I’ve uploaded all 2.6million words of the Chilcot Report (also known as the Iraq Inquiry) to the document analysis service DocumentCloud. The documents can be found on the site here.
You’ll need a DocumentCloud account to analyse the documents by entity or timeline (more on that here), but if you don’t have an account you can also search all the documents using the embedded view below.
I’m putting Help Me Investigate, my collaborative investigation project, on ice.
This year has seen the launch of a number of impressive crowdfunded and crowdsourced projects on platforms including Beacon and Contributoria – plus OpenCorporates Missions and the enormously impressive Bellingcat. Their rise, for me, confirms that there is no longer a need for the original mission that Help Me Investigate took on way back in 2009. Now I think it’s time to rip it up and start again. Continue reading
Former Help Me Investigate Health editor Tom Warren has been named best new journalist of the year at British Journalism Awards.
Tom, who joined the Bureau of Investigative Journalism last year, won the award for stories on payday loan lenders, party political funding, and the flotation of shares in Royal Mail. He said:
“Before I was a professional journalist HMI taught me skills and made me contacts that I couldn’t have picked up anywhere else. It was a great place to cut my teeth – and I’m not the only one. I can think of several former HMI’ers who have gone on to top jobs in journalism. It’s been a real powerhouse in that respect.”
Some of the data for the payday lenders story was collected by Help Me Investigate.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism report on their site that judges said:
“Tom made great use of data and technology to unearth stories and details. He picked targets that no-one else was looking at to bring new information to light on matters of real public interest.
“He used excellent detective work to reveal the privileged bidders who profiteered from the Royal Mail flotation, forcing the Government to release the full list.”
The award came the day after another former HMI contributor, Beth Ashton, won an award for her work at the Manchester Evening News.
Widening state surveillance of the web and stories about corporate phone hacking have made journalists increasingly concerned about the security of their communications. In this context Eveline Lubbers‘ book on corporate and police surveillance, Secret Manoeuvres in the Dark, is particularly timely.
The book focuses on a number of well-researched cases from the past two decades involving subterfuge by private companies and police – sometimes in collaboration with each other.
Each case provides key insights into the methods used to gather information on campaigners, activists and researchers, and to use that in strategies against them – but it also details strategies to mislead journalists and influence publishers.
It is in these latter cases that the book proves particularly valuable to journalists wishing to know the right questions to ask to avoid being ‘spun’. Continue reading
Here’s a useful tip if you’re thinking of requesting information from an organisation – or just looking for ideas: check the Data Protection Register first.
All organisations who collect data must register with the Information Commissioner’s Office. A copy of the public register is available to search on their website. Continue reading
Recently I helped Pupul Chatterjee map bus stops in Birmingham for the BrumTransport. I thought I’d share the process here as it demonstrates a number of techniques in filtering data that isn’t helpfully categorised.
I started my search for bus stop data at Google’s Tables search engine – this allows you to search public Google Fusion Tables as well as ‘web tables’. I started with a broad search for “bus stops” – the top result looked promising: a Guardian datablog post on “Every bus stop, train station, ferry port and taxi rank in Britain“.
That post included a link to a fusion table that mapped those stops, as well as the original data on Data.gov.uk.
The question was: how easily could we extract Birmingham bus stops from that? Continue reading
Paul Cheston is the last specialist court reporter for newspapers in the UK. Court reporting may be a dying trade, but Cheston feels that this leaves gaps in the market for investigators to fill.
This year at the CIJ Summer School, he offered a practical guide to court reporting which we have summarised below…
Cheston’s reasons for the importance of court reporting and why he enjoys the craft include: Continue reading
This year at the CIJ Summer School, Adjunct Professor, Mark Lee Hunter, explained how using hypotheses can frame and sell your story. A hypothesis is what the investigator wants to prove or disprove. It takes the best information you have into account and contains factual assertions that can be verified.
Hunter suggested three key tips on making a hypothesis work:
It is also important to consider the worthiness of an investigation before conducting it. If the hypothesis is of high importance and easy to establish, then the investigation is definitely worth pursuing. However, if it is of low importance and difficult to prove or disprove, then do not waste your time. Continue reading
At the CIJ Summer School this year Robert Miller, Martin Tomkinson and Raj Bairoliya explained how to access company accounts and how to get the most of Companies House.
In the UK, all limited companies and limited liability partnerships must file their accounts at Companies House, which has offices in London, Cardiff and Edinburgh. There are more than two million registered firms and over 300,000 new companies incorporated each year, and Miller feels that Companies House is one of the main skills needed by journalists. Continue reading
Matt Fowler is a freelance application developer and programmer who helps journalists understand and use big data. At the CIJ Summer School this year he gave some top tips in the field, which we have summarised below…
You don’t want private work being published on show for all to see.
This re-engineering effort can get details out and help you to discover information to turn into stories. Continue reading