Dataharvest 2015

From LuxLeaks and onwards: the impressive and award-winning LuxLeaks revelations carried out by the ICIJ pointed out the problem of access to tax avoidance in the heart of Europe. But Luxembourg is not the only country with such provisions. Also other EU countries assist companies to avoid paying taxes in the country of activity, as recent research by Dutch think-tank SOMO shows. While LuxLeaks had a leak as starting point, SOMO started from scratch. Hear the methodology of both examples and learn how to unravel tax avoidance schemes.

All over Europe we see journalism start-ups, many of them with and investigative or data journalism focus. Are there synergies or common problems? Meet some of the prominent new and slightly older journalism start-ups, none of them elder than a teenager.

http://www.journalismfund.eu/investigative-journalism-europe

Stephen Grey and Roman Anin and their Reuters Team investigated Russian money flows. They will tell about the experience with their collaboration on the cases of Putin’s Palace and the Russian Railways.

http://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/comrade-capitalism/ http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/comrade-capitalism-about-the-series/

The larger a cross-border collaboration, the more coordination, editing is needed. This is an open round table where journalists with experience in coordinating cross-border teams gather to exchange experiences. The round table is open to all interested, the aim is to further develop this aspect of cross-border journalism.

Communication difficulties are common between journalists and technologists. Meet Leila Haddou, freelance investigative journalist formerly of the Guardian, and Max Harlow, technical lead at the Bureau for Investigative Journalism in London. They discuss their experiences from working with the other, problems they’ve faced, and suggestions for possible solutions.

Journalism is a rapidly changing field, but it nonetheless finds itself playing catch-up to recent technological disruptions, be they the advertising business model, the NSA, RSS, PGP, or any number of other acronyms and neologisms. While these disruptions are difficult, this is a critical time to investigate whether our ideas of news and society can be productively reinvestigated.  What are the structural shifts that are driving change? Which  aspects of journalism, investigation, and the means of news production must be defended at all costs? and what others strategically capitulated, as new methods may offer better alternatives? Csikszentmihalyi can't fully answer these questions, but will do his best to cover his own experiences at an epicenter of technological production, and his experiences developing information technology for community information.

The World Economic Forum mentions inequality as the number one risk tendency. International Monetary Foundation discusses inequality and the relation of equality and robust growth. And two scholars’ book about inequality has become a bestseller. Katharine Round and Christo Hird set out to do a documentary on the subject. Meet them and hear “the making of” The Spirit Level on how to turn abstract research about the relation between inequality and health into a capturing documentary.

http://reports.weforum.org/outlook-global-agenda-2015/top-10-trends-of-2015/1-deepening-income-inequality/, http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2014/sdn1402.pdf, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/09/society-unequal-the-spirit-level, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jun/30/the-spirit-level-documentary, http://dartmouthfilms.com/spirit-level, http://thespiritleveldocumentary.com/about

End of the second full day. While everyone is still around, we'll gather to look ahead to what the future has in store for investigative and data journalism. And for Journalismfund.eu. We'll discuss the upcoming deadlines, new projects and how to stay in touch. It's also the time for thank yous and feedback.

Don't forget there is still half a day choke full of workshops on Sunday morning!