Neil Smith is an investigative researcher and open source intelligence trainer. In this interview for Help Me Investigate he gives his tips for using online sources to follow people and verify information.
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One of the barriers that student journalists often come up against is their lack of contacts in a particular field. Here is a guide to building that contacts book:
1. Directories
Directories are the most obvious place to start looking for…
Following up on our post about new FOI guidelines, Cleland Thom has compiled a list of excuses sometimes used by officials to refuse an FOI request, and how to use the guidelines to get past those. Some of the highlights:
“Your request w…
NHS whistleblower Dr Rita Pal has written a post for Help Me Investigate Health on the issues for journalists to consider when working with whistleblowers. It's a really thorough piece of work with the sorts of insights you only get fr…
For 35 years Paul Dale reported on Birmingham City Council for the local press. As this first interview for Help Me Investigate, he gives his tips on starting to investigate local government, and the importance of human contacts. In this cl…
Anthony Barnett writes compellingly about the importance not only of investigating issues, but of continuing to report the same thing "until the penny drops". Here's "[Ian Hislop] made a striking point, for me at least,…
Following the previous video of Heather Brooke on the Help Me Investigate blog, Heather provides further tips on using the Data Protection Act on Help Me Investigate: Health and Help Me Investigate: Welfare.
Her advice on investigatin…
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a new guide to the Freedom of Information Act. It's also available as a PDF download.
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Over on Help Me Investigate Education there's a video interview with experienced journalist and campaigner Fiona Millar, who publishes The Truth About Our Schools: a website and blog covering the education sector.
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