Scoop Russia has started. This spring 14 journalists will investigate issues in mostly North Western Russia – Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Petrozavodsk, St. Petersburg, Vyborg, Kaliningrad and Novgorod.

The journalists start their research after participating in a seminar at Fojo in Kalmar in Sweden, where they were trained in research methods and media law. Trainers were Galina Arapova (media law), Alexander Gorshkov and Oleg Khomenok (investigative methods) and Britt-Marie Citron (exampel of a Swedish investigation for a small local newspaper).

Scoop Russia — seminar in Kalmar

(photo from Scoop Web-site)

During the seminar participants and guests also founded Baltic Investigative Projects (BIP) – a forum for transnational investigations in the Baltic Region. Partners are Scoop Russia, Baltic Investigative Journalism Center, Dan Watch and The Danish Assosiation for Investigative Reporting (FUJ). The Swedish and Finnish associations will be invited to participate in the forum, which communicates via an open forum at Facebook: Baltic Investigative Projects.

The Russian journalists who work with support from Scoop Russia will present their investigations in a Master Class in Kyiv in October and most of them will also participate at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference.

Scoop Russia is funded by Sida (Swedish International Development corporation Agency) and managed by International Media Support, the Danish Assosiation for Investigative Journalism, the Swedish Assosiation for Investigative Journalists and the Regional Press Institute in St. Petersburg. Coordinator is Henrik Kaufholz from FUJ, henrik.kaufholz(a)pol.dk It will have its own website, but for the moment you can follow the project on Scoop's webpage.

Henrik Kaufholz,

SCOOP project