Registration now open for Holding Power to Account: International Conference on Investigative Journalism, Democracy and Human Rights

Dozens of speakers from around the world have confirmed their attendance at an international conference on investigative journalism in Winnipeg, and more are expected in the coming weeks.

Holding Power to Account: Investigative Journalism, Democracy and Human Rights will be held June 13-15 this year. It is being jointly organized by the University of Winnipeg and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Several Pulitzer Prize winners will be in attendance, including Carl Bernstein. He will deliver a keynote speech on the lessons of Watergate, the seminal story more than 40 years ago that brought investigative journalism into the modern era.

The conference will feature a unique blend of working journalists and academics. Professors of journalism will be coming from coast to coast, along with teachers from the U.S. Everything from whistleblowing to hacking to reporting in disaster zones to the ethics of investigative work will be discussed.

Michael Hudson, senior editor at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and former Wall Street Journal reporter, will be on hand to discuss international journalistic collaborations.

Linden MacIntyre, Bob McKeown and Diana Swain of the CBC will describe the evolution of investigative work over the years. Rob Cribb of the Toronto Star will talk about projects that cross borders, and Steve Buist of the Hamilton Spectator will discuss health journalism that touches on human rights. Adrienne Arsenault discusses the dangers inherent in international reporting.

Speakers include journalists from Italy, Austria, Romania, Uganda, Nepal, Malaysia, Australia and many other places. There will a number of journalists from Africa in attendance.

There will be special sessions on coverage of Aboriginal and Indigenous peoples in Canada and the U.S. Advocacy journalism will also be on the agenda. In a special session, the team from Enquete will describe how they initiated the current massive investigation into corruption in the Quebec construction industry.


To register for the conference, and to see a preliminary list of speakers and sessions, visit the conference website.