Photo: Lilian Ribeiro (left), Dorothy Tucker (center) and Marcelo Moreira (right). Credit: Marco Pinto/Abraji

The international event promoted by the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) has established itself as one of the largest events in the field for the Americas. The conference at ESPM (The Higher School for Marketing and Advertising) in São Paulo from June 29 to July 2 attracted over 1,500 participants, including 300 who followed the event remotely. The four-day event featured 107 activities, which brought together 317 panelists, including moderators, speakers, and instructors.

These numbers mean that Abraji Congress is comparable to other major events in the field, such as the Texas Tribune Festival, IRE, Colpin, ISOJ, Nicar, and Gabo. Brazil has also seen the growth of the 3i and Piauí festivals.

This year, the Abraji Congress was held in a hybrid format, with half of its program live-streamed.  So far, about 300 people have registered for the online modality of the Congress. The digital content will be available until August 2, registration for the online remains open here.

Significant progress was made regarding the participation of non-white participants and speakers. The conference also included discussions on topics that are relevant to the entire world, such as threats to democracy, big tech, the environment, public safety, disinformation, corruption, racism, ableism, attempts to curtail press freedom, harassment against journalists, covering indigenous peoples, the LGBTQI+ population, events that culminated in the coup attempt on January 8.

The success of the Abraji Congress was evident even a week before the event started. Tickets for the in-person event sold out a week before the conference began. This is an increase in attendance from 2018 (872) and 2022 (920). In 2019, the Congress had a record number of attendees, with 1318. The 2023 event is on track to exceed that number, as seen in the graph below:

Abraji created its own methodology for collecting data on the gender diversity of participants at the Congress based on guidance from its diversity consultants. All attendees, regardless of whether they were invited, paying, speaking, or on the support team, were required to identify themselves on a form. Of the 899 respondents, cisgender women were the most represented group (62.7%), followed by cisgender men (34.3%).

In 2023, the percentage of non-white participants (Black, Indigenous, Asian, People of Color) was around 30%. However, it is important to note that since ABRAJI changed its methodology, these numbers cannot be directly compared to those of years before 2020. 

Despite the limitations on comparisons, there are signs that progress has been made on issues of inclusion and diversity. In 2019, the last fully in-person edition of the event, only 11% of speakers were non-white. In 2022, in the hybrid format, this percentage rose to 24%, and in 2023, it jumped to 32%. 

"We still have a lot to do to ensure that the composition of the Congress reflects Brazilian society. But it was a step forward. In addition to expanding representation in the event, we have sought to mirror this diversity in the topics discussed," says Abraji President Katia Brembatti.

One of the initiatives to ensure representativeness at the ABRAJI Congress was a partnership with sponsors to bring 28 press professionals from all over Brazil to the event. This brought up issues of regionality, gender, race, and even the situation of professionals who had their work threatened in 2022. As a result, journalists had the opportunity to follow the debates at the Congress and interact with colleagues from different parts of the country. 

Ten journalists from the Legal Amazon had their expenses paid through the Environmental Defenders program, funded by Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and Azul. The Embassy and Consulates of the United States sponsored the travel of 15 professionals, not only from the Amazon but from all regions of the country. Another three journalists had scholarships funded by The Trust Project. Some of these guests were asked to present their work at the discussion tables.

Journalists attended from over 120 cities in Brazil and around the world. The 16 guest panelists from abroad in 2023 came from the United States, Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Uruguay, Nigeria, Peru, France, the United Kingdom, and Russia.

Representatives from at least 190 organizations attended the Abraji Congress, including academic institutions, civil society organizations, media outlets of various sizes, segments and niches, and foundations. This represents a significant increase from the 144 organizations represented at the first event after the pandemic in 2022.

Press coverage 

The official coverage of the Abraji Congress was carried out by the Reporter of the Future Project’s Writing Lab, hosted by Oboré. This link, in Portuguese, provides access to the reports on most of the panels and training sessions, as well as the story about the great honoree of this edition, journalist Caco Barcellos. 

Sponsorship and support

The 18th International Congress of Investigative Journalism was a co-production of Abraji and the Journalism Program at ESPM.

The event is sponsored by Google, Meta, Luminate, the U.S. Embassy and consulates in Brazil,  Grupo Globo, TikTok, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Brasileira Albert Einstein (SBIBAE), Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal, McDonald's, Alma Preta, Cenarium, Folha de S.Paulo, Knight Center for Journalism in Americas, Lupa, Meio, Open Climate Reporting Initiative/Centre for Investigative Journalism (OCRI/CIJ), Poder 360, Redes Cordiais, SBT News and Trust Project.

Institutionally support  by Associação Brasileira de Emissoras de Rádio e Televisão (Abert), Associação de Jornalismo Digital (Ajor), Associação de Jornalistas de Educação (Jeduca), Associação Nacional de Editores de Revistas (Aner), Associação Nacional de Jornais (ANJ), Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma (Projeto da Escola de Jornalismo da Universidade Colúmbia), Fórum de Direito de Acesso a Informações Públicas, Instituto Palavra Aberta, Instituto para o Desenvolvimento do Jornalismo (Projor), Media Talks, Oboré, Portal Imprensa, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (Universidade de Oxford), Textual Comunicação, Transparência Internacional - Brasil e UNESCO. 

Media support is from CBN, GloboNews, Grupo RBS and revista piauí.

Photo Gallery

Brazilian journalist Caco Barcellos, great honoree of this edition, hugged one of the conference attendees. Photo: Marco Pinto/Abraji

Wesley Lowery discuss the coverage of Black Lives Matter at the18th International Congress of Investigative Journalism in São Paulo. Photo: Marco Pinto

 

One session discussed why people with disabilities are still excluded from Brazilian newsrooms. Photo: Marco Pinto

Students and journalists at 5th edition of Data Sunday, during the Abraji Conference. Instructors were Brazilians Cindy Damasceno, Lucas Thaynan, Jonathan Soma and Tshepo Tshabalala. The workshop discuss the use of IA in Journalism. Photo: Marco Pinto/Abraji

The Abraji Team at the end of the Conference. Photo: Marco Pinto/Abraji

If you are an international speaker or attendee and want a photo, please write to [email protected]