From the Bialowieza Forest on the Polish-Belarus border to the depths of the Brazilian Amazon, reporters supported by the Investigative Journalism for Europe fund have left no stone unturned in pursuit of their stories. In this year-end edition of the IJ4EU Podcast, our hosts reflect on an exceptional 12 months for watchdog journalism, recapping just a few of the stories that have made a splash in Europe and beyond. “I’ve been amazed at just how global many of the investigations have been this year,” says Timothy Large, who leads the IJ4EU consortium. “These are stories that start in Europe bu ..read more

Thinking of buying a puppy in Europe? A quick Google search will bring up countless ads promising the fluffball of your dreams. You can even have a dog delivered straight to your door. But a cross-border investigation into Europe’s booming puppy business reveals a stark reality: up to 80 percent of dogs advertised online are part of an underground trade run by highly organised criminals. This is a story of fake breeders, bogus pet passports and cross-border smuggling — all at a colossal scale. It is also a tale of coercion, exploitation and severe health risks. Freelance journalists Jon Erik W ..read more

Journalists from Oštro, a centre for investigative reporting in the Adriatic region, discuss the challenges of exposing white-collar crime in Slovenia and Croatia — two countries on the EU’s southeast flank where the space for independent media is shrinking. Host Timothy Large from the International Press Institute speaks with leading journalists behind  A Small Haven for White-Collar Crime, an investigation supported by the IJ4EU fund for cross-border investigative journalism. Drawing on documents from The Pandora Papers, the biggest leak of offshore financial data in history, the invest ..read more

The latest episode of the IJ4EU Podcast takes a behind-the-scenes look at The Vapour Trail, a cross-border investigation into secret lobbying by the tobacco industry. This cross-border collaboration between French daily Le Monde and Dutch reporters collective The Investigative Desk exposes a secret alliance between Big Tobacco and networks of U.S. oil tycoons to thwart regulations on e-cigarettes and promote laissez-faire policies in Europe. Supported by the Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) fund, the investigation exposes the work of fake consumer groups funded by the tobacco indust ..read more

The IJ4EU fund has launched a podcast dedicated to cross-border investigative journalism. Listen to the stories behind IJ4EU-funded investigations, from the journalists who worked on them: how they built cross-border teams to pursue their topics, carried out investigations, overcame obstacles and created impact.  In our first episode, we look back at Black Trail, an agenda-setting investigation into the relationship between two truly cross border topics: shipping and climate change ..read more