International guests discuss AI, conflict reporting and reparations in media

A newspaper decides to investigate its slave-owning past. But it's not just any newspaper. It's one of the biggest newspapers in the world. And its past is intertwined with the country's own history of slavery. This is the context of the “Cotton Capital: how slavery changed The Guardian, the UK and the world” podcast, produced by The Guardian and released in 2023.
The series explores the newspaper's archives sympathetic to slaveholders and, in the process, finds that the newspaper supported, for instance, government payments to slave owners as compensation for lost “property”. Maya Wolfe-Robinson, editor of the project, will share Cotton Capitol's backstage stories during Abraji's 19th International Congress of Investigative Journalism.

Maya is one of the international guests confirmed for this edition of the event, to be held between July 11th and 14th, 2024, at ESPM, in São Paulo. She teams up with names such as James Kleinfeld, award-winning investigative journalist and documentary maker for Al Jazeera, who is going to share his experience on conflict covering. Kleinfeld will talk about the documentary recently released by the broadcaster, which exposes Israeli lobbying in the US government.

Artificial Intelligence in journalism

Nikita Roy, a data journalist and creator of the Newsroom Robots podcast, will be sharing ways of acting as a journalist with the help of AI tools. And Garance Burke, journalist at the Associated Press, will be discussing the guide she built for the outlet with guidelines on how to cover AI ethically, without falling into traps.

Jonathan Soma, data journalism professor at Columbia University, returns to Brazil for the Congress and Data Sunday duo, following his successful participation in the previous edition. This time, he will be discussing cases of journalistic investigations on big files using AI and giving workshops on the use of AI and automation in data cross-checking.

Investigative journalism and open-source verification

The Bellingcat independent investigative group will also be attending the event, represented by journalists Aiganysh Aidarbekova and Youri van der Weide. The two journalists will be sharing techniques for verifying and open-source fact checking in audiovisual content.

The work of PesaCheck, Africa's largest fact-checking organization, will also be highlighted by journalist and editor Doreen Wainainah. At the Congress, her presentation will be covering the organization's experience with fact-checking strategies during elections and techniques that help with investigative work.

To discuss business models and entrepreneurship in journalism, the 19th Abraji Congress has invited Argentine journalist and regional director of the International Fund for Public Interest Media, Vanina Berghella.

In addition to the in-person program, there will be special guests who will give master classes designed especially for the virtual space, covering topics ranging from physical and digital security to data journalism and tools for election covering.

The international guests

Aiganysh Aidarbekova

Amy Mitchell

Benjamin Toff

Colin Pereira

Daniel Suárez Pérez

Daniela Castro

Doreen Wainainah

Ebony Riddel

Ela Stapley

Emilia Díaz-Struck

Garance Burke

James Kleinfeld

Jonathan Soma

Marcelo Ayala Vargas

María Teresa Ronderos

Maya Wolfe-Robinson

Nikita Roy

Nilesh Christopher

Sherif Mansour

Vanina Berghella

Youri van der Weide

Service
19th International Congress of Investigative
ESPM - Álvaro Alvim Campus Rua Doutor Álvaro Alvim, 123 - Vila Mariana - São Paulo
Dates: July 11-14, 2024