Environmental Investigative Teaching Lab

Journalists from European countries participated in an environmental research project by The Investigative Desk, with financial support from Journalismfund Europe.

Five participants, chosen from a large number of applicant, were coached by experienced investigative journalists. They were spending two days per week on theoretical sessions, literature sessions, workshops from external experts and - most importantly - on carrying out a collective investigative project. 

This course is an international addition to the lab which had been run by The Investigative Desk by several years for Dutch investigative journalists. The international extension ran partly in parallel with the basic trajectory, and lasted for two months, from mid-March to mid-May 2025.

***

Participants of the Environmental Investigative Teaching Lab worked on a number of specific skills:

• how to develop a journalistic specialisation (in this case: environmental journalism),
• how  to set up, carry out and manage a research project,
• how to organise investigative teamwork,
• how to  finance international journalistic investigations,
• how to create compelling stories from investigative research.

The course participants will receive some financial support, which is provided by Journalismfund Europe.

Coaches and workshops

The theoretical track of the program was developed by The Investigative Desk editor-in-chief Marcel Metze, who has a track record as an investigative journalist of 45 years.

In addition, the research lab participants benefitted from experience of two more coaches:

Irene van den Berg (1978) has been an independent journalist since 2006. For The Investigative Desk, she works on research into the food and tobacco industry, and into the pharma & health sector.

Huub Jaspers is an award-winning investigative journalist, who worked for nearly thirty years for Argos, a well known Dutch radio and television show. Jaspers cooperated in many international investigative projects with big media like ZDF, WDR, Washington Post, German national magazines and newspapers.    

Further, invited external trainers gave workshops on data skills, critical reading of scientific articles and reports, cross-border research, basic knowledge of toxic chemicals and their risks)