Platform Investico

Description

Investico is a Dutch non-profit foundation for investigative journalism and a trainer of journalistic talent, based in Amsterdam. It focuses exclusively on investigative journalism and always publishes in cooperation with other media. It works with more than 60 media partners, including regional, national and international newspapers, radio and television programmes.

Investico says its mission is to strengthen the democratic rule of law. It does this by feeding public debate with news and investigative stories that show how decisions come about, where their execution goes wrong, and how oversight functions on issues that matter to the Netherlands. It describes itself as an independent, non-profit ANBI foundation funded by donors rather than shareholders, advertisers or click and viewing figures. It says this lets it focus on in-depth journalism that scrutinises power.

Its editors are given months to work on a single investigation and are trained in data-journalism skills. Investico treats investigative journalism as a public good: it makes its research methods and results freely available to other researchers, journalists, academics and policymakers. It publishes its sources and accountability documents alongside its stories, and explains its editorial choices in its podcast Speurwerk.

Through its annual Masterclass Onderzoeksjournalistiek it trains five young investigative journalists a year. Many go on to work at Investico itself or at other Dutch quality media such as NRC Handelsblad, the TV programme Pointer, De Stentor or the radio programme Argos.

It is funded through support from philanthropic foundations, gifts from private donors who become ‘Vriend van Investico’, and legacies. It publishes its income, expenditure and governance documents, including its editorial statute, each year. Its director is Pieter Elshout, overseen by an unpaid six-member supervisory board, and its editor-in-chief is Thomas Muntz.