The Money Trail project Training in Financial Investigations and Digital Safety 2019 ( Fully Funded to Abuja, Nigeria)

Application Deadline: Wednesday 10 April 2019 at 12h00 BST

As part of the Money Trail project, Finance Uncovered and Free Press Unlimited, offer six training courses focused on how to investigate tax abuse, money laundering and corruption plus digital safety. Two trainings have already taken place (London – September 2018; Jakarta – February 2019) and four more are planned as follows: London (Nov 2019), two in Abuja (July 2019, July 2020) and Jakarta (Feb 2020).

The next call is for investigative journalists based in Africa who are interested in following the money! We are delighted to invite applications from journalists, campaigners and academics based in Africa who would like to attend our five-day financial investigative journalism and digital security training course in Abuja.

The dates for the Abuja training will be:Monday 1 July 2019 – Friday 5 July 2019.

You do not need to have a financial background to apply but we consider it important when selecting candidates to see evidence of your investigative experience. Class instructions will take place in English.

Over three days, you will be shown how to investigate corporate accounts, offshore activity and corporate corruption. We will show you where to find documents, how to analyse them and other practical tools to help uncover financial secrecy. We will also demonstrate how you can secure those involved in your investigation by improving your risk assessment and security skills. A combination of hands-on training and guidance from senior practitioners will give you the basis to investigate financial corruption as well as offering the opportunity to network with other journalists and activists. The course aims to help participants understand:

• the building blocks of the offshore world
• how to access and interpret company accounts
• where to access other company information
• the methodology behind the ground-breaking tax avoidance investigations by the journalists who conducted them
• how to investigate and report corruption stories
• how to track the international policy agenda relating to illicit financial flows
• how to keep your research safe

Digital Security

Investigative journalists following the money often work with sensitive information that some people and organisations do not want to see publicised.So keeping you, your data and your sources secure is paramount.This is why during the first section of our training, Free Press Unlimited will focus on advanced digital security techniques, including encryption, secure communication and methods to stay “under the radar” during investigations. We will cover:

• Device security, how to keep one’s equipment secure
• Online security, how to safely operate online
• Mobile security, how to safely use digital equipment on-the-road, including telephones and other devices
• Social media security, how to safely use social media for research and publication

Day 1-3: on illicit finance, hosted by Finance Uncovered

Day 4-5: on digital security, hosted by Free Press Unlimited

Specific timetable will be shared later.

Bursaries available

Bursaries are available for working journalists and activists who are based in Africa. Bursaries cover visa fees, travel and accommodation. Due to the limited number of bursaries, journalist applicants will be selected on their track record in investigative journalism. Activists will have to demonstrate some economic justice research and campaign experience. As we tend to be over-subscribed some candidates may be placed on a waiting list for a subsequent course either in London this November or in Abuja next year.

How to apply

To apply please fill in this online application form. Please do not copy and paste entire articles into the form. Where possible, please provide links or a few lines summary of the article plus date of publication. The deadline for your application is Wednesday 10 April at 12h00 BST. Successful participants will be informed of their place by Wednesday 24 April 2019.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Money Trail project Training in Financial Investigations and Digital Safety