IJ4EU Confidential

This episode takes us behind the scenes of the Border Graves Investigation, an award-winning journalistic collaboration that documented more than 1,000 unmarked graves of people who died on European migration routes.

With insights from investigative journalists Gabriela Ramirez and Daphne Tolis, the episode uncovers systemic failures in identifying the deceased, touching on personal stories, the political and institutional response to the crisis and the ongoing challenges faced by families in search of their loved ones.

Hear about the dedicated local communities in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia who continue caring for these unmarked graves amidst rising anti-migrant sentiments. The episode also explores the emotional and psychological toll on families and journalists alike, the crucial role of DNA identification and plans for a comprehensive documentary.

This powerful narrative highlights the tragic human cost of a systemic failure to identify and dignify those who perish while trying to reach the EU.

Host:

Timothy Large, director of independent media programmes at the International Press Institute (IPI)

Guests:

Investigative journalists Gabriela Ramirez and Daphne Tolis

Production and graphic:

Milica Miletić, project and events coordinator at IPI

#bordergravesinvestigation #migration #investigativejournalism

Fifty journalists. Thirteen organisations. Damning findings. Behind the scenes of a groundbreaking investigation.

This special episode of the IJ4EU Confidential podcast features leading contributors to The Gaza Project on their groundbreaking investigation that exposed “unprecedented” Israeli targeting of Palestinian journalists.

At least 110 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the start of the Israel-Gaza War on October 7, 2023 – the largest number of journalists to be killed in this span of time in any modern war or conflict. In addition to facing unprecedented physical dangers, journalists in Gaza and the West Bank have faced threats, assault, censorship and arrests. Dozens of media offices in Gaza have been bombed by the Israeli military.

In July 2024, Forbidden Stories launched the results of their in-depth investigation into the deaths of journalists in Gaza as well as alleged attempts to harass, intimidate and target media workers within Gaza and the West Bank.

The Gaza Project exposes evidence of targeted attacks on journalists and media infrastructure, calling to question the army’s denials about targeting the press since the war started. The investigation’s findings suggest that at least 18 media workers were reportedly killed or wounded by precision strikes likely launched from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), in violation of the laws of war.

Moderated by:

• Scott Griffen, acting executive director of the International Press Institute (IPI)
• Amy Brouillette, IPI’s director of advocacy
• Timothy Large, IPI’s director of independent media programmes

Featuring:

• Laurent Richard, founder and director of Forbidden Stories
• Hoda Osman, executive editor of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism
• Manisha Ganguly, investigations correspondent and open-source lead for The Guardian
• Walid Batrawi, IPI executive board member and Palestinian media trainer and consultant

Production and graphics:

• Milica Miletić, IPI project coordinator

Sudan is in the grip of an underreported catastrophe. Fighting between the national army and Janjaweed paramilitaries known for war crimes has devastated Khartoum and razed to the ground cities in the western Darfur region.

Against this backdrop, we speak with two investigative journalists who have exposed the European Union’s role in legitimising Sudan’s “militia state” and sowing the seeds of a conflict that threatens to spiral into all-out civil war.

Gwenaëlle Lenoir and Patricia Huon are two reporters behind The EU’s ‘Pact with the Devil’, which reveals links between Brussels, former Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir and Hemedti, a warlord now fighting to take over the country.

Obsessed with halting migration, the European Union entrusted Sudan almost 10 years ago with responsibility for preventing migrants from reaching Libya, and therefore heading onto Europe. But the unintended consequences were catastrophic, the journalists say.

For one thing, the EU's decision helped put control of borders along crucial migration routes into the hands of the Janjaweed, whose leader is now at war with the commander of Sudan’s national army, they explain.

They also describe the situation today in Darfur, which they say is in the grip of a humanitarian crisis far greater than the one that grabbed the world’s attention in the early 2000s.

“Twenty years ago, during the first war in Durfur, it was a story of burnt villages,” Lenoir says. “Now it’s a story of burnt cities.”

Credits:

Hosts:

• Timothy Large, director of independent media programmes at the International Press Institute (IPI)
• Milica Miletić, project and events coordinator at IPI

Guests: Gwenaëlle Lenoir and Patricia Huon

Editing and production: Timothy Large

Graphics: Milica Miletić

The IJ4EU fund has launched a podcast dedicated to cross-border investigative journalism.

Listen to the stories behind IJ4EU-funded investigations, from the journalists who worked on them: how they built cross-border teams to pursue their topics, carried out investigations, overcame obstacles and created impact.

In our first episode, we look back at Black Trail, an agenda-setting investigation into the relationship between two truly cross border topics: shipping and climate change.

From the Bialowieza Forest on the Polish-Belarus border to the depths of the Brazilian Amazon, reporters supported by the Investigative Journalism for Europe fund have left no stone unturned in pursuit of their stories.

In this year-end edition of the IJ4EU Podcast, our hosts reflect on an exceptional 12 months for watchdog journalism, recapping just a few of the stories that have made a splash in Europe and beyond.

“I’ve been amazed at just how global many of the investigations have been this year,” says Timothy Large, who leads the IJ4EU consortium. “These are stories that start in Europe but they take you to Myanmar or Sudan or Brazi or the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

Investigations discussed in this episode include:

• The Gold Chain, exposing how European gold importers turn a blind eye to illegal mining, deforestation and rights abuses in the Amazon
• The West’s Next Plastics Dump, revealing how rich countries are offloading their plastic waste in Myanmar — where citizens are too afraid to say no
• The Edge of Europe, showing how a migration crisis is unfolding on an EU border in the Indian Ocean
• The Jungle, laying bare the dire conditions facing migrants and refugees in Europe’s last primaeval forest along the Polish-Belarusian border
• Bankers of Irregular Migration, revealing how a traditional system for transferring money is a boon to both smugglers and migrants
• Russian Escape, probing how easy it is for Russian oligarchs to evade the sanctions
• Dangerous Diesel, proving how EU-based companies are fueling Russia’s war machine in Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region
• Russia’s War, Europe’s Burden, demonstrating that hundreds of European components have found their way into drones used by Russia in its war against Ukraine
• Defusing a Russian ‘Carbon Bomb’, showing how European companies continued supplying a Russian mega Arctic gas project after the invasion of Ukraine
• The Forever Pollution Project, a collaboration between 18 newsrooms revealing alarming levels of toxic chemical contamination across Europe

Featuring:

• Timothy Large, director of independent media programmes at the International Press Institute (IPI)
• Milica Miletić, project and events coordinator at IPI
• Zlatina Siderova, programme lead for grants at the European Journalism Centre

Editing and production: Timothy Large