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

Our J-Lab guest this episode is Hannah Barnes, investigations producer for the BBC’s Newsnight programme.

Hannah’s reports with science correspondent Deborah Cohen and her subsequent book about the rise and fall of the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) for children at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in north London are the result of intensive reporting, carried out across several years and based on more than 100 hours of interviews with Gids’ clinicians, former patients, and other experts.

Gids was established to provide talking therapies to young people who were questioning their gender identity. But 15 years after the service was founded, staff began expressing concerns about the rapid rise in patient referrals to endocrinologists who would prescribe hormone blockers designed to delay puberty. Many young people with complex case histories of autism, eating disorders or histories of family abuse were being referred to the service, then given puberty blockers.

Clinicians interviewed by Hannah for her Time to Think book compared it to East German doping scandals in the 1970s or failings at the Mid Staffs hospital in the 2000s. The clinic will shut later this year, to be replaced by a number of regional centres that will aim to offer more holistic treatment.

This has been a difficult subject for Hannah to report - some trans people see criticism of Gids as attempts to stop children transitioning at all; some gender-critical campaigners treat its closure as vindication of wider arguments.
Hannah’s book makes the point that this isn’t a culture war story. It's a medical scandal. And yet while her scrupulous and meticulously researched journalism – with 70 pages of notes and references – has been widely praised in reviews from the Guardian to the Telegraph, more than 20 publishers passed on the chance to publish her book. Her eventual publisher, Swift Press, struggled to find people who would even copy-edit the book or design its cover.

In this conversation, Hannah outlines her analytical, source-based methods, and offers advice on how to retain a questioning approach during reporting, while always treating contributors and interviewees with decency and respect.

J-Lab is a podcast by the Civic Journalism Lab at Newcastle University.

J-Lab Episode 38: Analytical journalism with BBC Newsnight's Hannah Barnes

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 38: Analytical journalism with BBC Newsnight's Hannah Barnes

Civic Journalism Lab

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