You're listening to a stage talk titled building
open source research into a newsroom. To learn
how you might embed open source practices into
a traditional newsroom, we spoke with Mike Giambo
from Kenya's Nation newspaper. Within the talk,
he shared invaluable tips and tricks on getting
started in OSINT and convincing your peers and
employers of the value of the skill set. All
of the links mentioned in the talk can be found
in this episode's description. This talk was
hosted by me, Charlotte Mar, on Thursday the
30th of January 2025 in the Bellingcat Discord
server. We can, we can hear you very well. Oh
yeah, I can see the guys. Yeah, I can see the
guys and their bridging. Karavu, welcome! We're
all here for the Bellingcat stage talk series.
This week we're joined by Mike Yambo from The
Nation newspaper in Kenya. Mike is their first
and only, I think at this stage, open source
investigator on The Nation team and is pioneering
a new type of reporting there. I'll let him tell
you how well it is going. Before working at The
Nation, Mike also had some experience working
on investigations with Africa Uncensored. Today
we're going to talk about how you might follow
Mike's footsteps, setting up open source research
in a journalism slash newsroom setting and learn
a little more about how Mike communicates his
research to wider audiences. We're also going
to run through some of Mike's recent investigations,
looking at his methods and overall impact. One
of which you can already find in our chat, which
some of you had a nice read of while you were
waiting. As we talk. Please put your questions
in the chat. And as I've just said, if you do
not want me to read out your Discord username
on the podcast recording, please make sure to
note that in your question. And I'll make sure
to ask those questions as we move into the Q
&A section. Okay. Mike, we're ready. Please tell
us more. I'm going to mute myself just while
you talk a little bit about what you do. All
right. Thank you so much, Shelley. I'm truly,
truly honored to be here. Thank you for this
Pelling Cart invite. It's a great honor. And
I must say that I have been a long time for Pelling
Cart, just as everyone else. You guys do amazing
stuff. My early inspiration for open source investigation
was drawn by reading a lot of Pelling Cart's
works. And so my name is Mike Yambo. I'm an investigative
journalist, a national media group based in Nairobi.
My work focuses on combining open source investigative
techniques with traditional journalism. I'm here
to share my experiences on not only pioneering
open source investigations in our newsroom, but
also share a journey of gradually building a
new way of investigative storytelling vaccination.
I also have a huge love for storytelling, which
is why I'd like to share this personal experience
through a story from how I entered the newsroom.
to working on actual open source investigations.
Through this story, which I'll try to compress
into the few minutes I've got, I believe you
understand how we build an open source research
perspective nation, and why OSINT has become
crucial to our investigative journalism. So when
I was hired at Nation, an open source investigative,
as an open source researcher, OSINT was a gray
area in the newsroom. The traditional culture
of reporting was dominant in our reports, and
new techniques like fact -checking and using
tools weren't very common. So I was hired as
an investigative researcher who will focus on
infusing open source investigative techniques
with traditional reporting. Our newsroom was
at the time heavily shifting towards public interest
stories focused on investigative journalism,
and open source journalism was a way of bringing
forward our investigative storytelling. It was
an immense challenge of not only debunking news
and disinformation, but also facing now open
-source -led investigations. I think we all understand
that all cities that released really new concepts
in the newsrooms, especially the mainstream media,
who are kind of now gradually trying to catch
up. And this was also my fate. I also realized
that most of our editors were struggling to understand
this kind of storytelling. You know, only a few
did. I remember my initial stories ended up re
-edited to suit the traditional way of storytelling.
Some ended up being published late, way beyond
the headlines, while some ended up not seeing
the light of the day. So when I say stories were
re -edited to fit the traditional way of storytelling,
what this is what I simply mean. Some key components
of posting stories like, you know, archiving
links, hyperlinks, or even visualizations ended
up being removed. And that was very frustrating,
obviously, because that meant that I ended up
with an incoherent piece of work. Something I
found also particularly hard was educating my
seniors as to what awesome pieces of work needed
to look like. If I just imagine that you would
be trying to educate an old journalist who has
been here, who has been in Tech TM for probably
20 plus years. In most cases, that will look
like disrespect to them. And so I only explain
my approaches to the ones who kind of bother
to ask me, and some militias who are particularly
worried that it took too long to deliver the
story. Remember, this is like a newsroom environment.
Things are moving so fast, you know, and catching
up with some of these things while using awesome
methodologies might be particularly hard. But
I think even as the militias are worried about,
you know, our turnaround times, Uh, I probably
think they were right to a certain degree because
often stories are told from an evidence point
of view. And the fact checking and clarification
is usually quite a lengthy process most of the
time. But generally it was, it was a micro job
in the beginning to be honest. There was generally
a slow culture to publish the fact checks I work
on, um, with a speed at which other pieces got
published. But I kind of had somehow braced myself
for it. because they understood it would be hard,
based on the news culture that existed way before
my arrival. But interestingly, slowly by slowly,
let me say, probably after a year, story after
story, I began noticing gradual shifts. As some
editors then call it, it began, it started becoming
curious to understand what Osint was and what
it took to produce such kind of reports. So instead
of struggling with so many obvious explanations,
which is often boring, I believe what I did was
share my articles with the ones who were particularly
interested. In that regard, I believe that it
was easy to make them truly conceptualize the
open source methodologies to build an even more
deeper sense of clarity on, you know, to make
people truly understand and appreciate this kind
of storytelling. What I did was simply collaborate
on stories with other reporters, incorporating
individual investigative elements into their
stories. So from this proposition, we have produced
major public interest journalism that are deploying
open source techniques. We have debunked false
claims from Kenya's Directorate of Criminal Investigations,
just Kenya's principally investigative agency
under the National Police Service. And subsequently,
our news reports resulted in a statement of public
apology from the DCI, which is a very big win
when it comes to public interest journalism.
We have also used remote sensing tools to tell
other stories of how a religious cult that led
to the deaths of hundreds of Kenyans secretly
established itself inside a forest for two years.
Most people did not really realize that this
was going on. And this was, this popularly became
known as the Shakahola Massacre, where we used
Sentinel Hub and we used Google Earth to kind
of, you know, establish and determine when did
the, you know, the cows start building their
homes inside this forest in the name of prayers.
And most of them ended up dying as a result of
starvation. You know how cows can turn out to
be. And we consistently also monitored protests,
and in the process, analyzed police brutality
incidents using these officers' techniques. We
have also analyzed Twitter networks, particularly
a Twitter network revealing how hashtags were
deployed to spread news and disinformation claims
against Kenyan doctors who went for 90 days'
protests due to a poor working environment. And
discovered that this got probably government
and anti -drug government bloggers who are trying
to play a particular agenda to spread some sort
of false claim against the doctors who are worried
and very concerned about their working environment.
We have also told stories about the current war
raging in Sudan between the RSS and the Sudan
armed forces. And this story, we largely pivoted
our data from the Sudan Weakness Project under
the Center for Information Resilience. Toward
2025, that's the last, 2024, sorry, that's the
last year, my amazing colleague at the research
desk, Jacqueline Mosharia, did a brilliant work
using open source information to track cases
and establish a database on femicide statistics
in Kenya. So on story after story, our newsroom
nation has produced investigations that have
really relied on Austin. I know that that's quite
a long story about how we began this and where
we are so far. But before I conclude, I think
I'd like to drop a piece of advice, like general
advice to someone or a newsroom that intends
to venture into OSINT. One thing I've come to
realize or kind of understand is that venturing
into open source intelligence is an individual.
or newsroom requires some sort of elements like
strategic planning, skill development, and even
some ethical considerations before venturing
into it. So the first, I believe, is of understanding
all things is truly get from the standard statistics
of all things if you want to do it for a large
newsroom or even from an individual capacity.
All things involves collecting, analyzing, and
very fine publicly available information. And
the best way to be good in all things, I believe,
is to know how to find data, verify data, and
how to analyze data. The second thing that I
also kind of would like to pass to people who
are interested in developing this kind of storytelling
is to invest in training and skill development.
Media houses can invest in training their journalists
on the use of verification techniques in their
reports. I have conducted trainings for journalists
as well as attend many trainings myself as well.
And as an individual journalist, I identify an
awesome community or personality that does these
kinds of works. On a personal note, I taught
myself how to do this kind of journalism to be
honest. And I did this by closing the YouTube
tutorials of Benjamin Streep. who works for,
who currently works for the Center for Employment
and Resilience. He's been so very instrumental
in my, you know, laying the foundations of my
investigative, operational journalism. Um, and
if you'd like to learn the fundamentals of awesome
reporting, I highly recommend you watch the past
videos. They are very, very rich, and they kind
of help you as a journalist nail the, uh, the
why, the where, and the when. He kind of uses
tools to explain this, you know, basic concept.
concepts of a journalistic piece. I think I've
also found Bellingcat's website having tons of
free guides and resources, which can be very
fundamental, especially if you need to develop
your skills. Another website that offers free
guides, particularly on video verification and
AI is witness .org. vast resources on how to,
you know, navigate the AI space, which is now
becoming a very elusive and a very big subject
when it comes to the walls of investigations.
And also generally AI, it's to kind of help broaden
your mental scope when you need to understand
this kind of stuff around AI. Something else
for a newsroom or an individual who intends to
like put up an authentic research test, is to
learn the basic tools like, you know, Google
Jogging, how do you resign your searches online?
How do you go and find that particular piece
of information that you're trying to find online?
Google Jogging simply saves you time by being
very particular on what you specifically want
to find online. Another basic thing that one
can... uh, prob - probably investing is, uh,
knowing how to scan websites, knowing how to
establish the validity of websites, for instance.
Uh, and, and I know who is local tool is a very,
is a very good tool that was like way back machine.
Uh, there are basic things like, you know, performing
reverse image searches. I believe these are very
basic elements that one or a particular newsroom
that intends to deploy this kind of closed source
methodologies can... easily invest on and produce
a story that can be, you know, the turnaround
time is very fast. Something else as you build
your awesome toolkit is to learn the basic methods
of social media analysis. There are tools out
there. Most of them basically are paid, but some
of them are paid that can help you analyze social
media. For instance, I know X. You can use Mel's
Water Explore, uh, to, you know, analyze the
hashtags trends. Uh, you also analyze the sentiment
analysis I've used before in my reports. Uh,
the famous report about the storming of Caliament,
we began by, you know, analyzing the hashtags,
seeing what people were saying online before
transferring their page, uh, into the streets
of Nairobi and other, other streets of, of, of
Kenya. These also, uh, the most basic elements
of posting, which I believe most people should
really, really invest in. Because I think that's,
that is what kind of gave me the confidence around
all things, with the geolocation and satellite
analysis. Um, and one master, master tool to
help you perform this is the Google Earth Pro,
uh, which has tons and tons of features that
can help you to, you know. geo -rotate and also
establish the locations of different things or
situations that you're trying to find out. Sentinel
hub is also a very good one when it comes to
establishing changes over time in a particular
place. Geolation and satellite analysis, I think,
is one of the most common practices around osintric
now. And it's one thing that can easily instill
the confidence in you to be able to perform other
aspects of OSINT. Something else is to develop
a verification culture in your newsroom. This
is something about encouraging a mindset of being
skeptical about things that you see online. Just
because something is online, it doesn't mean
it's true. And so if you are able to perform
a Google reverse image search, for instance,
and do a whole report about it, or just a very
brief report about it, It's going to be very
vital in establishing that foundational level
of, of, of audience, um, in which most process
I like, I like referring to as part checking.
Also is heavily reliant on part checking. And
so if you are able to perform small part checks
over time, then you'll be able to perform even,
um, complex part checks and even, uh, perform
complex person's investigations, the deep dive
over time. So you don't have to like start so
big. You can start with a small factor and over
time you'll truly understand and learn the basic
and the different tenets that, you know, are
tied to OSINT reporting. It's also very important
to, even as you look for it, to start out your
OSINT research depth in your newsroom or even
intend to do this on a particular or like on
an individual level. Let's go to ensure your
digital security and also look at the ethical
considerations around this field of open -source
research. It's very vital to be aware of the
legal risk. So just understand what the law points
out concerning data in your own country and follow
ethical guidelines to avoid or violation of privacy,
which might end up in court cases and you may
probably end up with lawsuits or something which
you do not want to enter into. The second last
thing about integrating officers reporting into
your reports or like into your newsroom is to
apply awesome techniques in your projects. I
think I've mentioned this, please a little bit.
And it doesn't have to be mega reports at first,
just simple fast checks as you slowly gain momentum
over time. Other way to integrate open source
into your newsroom is probably also having a
small dedicated team working around awesome staff
or even just hiring an awesome specialist within
the newsroom. And this will prove very significant.
It can help in, I believe, two ways. It can save
you time verifying information if your newsroom
is so quick and fast, and also it will help you
at the core. add the complementing elements of
a story, for instance, visualizing data using
data wrapper. So some of these tools and techniques
can help you, you know, make your stories more
rich and even more compelling to your audiences.
And finally, liberate collaboration and open
source communities. Some of the most successful
audience investigations that I've seen, for instance,
have one underlying thing in them, and that is
collaboration. Collaborate with partners and
researchers to improve reporting. As you already
see, Atonation, for instance, we have active
partnerships with other research organizations
like Coach for Africa. CFA basically has access
to some awesome tools that we do not have at
Atonation. Therefore, we are able to, you know,
have a sense of partnerships while doing some
stories. I hope this was helpful when, you know,
looking on how to set an awesome tool of this
in your newsroom. Thanks so much for listening
and I'll hand it over back to you, Charlie, for
the Q &A session. Mike Nakashikuru, thank you
so much for that amazing brief. You went through
so many tools just then that somebody in the
chat said, this is like the most informative
talk I've ever attended, has so much practical
information for newcomers like me. So thank you
so much for running through so many tips. And
before I get to audience questions, I just wanted
to ask you, what kind of sparked your passion
in open source research? What was the moment
where you decided to invest time into this skillset?
Interesting. Yeah, so I just made a completed
compass. And at that point in time, the BBC had
released something on Cameroon, a documentary
called There Has to Be a Bad Healing, which I
believe is very popular with office structures.
And I was very curious about how this was done,
that level of masterpiece, and the fact that
they were able to produce a very impactful piece
of journalism. So I got really curious, and I
wanted to know how they did it. And over time,
basically, I'm a curious person. I tend to read
a lot, especially when I discover new stuff.
So just navigating the whole aspect of Google
Maps, Uh, I started, I came across Benjamin Street's
YouTube channel. Um, and he was there teaching
so many things about awesome. But at that point
in time, I didn't know that he was the, he was
part of the team that was behind the anatomy
of a killing. Um, and so I found these tutorials
very, very educative. And I think with the foundational
level of fact checking that I got at African
Censored. I got to build up over time by watching
Ben's videos on YouTube. And Ben also cited Bellingcat
in most of these examples. So it was what, it
was some kind of a ripple effect. And over time,
I wanted to draw this nepotism, so I ended up
practicing. And slowly by slowly, that's how
I got into art scenes. And coincidentally, I
got a job a year later. Um, well, funny how I
was learning all these things, uh, without being
actively engaged in the journalism space. So
when, um, an interesting opportunity to be, uh,
an investigative research admission came up in
that power was like able to, you know, get in
and nail and execute some of these things that
had learned over time. So, uh, just to answer
you precisely that anatomy of a killing documentary
sparked my, um, my enthusiasm for open source
reporting. Amazing. I just shared the link to
that in the chat. I believe some of our team
helped on that, but I might be wrong. If anybody
from the team then, back then, can comment. I
remember there's some relation to us, but anyway,
it's an amazing investigation if you haven't
had it. a look at it. So please do check that
out. And I also linked, while you were talking
earlier, Bender Brown's YouTube channel as well.
So please look at that and Code for Africa as
well, while you're going through it. We have
quite a few audience questions coming in. Following
off your recent reporting on the storming of
parliament, someone's asked, how do you, when
fact checking government sources, how do you
ensure the safety of your newsroom? when you
go up against the government, for example? That's
a particularly interesting question. So for the
newsroom itself, we have this set of ethical
guidelines we have to operate around. Especially,
you know, now when it comes to forming of the
parliament for instance, there was a way we are
supposed to handle the coverage. because it was
a very hostile environment at that point in time,
if you can't remember. And I have some Kenyan
audiences here, who on ground reporting became
particularly hard for journalists themselves.
So, one of the things that we were taught to,
you know, or kind of something that was kind
of highlighted before we got off to the field
at that point in time during the protests is
to make sure that you try and provide the accurate
information that is on the ground. Because there
was a lot of anger at that point in time and
any misreporting or any misrepresentation on
what was actually going on on the grounds would
have led to, you know, this public backlash or
outrage. So we were very keen in terms of, you
know, our reporting, trying to ensure the accuracy
and also trying to not really, um, not really
miss out on some of the facts and the fundamental,
uh, aspects of reporting. Uh, just as a general
to keep, you know, the general media house image
out there so well. We, we didn't really, we didn't
really want to, you know, of a report or kind
of, you know, over an alive situation, you know,
being the session that means sensational about
our reports. Um. That was one of the approaches
that we used while covering the process, just
being very factual and being very accurate. But
something else that you can look out for, especially
when you are an on -scene researcher, it's being
able to prevent the doubts and to be able to
prevent a lot of questioning around the works
that you do. is to be able to show the methodology,
the approach in which you do your reports. They
need to be as transparent as possible, but also
that's not enough because coming from a journalistic
background and even at Nation, we try to blend
these methodologies to the actual stories or
other storytelling aspects. kind of merging what
our findings, the research findings, and also
the reports and also the, the reports and, you
know, the things that the interviews that we
carry out, marry them together and find a very
accurate account for our reports. And that is
what we also did during the process. So it really
helped us go a long way in terms of being accurate
and, you know. Being able to tell the truth out
there to what was really happening, not only
Kenya, but also just clearly to the entire globe.
It's really got a lot of, you know, global attention.
Absolutely. As we always say at Bellingcat, stick
to the facts and always communicate that open
source research can only get you so far as well.
And that you're not coming with all of the answers,
but with as much that open source can tell you.
Um, it's just a starting point for investigations
as we like to get out. Um, so we have a few more
questions and I want to make sure that we get
to them before the end of the hour. So Sarah's
asked, hi Mike, I have to use Facebook a lot
to dig into the social media of the community
I'm curious about. And I wondered if you had
any tips for researching on Facebook. I can't
do something like create a list on Twitter and
it's extremely time consuming. Do you have any
research tips for Facebook? have I researched
on Facebook recently? Not really. Yeah, but I
mean, Facebook is a very interesting area and
it's one of those social media platforms that
I've been really interested into. And then also
considering that some of the tools were brought
down and also the most recent developments we
are checking. was discontinued. It's something
that we are considering, that we are really,
really upscaling as a new group. You know, how
to tell more stories, especially regarding the
digital threats around Facebook, because we have
so much happening there in terms of scamming
and also in terms of, you know, potential mis
and disinformation. So it's an area that I've
not really... put on so much weight in terms
of advising newsletter. It's something that,
you know, I'd really be interested in learning
about also as well. Even as I continue doing
further investigations, much of my investigations
in recent times have heavily revolved around,
you know, the dark social media sites like the
Telegram. And I've also been heavily doing open
source visual investigations. But Facebook is
a great area and it's something that I think
we work on so much moving forward in our newsroom,
for sure. Yeah. Everybody in the chat was like,
your size said it all. I think we're all feeling
this kind of disappointment in how easy, what
a lack of... control we have over kind of Facebook
research. You mentioned Telegram. So I've just
popped into the chat, one of Bellingcat's tools.
Yeah. So we have a tool called the Telegram phone
number checker. So I've just popped that into
the chat for anybody who's regularly researching
on Telegram. It's a really useful tool. So check
that out on our GitHub. And thank you for going
through all that Mike though. In terms of, you
mentioned earlier that your newsroom was a little
bit reluctant to take on open source at the beginning.
What kind of changed your editor's minds? What
kind of galvanized the change? Because you mentioned
to me before the talk that your team was actually
looking to grow. So what has kind of convinced
your editors or your newsroom that open source
is worth the investment? Yeah, for sure. One
thing, one thing is producing stuff and, you
know, getting your stuff out there. Because I
remember first it was so hard, you know, doing
his reports and doing this project and see them,
you know, timely to, you know, the traditional
news that he calls. But it's very important now,
for my case, then... What I had at that point
in time was producing so many reports and presenting
to my editors and, you know, also being able
to assess the value of whatever I was bringing
in the newsroom at that point in time, because
we are trying to introduce the new thing altogether.
Not so many people are familiar about it. And
so you need to have a few reports to show some
of the editors about the impact of your work.
Just remember, it's easier to sell an idea when
you have the actual work itself. And something
else that is very important, especially to change
the mindset and shift people's ideas and how
they view OSINT is to emphasize on the impact
of OSINT -driven investigations, such as exposing
work crimes, for instance. In Africa, we have
so much that is happening. around Sudan and,
you know, Congo right now. You can produce such
kind of, you know, war crime stories to truly
make them understand the methodology, the process,
and also probably the impact. Verifying this
information or tracking illicit financial flows
demonstrates how async complements traditional
reporting. This, you know, most editors, whenever,
especially in the traditional newsroom setups,
as long as you can save the resources, save the
money, and somehow improve your storage capabilities,
then you see the interest gravitating towards
your work. So basically, it's about having reports,
impactful reports, that shows some of the editors
the impact of your work, and also trying to emphasize
the impact of passing prevention investigations.
to the editor so that they can see the real value
and the real need to do this kind of journalism.
In that sense, I believe it will be easier to
sell the awesome idea to your newsroom bosses.
Thank you for that. We actually had a question
earlier from Alicia, who was asking for some
more information about how to find your Sudan
work. So I've just linked in the chat, one of
your pieces called, Look, the fire is inside
your houses. Where are you? Sudan's war within.
But if there's any other particular links that
you want to highlight, please pop them in the
chat if you can, Mike, because I think there's
quite a want to have a read of some of your Sudan
coverage as well. Oh yeah, sorry. So that Sudan
investigation was just kind of inspired by the
need to, you know, report so practically on Sudan
because so much was going on there. Um, I also
saw Falling Country something, NYT did something.
Um, but it was also kind of a way of adding up,
you know, getting the voices out there to the
world to truly understand the, uh, the situation
instead of that. It, it took us about three years
to kind of nail it down. Uh, but I believe it's
one of those pieces that had some sort of impact,
especially, and now that you are... kind of highlighting
the damage and the losses that Sudan underwent
between 2023 and 2024. It was a very powerful,
awesome piece. It's one that I keep on responding
to whenever probably I'm training or I'm giving
examples to some of my works. Yeah, there's so
much in Africa. There's so much in Ethiopia currently.
So, yeah, but I see the link to my Sudan was,
it's a very classic example of how to switch
your locations and locations. That's basically
what you did. Absolutely. And there's so, so
many stories on the continent at the moment,
unfortunately, to do with conflict as well. As
you mentioned, we've been publishing on Burkina
Faso as well. Just had a story come out yesterday
by some of the members in the audience on the
Democratic Republic of Congo as well. So thank
you so much for sharing that and to you Sudan
experience in terms of your coverage. And you
can see that from that article and also from
your coverage of the stormy parliament and you,
you do a lot with visualizations and something
that I really connected with when I looked at
your work was how. well, you communicate kind
of the findings that you've come up with in your
research. What are some of the factors that you
consider when thinking about visualizations?
What are the key factors you consider when thinking
about how you're going to visually tell the story?
First of all, it's to communicate the impact
of that incident we are trying to find out. I
believe through pictures and you know, uh, videos,
it's very, very, um, easier to, you know, sell,
sell a story or like kind of communicate the
impact of something that you're trying to communicate
out there. But, you know, doing visual investigations
and, you know, all that stuff around, you know,
geolocations and location, you have to consider,
uh, if that piece of media you're trying to analyze
answers, um, Because now I'm saying this from
a journalistic point of view, if it answers the
four W's on the H in a journalistic piece, but
also the cases, you'll want to look into the
who, the why, and the how. So if a particular
piece of video, for instance, that is associated
with a Kenyan protest, you want to understand,
maybe you're trying to analyze a police brutality
incident. you want to understand where that image
was probably taken, when it was taken and who
was behind it. Those are some of the factors
that I consider myself in my works and I think
probably other people do as well. And also on
top of that, it can kind of help you to weave
through your story and also add on top the element
of storytelling aspect and the voices, you know,
the sources voices on top of it. So, Basically,
nailing and understanding the context and trying
to answer those questions particularly well and
having them come up so clearly will inform the
decision to have this piece of visual evidence
as a journalistic piece of work. So basically,
it's analyzing the whole, the way, the how, and
generally piecing it up together, adding on top
the sources' voices. you know, kind of paints
the context and the events very clearly. Yeah,
because for us, it tells stories from our journalism
prior to Rio. I think I've read much of Bellingham's
works. It's usually mostly based on research.
But then now for us at Nation, we try to add
the journalistic elements on top of it to, you
know, kind of communicate, you know. the wider
problem, what is the human story in that data
point or in that particular event that you're
trying to answer with the four W's and a H. So
that is our approach when it comes to visual
storytelling. And it's incredibly powerful. And
I love how many different modes and mediums you
use to tell those stories as well. Even referring
back again to the storming the parliament piece,
you have 3D models in there. I've seen cases
where you've used peak Pfizer to showcase the
mountain ranges that you found. I think it's
really amazing that lots of different methods
that you use in telling your stories. Yeah, basically
just to, you know, add the juice to these kind
of stories, make them even more relevant to people.
Because I believe the whole essence of doing
journalism is to be able to communicate your
story out there, make people understand and truly
engage them. Because there's no whole point of
showcasing all these brilliant skills that without
really addressing the real, real concern that
needs to be addressed. So as much as, you know,
I've borrowed all these spelling cards types
of storytelling, in as much as we do heavy coding
to our stories, we try to kind of help drive
some sort of impact. And that's why we particularly
add the human voices on top of our stories. I
think that is a very powerful way to, you know,
put your work out there as a journalist. Not
only not focusing on the methods, You know, for
instance, you mentioned the 3D models. They are
very, you know, cool ways of telling a story,
but we use them to make the people remember that
story even further. Yeah. The innovation has
to fuel understanding. We have one other question
from the audience. Guilfoyle asks, and I think
this is based on some of your comments earlier
about ethically and doing investigations, particularly
when you're starting out and also thinking about
how you stay secure as well. Guilfoyle said,
how do you handle operational security among
your whole team? I imagine you get several phishing,
like email phishing attempts given your line
of work. Is that something that you have had
to face, particularly since starting in open
source research where you're kind of digging
into large data sets? Have you had a lot of online
threats or online attacks at all that you've
had to deal with within your team? Yeah, interesting.
I mean, at the media house, we were attacked
with a series of hashtags some point last year
as a result of our coverage that we had all these
forms of means and disinformation spread against
the mission media group. And it was politically
driven, basically. But now how can you, you know,
stay safe while doing all this kind of stuff.
Myself, I've not really gone so deep, especially
to the aspects of, you know, maybe trying to,
you know, track someone. But generally, I tend
to think this whole concept of, you know, being
secure online, probably like even having the
virtual boxes, sometimes it tends to be really,
really talking much about, but an essential thing
generally, and this is something that I picked
up over time and I also read so much about it.
It's really good to use secure communication
channels as you try and, you know, probably reach
your sources or try to contact people who maybe
you believe are in some sort of danger. And there
are tons of them out there, you know, secure
communication channels. We have session, we have
proton mail, we have saving. I believe as open
source researchers, I believe we have an ideal
space. But if you don't, there are tons out there
that, you know, maybe you can't read until you
understand how to, you know, use them. Something
else is just basically avoid logging into your
personal accounts while maybe trying to track
down an individual. In 253, we did an investigation
about, it was a PEP, a person of interest, like
a politically exposed personality who was connected
to the Al -Shabaab terrorism in East Africa.
And so, as I was researching, there was so much,
tons and tons of information about this person
on Facebook. At that point in time, uh, what
I did was establish, uh, another second account
to help me kind of, you know, obscure myself.
Because this guy basically would post stories
on a daily basis. And if you probably do a mistake
of, you know, going and feeling the story using
your, uh, real account on that you used to connect
to your loved one or one that is so personal
to you. they can be able to, you know, see your
digital footprints or kind of see you as one
of the viewers to that particular story. So having
a second account or a banner account is very,
very powerful. Also protecting yourself by knowing
the legal risk associated with, you know, Austin's
because some Austin techniques may violate the
hyper -fiction laws. VPNs are there. I know they've
been talked so much about. I use it myself most
of the time. As a company, we have a policy.
Our emails are well protected in -house. We usually
change our passwords after every three weeks
or one month, I believe. So it kind of helps
us secure our communication channels. So whenever
you're trying to establish a connection with
a source, who probably maybe is a whistleblower,
it kind of helps, it kind of limits the threats
of hacking or phishing. or all that stuff that
involves security concerns. Yeah, so the changing
of passwords, but that is done for us automatically
in our media house. And also all those other
things that are mentioned, they're very particular,
particularly important while, you know, doing
this online repurchase. And it helps quite a
long way in terms of even keeping our own...
your loved ones that you are, people who are
so close to you. Amazing. I know we started a
little bit late, so I want to ask one last question,
if that's okay, if you have time. Yeah, absolutely.
We can have all this time. Amazing. The question
I wanted to ask, and it's kind of a summary of
what you've been speaking about. I wanted to
understand from your perspective, what has been
the... Best parts and the most difficult parts
of working with open sources for breaking news
stories, like fast moving stories. What are the
best and the most difficult aspects of working
with open source in that context? Interesting
question. What else in the country competes with
breaking news stories? Yeah, because breaking
news stories physically are meant to like, you
know, move quickly. The story needs to be updated
and people move on after that. But the best thing,
if you ask me, there's an investigation I did
in 2023 around July, and my turn around time
was particularly faster. So we had this protest
in Kenya. It was like an anti -government protest
led by the opposition leaders. And we had a lot
of police brutality meted out against opposition.
Strongholds in Kenya. And there was this particular
video that really went viral online towards the
end of those demonstrations on a particular evening.
So there were a group of police, 16 police officers,
and unleashing brutality towards a single person
who was lying there helplessly. So when this
photo was shared to me by my editors, Um, it
was around 10 p .m. If my memory serves me right.
Um, and by midnight had like kind of hacked a
geolocation for that particular piece of, of
video. And we were able to establish where it
happened, the when, and all those, all those
basic questions one asked themselves while maybe
analyzing a piece of video. Um, the following
day, uh, that particular Geolocation was used
by human rights organizations. I remember Amnesty
International reaching out to me with a Twitter
handout. They used that to, you know, go and
provide help to the affected families in the
aftermath of those protests because there was
so much violence in the opposition strongholds.
So I did, that was one of my successful stories,
which like I had a quick turnaround. And it helped
not only in our newsroom, but it also helped
the public interest journalism that people are
speaking about. Because you see human rights
organizations, civil society organizations using
a piece of work to help these families. That
in itself is a very humbling moment for you and
your career as a journalist. Failures, we only
have failures, especially when, you know, but
we were doing open source research or we, maybe
when we are getting started. Keeping up with
the new cycle can be so hard. Um, one thing that
we've not really, really, um, paint on a personal
level up not really nails so well, um, is, you
know, applying all those tools. We have so many
tools. and which are quite expensive to, you
know, have access to. So some of the stories
that, potential stories that I identify online,
like coordinated inauthentic behaviors online,
or particularly on X, I tend to miss out on some
of those stories on the day they happen. But
then through collaborations, I mentioned we collaborate
with Code for Africa. We're usually able to reach
out later to them and they provide us with the
necessary data that can help us tell that story
after a day or two or even a week. So we do not
really have access to all the tools, you know,
some of them are really expensive, but we have
access to majority of the tools basically. So
that usually makes me feel somehow bad about,
you know, meeting out and, you know, missing
out on retorting some of these aspects. But usually
they make up for that reporting on that incident
way later, like the day to reporting aspects
to it. So we don't do it as a breaking news story
or a regular news story. We do it as a day to
story, a piece of story. Yeah. And that's how
I've been able to navigate my success and failure
and it's been impactful generally. Such good
advice, because I know that's something that
a lot of people struggle with is kind of the
fast moving nature of news and how to cover it
with open source as quickly as possible. I mean,
at Bellingcat, we still struggle with that sometimes
in terms of mobilization, particularly when there's
multiple news stories a day. So thank you so
much for that advice, Mike. As onto Sana, it's
been amazing to have you. In the beginning, you
said that you were a fan of Bellingcat. I think
you've created a fan of Mike's, to be honest,
in the audience, myself included. Thank you so
much for this talk. It's been amazing. And some
of our mods have put in the chat. Please hand
it over. Thank you so much, Ali and Bellingcat
for having me. Some of our mods are put in the
chat. Please hang around the Discord server because
there's quite a lot of people who want to ask
you questions in the server. So please do hang
around afterwards as well and just have a little
browse. Thank you so much for this talk and thank
you to everybody who's joined in the audience
as well today. Thank you for listening to the
stage talk. If you'd like to catch a stage tour
live where you can ask the guest questions, join
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