The 2017 Investigative Journalism Conference is done and dusted.

When: 12-13 August 2017 | Where: AUT University, Auckland | Tickets: Waged $85, Unwaged $30

The programme

There was great line-up for this two-day event, including:

• The live launch of Dr James Hollings’ new book: A Moral Truth: 150 Years of Investigative Journalism in New Zealand

• Tony Wall on the Art of the Door-knock. Wall is a master of fronting those he is writing about, as he showed when he went into one of the remotest parts of New Zealand to meet now-convicted stop-go killer Quinton Winders

• Mihi Forbes, Annabelle Lee and Adrian Stevanon on The Hui’s work with the Ngā Mōrehu state care abuse survivors, and how they supported the men who spoke out.

• New Zealand Herald sport editor-at-large Dylan Cleaver on exposing rugby’s dark concussion secret – and challenging the sacred cow of New Zealand sport

• Master storyteller and former Metro editor Simon Wilson on the art of long-form writing and what it is that lifts a story beyond ordinary

• NZ Herald journalist Kirsty Johnston on freeing Ashley Peacock – “how the state imprisoned a man guilty of nothing”
• Author and investigative journalist Nicky Hager on how the book Hit & Run: The New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the Meaning of Honour came together and its aftermath – how to deal with the attacks on the story you have published

• Independent journalist Anke Richter on the anguish of getting too close to the story during her painstaking investigation into the Centrepoint community and her work on  the “Circle” pyramid scheme

• Author Steve Braunias (Spinoff/NZ Herald) on the importance of investigative journalism and why doing what we do matters so much

• Human Rights Lawyer Deborah Manning on lawyers as sources – how to make it work when their obligation is to their client and your is to the public interest

Workshops were on offer too:

• Prof Thomas Lumley, author of StatsChat, on calling bullshit on numbers: statistical first-aid
• Insomnia Security Consultants Chris Smith and Adam Couper on JournoSec – How to Protect Yourself, Your Data and Your Sources
• David Fisher and Greg Treadwell on 10 Things You’re Doing Wrong With Your OIA Requests and How To Fix Them