George Arbuthnott and Jonathan Calvert of the Sunday Times Insight team have published the first major book telling the inside story of Britain's battle with coronavirus and exposing failures at the top of government which may have cost thousands of lives.
In this episode, George explains the reporting behind the story and discusses the methods used by Insight – perhaps the most successful and certainly the best known investigations team in British newspapers. 
Insight's long string of successes stretches back to uncovering the Profumo affair, the thalidomide scandal, the discovery of Israel's secret nuclear weapons and more recently the Fifa cash-for-votes corruption. And since joining the Sunday Times, George has exposed a global doping scandal in athletics, human trafficking in the UK and war crimes in Afghanistan by members of the SAS.
This podcast is brought to you by the Civic Journalism Lab at Newcastle University.

J-Lab Episode 29: Failures of state, with George Arbuthnott of the Sunday Times Insight team

Eliot Higgins is founder of online investigative collective Bellingcat which, over the last 10 years, has used open source investigation techniques to prove that Syria’s regime used chemical weapons against its citizens, find evidence of Russian involvement in the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, and unmask the “kill teams” who poisoned Russian defector Sergei Skripal and opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
In this episode, Eliot describes how he taught himself open source methods, outlines what makes Bellingcat different to conventional investigative teams and offers advice to early-career journalists. He also explains why Chinese-speaking open source investigators are highly prized... and why he doesn't order room service or leave his underpants unattended.
J-Lab is a podcast brought to you by the Civic Journalism Lab at Newcastle University.

J-Lab Episode 33: Open source investigations with Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat

In this episode, our guest is a journalist who has had three features shortlisted for this year’s British Journalism Awards – in one, she meets women who clear landmines in Lebanon, in another she talks to female footballers tackling France’s on-pitch hijab ban, while in the third she reports on the conditions endured by asylum seekers in the controversial Napier Barracks.

With this kind of portfolio, you might expect Jessie Williams to be an experienced, veteran hack – but she is actually a young, freelance foreign reporter in the early stages of her career.

Her features have been published in The Observer Magazine, Foreign Policy, The Economist, The Independent, Al Jazeera, The Telegraph, VICE World News, openDemocracy, the Financial Times, Huck Magazine, Middle East Eye, Dazed, The Guardian, BBC Travel, Shado Magazine, Novara Media, Refinery29, The i Newspaper, BRICKS Magazine and The Hackney Gazette.

In our conversation, Jessie explains how she got her break in journalism, the kind of stories she likes to report, the importance of working collaboratively on story ideas, the challenge of getting features commissioned and her advice to anyone embarking on their journey as a freelance journalist.

J-Lab is a podcast brought to you by the Civic Journalism Lab at Newcastle University. The intro music and sound effects are taken from Into The Fire, a short documentary by National Geographic about the all-female team of Yazidi deminers.

J-Lab Episode 34: Freelancing as a foreign correspondent, with Jessie Williams

A forum for professional, student and community journalists in the north east of England to meet, learn and collaborate. It’s supported by Newcastle University.

J-Lab Episode 29: Failures of state, with George Arbuthnott of the Sunday Times Insight team

Civic Journalism Lab

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