Call for applications: ODIHR Training on Open Source Intelligence for Journalists

ODIHR is looking for up to 15 journalists who investigate and report on human rights-related issues or, more broadly, promote human rights and strive to protect the rights of others, to join its training on open source intelligence to take place in Prague in November 2022.

The five-day in-person training is organized as part of an ODIHR project entitled “Increasing effectiveness, strengthening enabling environment for human rights defenders”.

Objectives

The purpose of this training is to learn about open source intelligence analysis to independently carry out high-quality and objective investigation of and reporting on human rights-related issues.

The training aims to equip journalists with the skill set required to:

• gather, verify and analyse videos and images
• conduct comprehensive social media research
• perform open source data collection and verification

The training also looks to provide journalists with an understanding of how the internet can be effectively used for research and investigation purposes. The training curriculum will include sessions on advanced web-searching techniques and verification principles; advanced social media research; geolocation and maps and satellite resources.

The event will be conducted in English.

The training methodology is based on practical investigation exercises and requires a working laptop and a high level of active participation by all participants.

Application and selection

The training is specifically designed for journalists with demonstrated experience in investigating and reporting on human rights issues or, more broadly, journalists who promote human rights and strive to protect the rights of others. This may include journalists working on topics such as armed conflict, civil strife, corruption, human rights violations and migration. No experience in open source investigation techniques is required.

ODIHR is dedicated to providing training regardless of gender, ethnicity or age.

ODIHR will select participants on a competitive basis. Selected participants will receive an invitation in the week of 8 August 2022. ODIHR does not inform applicants who have not been selected.

The following criteria are used by ODIHR to select participants:

• proven track record as investigative journalist
• demonstrated experience in investigating and reporting on human rights issues
• relevance of the training for the applicant’s future work as a journalist  
• limited or no experience in open source investigation techniques
• good level of digital literacy, including digital security
• fluency in English
• available for the full duration of the training
• nationality of one of the following: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Kosovo.

Interested journalists are welcome to submit their applications by 28 July 2022 by filling in the application form in English and emailing this, together with their CV and at least three samples of their work (articles, videos, or other formats), katerina.simonova@odihr.pl.

Questions

In case you have questions, please contact Ms. Katerina Simonova, Human Rights Adviser (katerina.simonova@odihr.pl).