The IJ4EU has launched the first podcast dedicated to cross-border investigative journalism.
Listen to the stories behind IJ4EU-funded investigations, from the journalists who worked on them: how they came across their investigation’s subject matter, built a cross-border team to pursue it, progressed the story, overcame obstacles they faced, 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. The team behind this investigation, spanning from the Arctic Circle’s melting ice caps to Lisbon’s mega port, focused on how the IMO – the International Maritime Organization, a UN agency, is failing to appropriately regulate ships’ carbon emissions. The documentary also shows how shipping continues to burn the dirtiest of all transport fuels and why ship emissions are responsible for more than 50,000 deaths a year in Europe, driving up cancer rates in Mediterranean port cities.
What’s particularly unique about this investigation is that it’s a television documentary. Most cross-border investigations are journalists working together but ultimately producing different pieces of content for their own audiences. This investigation brought together all the footage, from all the partners, and created a television documentary that could be watched by a combined audience of all the outlets and beyond.
IJ4EU stands for Investigative Journalism for Europe, and is run by a consortium of partners. The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) and the European Journalism Centre are led by the International Press Institute (IPI).
The IJ4EU primarily awards grants to cross-border investigations, but they also run the #UNCOVERED conference and the IJ4EU Impact Award – supporting cross-border investigative journalism.
Media freedom in Italy has continued its overall downward trajectory in the past two years, amidst the car bomb attack on one of the country’s most famous journalists, new spyware attacks on reporters, politicisation of the public broadcaster, legal harassment of journalists by governing politicians, and continued concerns over media pluralism, partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) said today.
READ MOREMë 24 dhe 25 mars 2026, organizatat partnere të Platformës së Këshillit të Evropës për sigurinë e gazetarëve dhe organizata të tjera do të zhvillojnë një mision faktmbledhës dyditor në Prishtinë, Kosovë. Qëllimi i misionit është të adresojë sfidat ndaj lirisë së medias në vend dhe të diskutojë zgjidhjet e mundshme me akterët e medias dhe me autoritete.
READ MOREA coalition of eight international press freedom organisations, including ECPMF and OBCT as part of MFRR, conducted the seventh joint mission to Türkiye from 24-26 November 2025 in Ankara. The delegation met with stakeholders such as the Constitutional Court, RTÜK representatives, EU delegation, opposition MPs, and journalists' associations, but government requests went unanswered.
READ MORETo mark International Women’s Day, partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) published alarming data highlighting the continued and systematic targeting of women journalists through gender-based violence in Europe.
READ MOREThis International Women's Day, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) and our partners Women in Media are proud to continue their joint programme supporting the health and well-being of women working in Ukrainian media, and to announce a new open call for health check-ups.
READ MOREA recent defamation decision by the Court of Appeal in North Macedonia against the Investigative Reporting Lab (IRL) is a worrying development for media freedom in the country which should be overturned on further appeal, the undersigned partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) said today.
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