Our Publications

About Us

Community of Investigative Journalists – Fond 19/29 (Sdružení investigativních novinářů – Fond 19/29)

- the num­bers refer to the free­dom of expres­sion Arti­cles of the Uni­ver­sal Dec­la­ra­tion of Human Rights and of the Russ­ian Con­sti­tu­tion — is an inter­na­tion­al NGO reg­is­tered in 2015 in Prague, Czech Repub­lic (iden­ti­fi­ca­tion num­ber 04222792) by two inde­pen­dent Russ­ian journalists.

Statu­to­ry Goals:

  • pro­vid­ing pro­fes­sion­al, finan­cial and legal assis­tance to inde­pen­dent Russ­ian jour­nal­ists in their investigations;
  • help­ing inves­tiga­tive reporters and blog­gers to devel­op their pro­fes­sion­al skills, using new media tech­nolo­gies, putting togeth­er pro­fes­sion­al jour­nal­ism skills and poten­tial of cit­i­zen jour­nal­ism and social media to achieve high-stan­dard broad inves­tiga­tive reporting;
  • mon­i­tor­ing cas­es of jour­nal­ists who are in trou­ble due to their work, as well as the state of offi­cial inves­ti­ga­tions into crimes against journalists;
  • mon­i­tor­ing assaults against inves­tiga­tive reporters, vio­la­tions of their rights, cas­es of pre­ven­tion jour­nal­ists from get­ting infor­ma­tion from offi­cial institutions;
  • net­work­ing with inves­tiga­tive reporters globally;
  • encour­ag­ing trans-bor­der inves­ti­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion and crim­i­nal cases.

Fond 19/29 is a mem­ber of the Glob­al Inves­tiga­tive Jour­nal­ism Net­work (GIJN); part­ner­ing with Orga­nized Crime and Cor­rup­tion Report­ing Project (OCCRP); mem­ber of the EU-Rus­sia Civ­il Soci­ety Forum.

 

Grigory Pasko. Seminar in Mahachkala (Dagestan). June 2019
Grigory Pasko. Training in Saint Petersburg. March 2020
Anton Nosik, Grigory Pasko. Seminar in Moscow, November 2012
Investigative Journalism Conference. Tallinn, October 2018
Galina Sidorova, Grigory Pasko. Seminar in Prague, April 2018
Galina Arapova. Training in Moscow, March 2019
Seminar in Barnaul, October 2016
Roman Shleinov. Training in Moscow, September 2018
Galina Sidorova. Training in Penza, October 2019
Journalist, lecturer Igor Korolkov and Aleksei Simonov, President of the Glasnost Defense Foundation at one of the seminars
Boris Akunin. Lecture at the Moscow seminar, November 2012
(3) Victor Shenderovich. Lecture at the Moscow seminar, November 2012

Our Team

Grig­o­ry Pasko

Co-founder, Direc­tor

Gali­na Sidorova

Co-founder, Head of Programs

Our Projects:

Investigative School

2015 – present. Sem­i­nars and mas­ter class­es in the Russ­ian regions and Prague for inves­tiga­tive reporters and blog­gers will­ing to devel­op their pro­fes­sion­al skills, improve inves­tiga­tive tech­niques, mas­ter new tech­nolo­gies and legal intri­ca­cies, tak­ing into account the rapid­ly chang­ing Russ­ian leg­is­la­tion; mas­ter new tech­nolo­gies and effec­tive­ly com­bine oppor­tu­ni­ties of pro­fes­sion­al and cit­i­zen journalism.

The Com­mu­ni­ty of Inves­tiga­tive Jour­nal­ists – Fond 19/29 team has been doing train­ings in Moscow, Yaroslavl, St. Peters­burg, Gunib (Dages­tan), Yakut­sk., Vladimir, Voronezh, Stavropol, Kazan, Podol­sk, Tom­sk, Kyzil, Niznevar­tovsk, Kalin­ingrad, Petroza­vod­sk, Perm, oth­er Russ­ian region­al cen­ters and Prague. The lead­ing Russ­ian and for­eign inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ists (includ­ing col­leagues from the OCCRP), legal and cyber secu­ri­ty experts, are invit­ed as guest-lec­tur­ers and train­ers. Appli­cants had to send to the orga­niz­ers their CVs and moti­va­tion let­ters. Each sem­i­nar can host 15 stu­dents. The train­ing is free.

Mem­bers of the CIJ-Fond 19/29 team keep con­tact with the for­mer par­tic­i­pants con­sult them on their inves­ti­ga­tions and help with plan­ning and editing.

In view of Covid-19 pan­dem­ic hit­ting the world and each coun­try and region a pro­gram of webi­na­rs is being devel­oped to adjust the plans already out­lined and expand the oppor­tu­ni­ties for poten­tial participants.

Rebooting Regional Investigative Journalism in Russia

2018–2019. Joint project with Orga­nized Crime and Cor­rup­tion Report­ing Project (OCCRP). Eight three days and two days train­ings in the Russ­ian regions accord­ing to the pro­gram « Inves­tiga­tive Jour­nal­ism: new chal­lenges, trends, techniques».

The project was designed for young region­al jour­nal­ists work­ing in tra­di­tion­al and online media, as well as for civ­il soci­ety activists mas­ter­ing intri­ca­cies of anti-cor­rup­tion investigations.

The goal was to pro­vide col­leagues with the best world prac­tices, to improve the qual­i­ty of inves­ti­ga­tions, to acquaint par­tic­i­pants with new trends and prospects that cross-bor­der inves­ti­ga­tions and inter­ac­tion of reporters from dif­fer­ent coun­tries open up.

The mul­ti­me­dia and video tech­niques, basics of data jour­nal­ism, specifics of open source inves­ti­ga­tions,  essen­tials of phys­i­cal, legal and dig­i­tal secu­ri­ty in the envi­ron­ment hos­tile to inves­ti­ga­tor — all this was includ­ed in the pro­gram, with­in which the best Russ­ian pro­fes­sion­als col­lab­o­rat­ing on OCCRP projects shared their knowl­edge and experience.

Jour­nal­ists and civ­il activists from the regions have got the oppor­tu­ni­ty to build the hor­i­zon­tal net­work in Rus­sia and out­side Rus­sia, and also see them­selves as part of the inter­na­tion­al pro­fes­sion­al com­mu­ni­ty. The best inves­ti­ga­tions of par­tic­i­pants were pub­lished in the Russ­ian inde­pen­dent media.

Investigative Journalism. Pressure Points of the Regions

2016–2017. The pro­gram was designed for inves­tiga­tive reporters from the Russ­ian regions will­ing to build up their pro­fes­sion­al skills, broad­en their knowl­edge of new media tech­nolo­gies and data jour­nal­ism, pro­vide them with instru­ments to strength­en their safe­ty while doing investigations.

The free train­ing includ­ed sem­i­nars in Moscow and Prague by lead­ing jour­nal­ists of CIJ-Fond 19/29, Novaya Gaze­ta and Vedo­mosti (Rus­sia) and Czech col­leagues from OCCRP. First appli­cants had to send their CVs and moti­va­tion let­ters to the orga­niz­ers. Those who were picked up as par­tic­i­pants also sent the top­ics of the sto­ries they plan to do as part of the project. In-between inter­ac­tive sem­i­nars par­tic­i­pants worked on their inves­ti­ga­tions being con­sult­ed by the pro­gram tutors. The best inves­ti­ga­tions were pub­lished in Novaya Gaze­ta (Rus­sia) and biggest inde­pen­dent Russ­ian Inter­net media.