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Investigative journalists to gather in Kyiv for conference from Oct. 13-16

Kyiv will host the Global Investigative Journalism Conference, a major event for investigative journalists determined to make the world better by uncovering fraud, corruption and other injustice.

They will come to Ukraine’s capital to talk about their experiences, share contacts and information, as well as develop future cross-border investigative projects.

The event, taking place from Oct. 13 to Oct 16, will gather more than 450 participants from nearly 40 countries. Prominent Egyptian journalist Hani Shukrallah, who will talk about the toppling of longtime President Hosni Mubarak, is among them.

Nick Davies from the Guardian in London will talk about the phone-hacking scandal at the rival News of the World.

The conference participants will also get a chance to take an intensive training in computer-assisted reporting and learn how to analyze data and what computer tools are available to assist journalists in working with large databases.

This is the first time that the conference, started in 2001 in Denmark, is being held in Eastern Europe. Conference co-organizer Henrik Kaufholz, a coordinator for Scoop, the Danish-based center for investigative journalists, said there is growing interest in investigative journalism here.

I hope that the media here will grow more independent than they are – of the government, oligarchs and political parties.

– Henrik Kaufholz, a coordinator for Scoop, the Danish-based center for investigative journalists

To be able to reach out to local journalists, many of whom speak little English, all sessions will have a simultaneous translation into Russian and a group of volunteer-interpreters.

The conference is held in Ukraine as the country is experiencing deterioration in media freedoms and democracy.

The nation’s major TV channels and newspapers are owned by a handful of powerful, wealthy and well-connected individuals – Rinat Akhmetov, Viktor Pinchuk, Igor Kolomoisky, Valeriy Khoroshkovsky and Petro Poroshenko.

“Conditions [for the media] worsened after President Viktor Yanukovych election,” according to Freedom House, a US-based human rights watchdog. “Business magnates with varying political interests own and influence many outlets, while local governments often control the local media.”

Kaufholz, who has worked with journalists in Ukraine since 2003, agrees that local media are far too subservient.

“I hope that the media here will grow more independent than they are – of the government, oligarchs and political parties,” he says. “We, journalists, should serve the public – not presidents.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Vlad Lavrov can be reached at [email protected].