Meet the world’s leading investigative journalists
GIJC 2008 offers you the very best of investigative journalism workshops and a fantastic chance to meet and network with journalists from the whole world.
 xxx  Lillehammer, small and peaceful. PHOTO: SCANPIX  xxx Lillehammer in autumn colours. Behind: The 1994 Winter Olympic ski jumping hills. PHOTO: LILLEHAMMER TURIST. |
In the interior part of the eastern Norway, in the Olympic city Lillehammer, more than 400 journalists will gather to discuss new and current journalistic methods and investigative journalism in general.
Jan Gunnar Furuly and André Verløy in the GIJC2008 organization committee look forward to welcome journalists from around the world to Lillehammer from Sept. 10 to Sept. 14.
- This will be an important arena for journalists who are interested in maintaining their skills while learning new ones. This is also an excellent opportunity to develop a global network in an increasing global profession, Furuly says.
- There will be a lot of inspiring and thought-provoking seminars. We will focus on journalistic methods, computer-assisted reporting seminars, and you’ll hear from investigative journalists who have done impressive work, Verløy adds.
The Norwegian Foundation for Investigative Journalism (SKUP) is hosting GIJC 2008. SKUP has arranged the an annual investigative journalism conference in Norway the last 18 years, and the GIJC organizing committee hope to take advantage of that knowledge and experience at Lillehammer.
- The last four, five years SKUP has focused on making the seminars more streamlined and professional, while keeping a strong focus on journalistic methods. And we have seen the standard of the conferences being raised considerably, says Furuly.
- Our main goal is to make the GIJC 2008 a weekend filled with inspiration. We can call it a journalism revival meeting and journalists need to take part in such meetings once in a while, he adds.
The previous Global Investigative Journalism conferences have been held in Copenhagen, (twice), Amsterdam and Toronto. At Lillehammer 2008 we will attempt to increase the number of journalists from Africa, Asia, Russia, South and Latin America and the Caucasus attending the conference. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have generously provided a grant of approximately 150.000 Euros, with no strings attached, as long as the grant is used to bring journalists from the regions mentioned above. Journalists from those regions have been applying for grants for the last couple of months.
- This will help make GIJC 2008 a true global conference, says Furuly, who adds that more than 300 have applied for grants so far.
-The committee also aim to gather a majority of the conference participants at one hotel. All meals and seminars will take place at the conference hotel. We believe this will benefit both the working and social environment, Verløy adds.