Keynotes & Panel Discussions

Investigative Journalism is one of the most critical forms of journalism as it often uncovers our society’s social and political problems. Especially when fake news and information are spread widely over the internet and other mediums, it is important to have trustworthy investigative journalists that can find the truth. But often, this comes with a great sacrifice for them. In many countries, the press is the subject of oppression and censorship, especially if they want to uncover injustices in the political system. In other countries, they can work freely, but people with different opinions try to silence them with violence or death threats. At the same time, they have to deal with significant responsibilities as they have to deal with sources like whistleblowers whose identity needs to be protected. Every fact and piece of information in their work needs to be proofed, or else they could lose their trustworthiness. The same applies to the opinion of the journalist. They should write objective instead of subjective, but is something like this even possible? Isn’t the selection of the topic already a subjective decision? How can we make the job of investigative journalists safer? There are new ways, like digital investigative journalism. Is this a safer way of doing the job? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this new way? We want to invite different investigative journalists from around the world with different backgrounds. How do they work? What differences do they face in their work? What problems do they have to face? All those questions and many more will be discussed in the Panel Discussion “The Burden and Responsibility of investigative journalists.”