The Global Investigative Journalism Network is "an international association of nonprofit organizations that support, promote and produce investigative journalism." Its membership is open to "nonprofits, NGOs, and educational organizations" that are active in investigative reporting and data journalism. As of March 2018, GIJN had 177 member organizations in 76 countries. The organisation’s projects include a help desk to provide investigative journalists with advice and assistance, a resource center with tips, tools, and manuals, and large training conferences that have attracted over 5,000 journalists from 100 countries.
History
GIJN was formed in 2003 as a loose network in support of the biennial Global Investigative Journalism Conference, which had been launched two years earlier by veteran journalists Brant Houston and Nils Mulvad. The GIJN secretariat was officially formed after participants of the 7th GIJC in Kiev voted for the formation of a provisional secretariat in 2013. The organization registered as a nonprofit corporation in Maryland, United States of America in 2014 and was approved as a 501 nonprofit organization by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in October 2014.
GIJN co-organizes a biennial Global Investigative Journalism Conference, to bring together investigative journalists across the globe to share their knowledge and expertise with each other and to form cross-border networks for collaborative reporting and referrals. The GIJC has been held in Copenhagen in 2001 and 2003, Amsterdam, Toronto, Lillehammer, Geneva, Kiev, Rio de Janeiro,, Lillehammer, and Johannesburg. The latest conference was held in Hamburg, Germany in 2019. Since 2014, GIJN has organized investigative journalism conferences in Asia. The first Asian Investigative Journalism Conference was in Manila, the second in Kathmandu, and the third in Seoul.
GIJN gives out Global Shining Light Awards for excellence in investigative reporting "in a developing or transitioning country, done under threat, duress, or in the direst of conditions". The awards are presented to recipients in an awards ceremony held every two years at its biennial GIJC events. Past recipients include the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Khadija Ismayilova from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Sonali Samarasinghe from The Sunday Leader.
