The making of the award-winning Border Graves Investigation

As bear numbers surge, the carnivores are increasingly coming into conflict with humans. Can the species coexist?

European firms continued supplying a mega Russian gas project after the invasion of Ukraine — until they were busted.

Fifty journalists. Thirteen organisations. Damning findings. Behind the scenes of a groundbreaking investigation.  This special episode of the IJ4EU Confidential podcast features leading contributors to The Gaza Project on their groundbreaking investigation that exposed “unprecedented” Israeli targeting of Palestinian journalists. At least 110 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the start of the Israel-Gaza War on October 7, 2023 – the largest number of journalists to be killed in this span of time in any modern war or conflict. In addition to facing unprecedented physical dangers, journalists in Gaza and the West Bank have faced threats, assault, censorship and arrests. Dozens of media offices in Gaza have been bombed by the Israeli military.  In July 2024, Forbidden Stories launched the results of their in-depth investigation into the deaths of journalists in Gaza as well as alleged attempts to harass, intimidate and target media workers within Gaza and the West Bank. The Gaza Project exposes evidence of targeted attacks on journalists and media infrastructure, calling to question the army’s denials about targeting the press since the war started. The investigation’s findings suggest that at least 18 media workers were reportedly killed or wounded by precision strikes likely launched from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), in violation of the laws of war.  Moderated by: Scott Griffen, acting executive director of the International Press Institute (IPI) Amy Brouillette, IPI’s director of advocacy Timothy Large, IPI’s director of independent media programmes Featuring: Laurent Richard, founder and director of Forbidden Stories Hoda Osman, executive editor of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism Manisha Ganguly, investigations correspondent and open-source lead for The Guardian Walid Batrawi, IPI executive board member and Palestinian media trainer and consultant Production and graphics: Milica Miletić, IPI project coordinator

How are EU-based companies and Iranian manufacturers supporting Russia’s unprecedented drone warfare?

Behind the scenes of an investigation into how European gold consumers turn a blind eye to illegal mining in the Amazon

As the year draws to a close, we look back at some of the remarkable cross-border investigations that made headlines in 2023.

Sudan is in the grip of an underreported catastrophe. Fighting between the national army and Janjaweed paramilitaries known for war crimes has devastated Khartoum and razed to the ground cities in the western Darfur region. Against this backdrop, we speak with two investigative journalists who have exposed the European Union’s role in legitimising Sudan’s “militia state” and sowing the seeds of a conflict that threatens to spiral into all-out civil war. Gwenaëlle Lenoir and Patricia Huon are two reporters behind The EU’s ‘Pact with the Devil’, which reveals links between Brussels, former Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir and Hemedti, a warlord now fighting to take over the country. Obsessed with halting migration, the European Union entrusted Sudan almost 10 years ago with responsibility for preventing migrants from reaching Libya, and therefore heading onto Europe. But the unintended consequences were catastrophic, the journalists say. For one thing, the EU's decision helped put control of borders along crucial migration routes into the hands of the Janjaweed, whose leader is now at war with the commander of Sudan’s national army, they explain. They also describe the situation today in Darfur, which they say is in the grip of a humanitarian crisis far greater than the one that grabbed the world’s attention in the early 2000s. “Twenty years ago, during the first war in Durfur, it was a story of burnt villages,” Lenoir says. “Now it’s a story of burnt cities.” Credits: Hosts: Timothy Large, director of independent media programmes at the International Press Institute (IPI) Milica Miletić, project and events coordinator at IPI Guests: Gwenaëlle Lenoir and Patricia Huon Editing and production: Timothy Large Graphics: Milica Miletić

Sniffing huge profits, organised criminals are sinking their teeth into the multi-billion-euro pet trade. It’s a nasty business.

When investigative journalists are under duress, collaborating across borders can help build resilience.

Think organised crime in Italy, and chances are you think of the Cosa Nostra, Camorra or Ndrangheta. But the newest kids on the mafia block come from China — and they’re expanding their influence across Europe. Host Timothy Large interviews Italian journalist Davide Del Monte, who leads a cross-border investigation into the criminal activities of the main Chinese criminal group in Europe. It’s a tale of violence, political connections and dirty business. For more on this investigation supported by the Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) fund, see Chinese Underworld.

Frontex, the EU’s fastest-growing agency, is responsible for policing the EU’s external borders. In recent years, it has been hit by allegations of complicity in human rights abuses and revelations of secret meetings with arms lobbyists, which it then lied about. Host Timothy Large takes you behind the scenes of two cross-border investigations from the 2020/21 Investigative Journalism for Europe programme that thrust Frontex into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. One is the Frontex Files, which showed the power of both freedom-of-information requests and late-night satire. The other is Frontex at Fault, which used open-source intelligence to prove the agency took part in illegal maritime “pushbacks”. Together, the investigations forced an EU agency with the size of Moldova’s GDP to account for its actions before the European Parliament, the European Commission and others with an interest in safeguarding human rights at Europe’s borders.

Journalists from Oštro, a centre for investigative reporting in the Adriatic region, discuss the challenges of exposing white-collar crime in Slovenia and Croatia — two countries on the EU’s southeast flank where the space for independent media is shrinking. Host Timothy Large from the International Press Institute speaks with leading journalists behind  A Small Haven for White-Collar Crime, an investigation supported by the IJ4EU fund for cross-border investigative journalism. Drawing on documents from The Pandora Papers, the biggest leak of offshore financial data in history, the investigation exposes tax evasion, fraud and the hiding of assets in offshore jurisdictions. The project also brought home the difficulties of conducting investigative work in Slovenia and Croatia, countries with much in common — including a deteriorating landscape for media freedom.

Why are tobacco lobbyists and US oil tycoons in cahoots over the promotion of e-cigarettes? To push a free-market agenda.

The IJ4EU fund has launched a podcast dedicated to cross-border investigative journalism. Listen to the stories behind IJ4EU-funded investigations, from the journalists who worked on them: how they built cross-border teams to pursue their topics, carried out investigations, overcame obstacles and created impact.  In our first episode, we look back at Black Trail, an agenda-setting investigation into the relationship between two truly cross border topics: shipping and climate change.