in Benghazi. The 42-year-old was a longtime member of CNN’s Baghdad bureau. Qaseera was hired by CNN to cover the war in his home country of Iraq…
Read MoreNICAR Data Library to lower prices, offer free databases
The NICAR Database Library will be implementing some changes in the coming months: The first of these is a reduction in what we charge IRE members for most of our databases. Additionally, a handful of databases will be free to IRE members. While the amount of work we put into each database remains the same, we…
Read MoreBehind the Story: How Kent State tracked student athletes missing class
By Karl Idsvoog, Kent State University How do you get into college if you can only read at a grade-school level? Last January, CNN’s Sara Ganim answered that question in a powerful piece of reporting. In a few short sentences Sara personalized the reality of college athletics at the University of North Carolina as she told…
Read MoreMark your calendar for the IRE Chicago Meetup next month
The IRE Chicago Meetup crew is partnering with the Chicago Headline Club for its next happy hour. The Chicago Headline Club holds Burger Nights every month, and the next one is Sept. 12 at The Billy Goat (430 N. Michigan Ave). So, bring a colleague to introduce to the Investigative Reporters and Editors community and…
Read MoreDo police have to release the name of the officer involved in the Ferguson, Mo. shooting?
We’ve been getting a lot of questions about the Ferguson, Missouri police department’s decision not to release the name of the officer involved in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Mike Brown. To get some legal answers, we turned to professor Sandy Davidson, who teaches communications law at the Missouri School of Journalism. Here’s what you…
Read MoreBehind the Story: High-stakes testing in Norwegian schools subject to corruption
By Shazia Sarwar A series of investigative reports by Verdens Gang (VG) in 2013 exposed that principals at all primary and secondary schools in Oslo, Norway’s capital, were given personal incentives and salary benefits in secret working contracts and on the basis of student results on national tests. The investigation found a significant correlation between…
Read MoreImprove your watchdog skills for just $10 this summer
It’s the best deal you can get in the nation’s capital. For $10, you can learn investigative techniques from some of the best journalists in the country. Yes, $10. IRE’s Watchdog Workshop will be held in Washington, D.C. on August 13. The workshop will take place at the AAJA annual conference, but it’s open to all…
Read MorePetition offers journalists a chance to support Risen
Last month, more than 1,600 IRE members gathered in San Francisco for training and to discuss the biggest issues facing our craft. Chief among them was the threat of government actions against investigative journalists and their sources, as underscored by Lowell Bergman’s keynote speech, a panel on whistleblowers including Daniel Ellsberg and a showcase panel…
Read MoreBehind the Story: How KATC exposed problems with early animal euthanasia in Louisiana
Video by KATC-Lafayette You don’t need to work in a large newsroom to pull off an investigative story with impact. Earlier this year KATC-Lafayette’s Tina Macias and Allison Bourne-Vanneck revealed that in 2013 a Louisiana animal shelter euthanized a quarter of the dogs that passed through its doors in less than four days – the…
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