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The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (typically abbreviated to TBIJ or "the Bureau") is a nonprofit news organisation based in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. It was founded in 2010 to pursue "public interest" investigations. "Journalism bureau opens for business with seven investigations on the go"
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, 27 April 2010. Accessed 26 September 2015. The Bureau works with publishers and broadcasters to maximise the impact of its investigations. Since its founding it has collaborated with '' Panorama'', ''
Newsnight ''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...
'', and ''
File on 4 ''File on 4'' is a current-affairs radio programme produced by BBC News and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. First broadcast from Manchester in 1977, it is produced in Salford by the BBC's Radio Current Affairs department. It has won more than forty aw ...
'' at the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
,
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
''
News News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. N ...
'' and '' Dispatches'', as well as the ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
'', ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
'', and ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...
'', among others. The Bureau has covered a wide range of stories and won many awards including for its coverage of the drone wars and investigation of "joint enterprise" murder convictions. Its CEO/Editor in Chief is Rozina Breen.


History

The Bureau was established in 2010 by former '' Sunday Times'' reporter Elaine Potter, who worked on exposing the
Thalidomide scandal In the late 1950s and early 1960s and into the 80s, the use of thalidomide in 46 countries by women who were pregnant or who subsequently became pregnant resulted in the "biggest man-made medical disaster ever," with more than 10,000 children bo ...
, and her husband David Potter, who founded software company Psion. Initial funding for the project came from the Potters' charitable foundation, which committed £2 million."UK investigative journalism bureau wins £2m grant"
Press Gazette ''Press Gazette'', formerly known as ''UK Press Gazette'' (UKPG), is a British media trade magazine dedicated to journalism and the press. First published in 1965, it had a circulation of about 2,500, before becoming online-only in 2013. Publis ...
, 17 July 2010. Accessed 12 October 2015. Elaine cites one of her inspirations being the creation two years previous of
ProPublica ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit organization based in New York City. In 2010, it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece written by one of its journalists''The Guardian'', April 13, 2010P ...
, a nonprofit organisation based in New York with a similar remit, also funded philanthropically."Investigative Bureau Tries to Make Up for British News Cutbacks"
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
, 4 April 2010. Accessed 26 September 2015. In the run-up to launch
Stephen Grey Stephen Grey (born 1968 in Rotterdam, Netherlands) is a British investigative journalist and author best known for revealing details of the CIA's program of 'extraordinary rendition.'Overseas Press Club of Americ2007 award winner citations/ref> ...
was acting editor until the appointment of
Iain Overton Iain Overton (born 1973) is a British investigative journalist and the author of ''The Price of Paradise: How the Suicide Bomber Shaped the Modern World'' and ''Gun Baby Gun: A Bloody Journey into the World of the Gun''. He has been given the ...
as its first permanent managing editor. Ian Overton was succeeded by former ''Sunday Times'' Insight editor
Christopher Hird Christopher is the English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or '' Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Christ" or "Anointed", and φέρει� ...
in December 2012 and
Rachel Oldroyd Rachel Oldroyd was until 2022 the managing editor at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. She previously worked at ''The Mail on Sunday,'' where she launched the Reportage section. In 2011, she was awarded an Amnesty International UK Media ...
became Managing Editor in 2014. Rozina Breen became CEO/Editor in Chief in 2022.


Notable investigations


US raid on Yakla, Yemen

On January 29, 2017, a
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
-led Special Operations Forces operation was carried out in Yakla Village, Qifah District, in the Al Bayda province in central
Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
. It was the first raid authorized by President
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
, The US military initially denied there were any civilian casualties, but later declared it was investigating if they occurred. An investigation by the Bureau on the ground found that 9 children under the age of 13, with the youngest victim a three-month-old baby were killed. Beside the nine children killed, one pregnant woman was also killed. The Bureau's story was picked up by the ''Guardian'', ''Newsweek'' and many other media outlets.


Bell Pottinger operations in Iraq

The Bureau working with the ''Sunday Times'' revealed on October 2, 2016 that the Pentagon paid British PR firm
Bell Pottinger Bell Pottinger Private (legally BPP Communications Ltd.) was a British multinational public relations, reputation management and marketing company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. On 12 September 2017 it went into administration (bankr ...
$540 million to create fake terrorist videos, fake news articles for Arab news channels and propaganda videos. An investigation by Abigail Fielding Smith and Crofton Black revealed the details of the multimillion-pound operation. Bell Pottinger was paid by the US Department of Defence (DoD) for five contracts from May 2007 to December 2011, according to ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' and the Bureau. Lord Bell confirmed Bell Pottinger reported to the Pentagon, the
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
and the U.S. National Security Council on its work in Iraq.


Deaths from antibiotic resistance

The Bureau is running a continuing investigation into the threat posed by antibiotic resistant bacteria. In December 2016 Madlen Davies working with the ''Sunday Telegraph'' revealed that superbugs were killing at least twice as many people as the government estimated. In October 2016, Andrew Wasley working with the ''Guardian'' revealed that pork contaminated with
MRSA Methicillin-resistant ''Staphylococcus aureus'' (MRSA) is a group of Gram-positive bacteria that are genetically distinct from other strains of ''Staphylococcus aureus''. MRSA is responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. ...
was being sold at Asda and Sainsburys.


Covert drone war

The Bureau monitors drone strike casualties in
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
,
Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
and Somalia. In Yemen and Somalia, these figures also include victims of drone strikes, airstrikes, missile attacks and ground operations. Unlike other organisations that track such deaths, the Bureau focuses on identifying non-militant deaths, including children. The data from this research is published online. Jack Serle was one of three Bureau reporters who won the
Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, named for the war correspondent, Martha Gellhorn, was established in 1999 by the Martha Gellhorn Trust. The Trust is a UK-registered charity. The award is founded on the following principles: The awar ...
in 2013 for "their research into Barack Obama’s drone wars and their consequences for civilians".


Binary options

A series of articles in 2016 written by Melanie Newman exposed the "real wolves of Wall Street" involved in
binary option A binary option is a financial exotic option in which the payoff is either some fixed monetary amount or nothing at all.Breeden, D. T., & Litzenberger, R. H. (1978). "Prices of state-contingent claims implicit in option prices". ''Journal of Busin ...
s fraud. According to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau's head of crime, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Fyfe, this is the biggest fraud being perpetrated against British targets today with police receiving an average of two reports of binary trading fraud a day, with the average investor losing £16,000. Fyfe described this as "just the tip of the iceberg" because most of the frauds are not reported to the police because the fraudsters are usually located abroad.


Joint enterprise

In February 2016, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the law on "
joint enterprise The doctrine of common purpose, common design, joint enterprise, joint criminal enterprise or parasitic accessory liability is a common law legal doctrine that imputes criminal liability to the participants in a criminal enterprise for all reaso ...
" in murder cases, which allows for several people to be charged with the same offence even though they may have played very different roles in the crime, had been wrongly interpreted. This followed a long-running Bureau investigation into joint enterprise. The Bureau found that black British men were more than three times as likely to be serving life sentences as a result of a joint enterprise conviction than those in the prison population overall. Three Bureau reporters – Maeve McClenaghan,
Melanie McFadyean Melanie McFadyean is a British journalist and lecturer. She has written for a wide range of papers, including ''The Guardian'', ''The Observer'', ''The Sunday Times'' and ''The Independent'', particularly about social injustice, immigration and as ...
and Rachel Stevenson – won the 2013–14
Bar Council {{see also, Bar association A bar council ( ga, Comhairle an Bharra) or bar association, in a common law jurisdiction with a legal profession split between solicitors and barristers or advocates, is a professional body that regulates the profes ...
Legal Reporting Award for the coverage.


Europe's missing millions

An investigation in collaboration with the
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
into how the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
structural funds were used, and whether the policy was achieving what it set out to do."Europe’s grand vision loses focus"
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
, 29 November 2010. Accessed 18 October 2015. It found that millions of euros were being siphoned off by organised crime syndicates, and that money was being used to support multinational corporations instead of small and medium-sized businesses, including help to finance a British American Tobacco cigarette factory. The Bureau co-produced an episode of
File on 4 ''File on 4'' is a current-affairs radio programme produced by BBC News and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. First broadcast from Manchester in 1977, it is produced in Salford by the BBC's Radio Current Affairs department. It has won more than forty aw ...
with the BBC on the story"BBC Radio 4 - File on 4, Europe's Missing Millions"
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
, 5 December 2010. Accessed 1 March 2013. which received the UACES Reporting Europe Prize."UACES Reporting Europe Prize 2011 Winners"
, UACES Reporting Europe. Accessed 1 March 2013.


Lobbying's hidden influence

Public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...
firm
Bell Pottinger Bell Pottinger Private (legally BPP Communications Ltd.) was a British multinational public relations, reputation management and marketing company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. On 12 September 2017 it went into administration (bankr ...
were the centre of a Bureau covert filming operation published in ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
.'' In the footage senior executives claim that they can get
UK prime minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...
David Cameron to speak to the
Chinese premier The premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, commonly called the premier of China and sometimes also referred to as the prime minister, is the head of government of China and leader of the State Council. The premier is ...
on behalf of one of their clients within 24 hours, and that they have a team which "sorts" negative
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
coverage.
Bell Pottinger Bell Pottinger Private (legally BPP Communications Ltd.) was a British multinational public relations, reputation management and marketing company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. On 12 September 2017 it went into administration (bankr ...
subsequently filed a complaint with the
Press Complaints Commission The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) was a voluntary regulatory body for British printed newspapers and magazines, consisting of representatives of the major publishers. The PCC closed on Monday 8 September 2014, and was replaced by the Inde ...
about the investigation, which was rejected.


Deaths in police custody

An investigation in collaboration with ''The Independent'' found that the number of people who had died after being forcibly restrained whilst in police custody was higher than official figures showed. This was due to the exclusion of anyone who had died following restraint but had not at that point been formally arrested. The Bureau also reported their findings with the BBC in an episode of
File on 4 ''File on 4'' is a current-affairs radio programme produced by BBC News and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. First broadcast from Manchester in 1977, it is produced in Salford by the BBC's Radio Current Affairs department. It has won more than forty aw ...
. The story won an
Amnesty International Media Award The Amnesty International Media Awards are a unique set of awards which pay tribute to the best human rights journalism in the UK. Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK's director, said that the awards recognise the "pivotal role of the UK med ...
.


Iraq war logs

The
Iraq war logs Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
were 391,832 classified
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
field reports leaked to
WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...
, which shared them with a number of news organisations, including the Bureau, before publishing them online in their entirety. The Bureau worked with
Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...
and
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
to analyse the documents which detail torture, summary executions, and war crimes carried out by US forces. The Bureau's reporting received an
Amnesty International Media Award The Amnesty International Media Awards are a unique set of awards which pay tribute to the best human rights journalism in the UK. Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK's director, said that the awards recognise the "pivotal role of the UK med ...
.


Russia Report

In 2019, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism started a crowdfunding exercise to raise funds for legal action to force the British government to release the "Russia Report" detailing the
Intelligence and Security Committee The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) is a statutory joint committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, appointed to oversee the work of the UK intelligence community. The committee was established in 1994 by the ...
's investigation into
Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum is a debated subject and remains unproven, though multiple sources argue evidence exists demonstrating that the Russian government attempted to influence British public opinion in favor of leavin ...
.


Criticism

The Bureau was seriously criticised after the Newsnight McAlpine affair in November 2012. BBC Newsnight broadcast an investigation of the North Wales child abuse scandal. The reporter was Angus Stickler who had been seconded to the BBC by the Bureau. Stickler's broadcast report included claims that a prominent, but unnamed, former Conservative politician had sexually abused children during the 1970s."BBC crisis: timeline of events"
The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
, 15 November 2012. Accessed 15 November 2015. Users of Twitter and other social media immediately identified him as
Lord McAlpine Robert Alistair McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of West Green (14 May 1942 – 17 January 2014) was a British businessman, politician and author who was an advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. McAlpine was descended from the McAlpine baronets ...
. After ''The Guardian'' reported that it was mistaken identity, Lord McAlpine issued a strong denial. The accuser unreservedly apologised, admitting that, as soon as he saw a photograph of the individual, he realised he had been mistaken."Lord McAlpine victim of mistaken identity, abused man says"
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
, 9 November 2012. Accessed 15 November 2015. BBC director-general
George Entwistle George Edward Entwistle (born 8 July 1962) was Director-General of the BBC during 2012, succeeding Mark Thompson. After a career in magazine journalism, he joined BBC Television in 1989, becoming a producer with a primary focus in factual and ...
resigned later that day. The Bureau's Managing Editor Ian Overton and Angus Stickler also resigned.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bureau of Investigative Journalism Non-profit organisations based in London United Kingdom journalism organisations Investigative journalism