Investigative Reporters and Editors

September 19, 2026 | Investigative Reporters and Editors condemns President Donald Trump's ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House in apparent retaliation for their coverage of the Trump Administration. In a post on Truth Social, President Trump said the news organizations would be banned because of articles he claimed were “fake news.” He also threatened that other news outlets would be banned, as well. These outlets are doing important work to inform the public.

In the United States, investigative journalists can often begin their work with a powerful tool: a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. But access to public records isn’t created equally, especially in countries more hostile to investigative reporting. In Yemen, there is no comparable system that reliably opens government records to journalists.

Investigative Reporters & Editors is honored to announce that Laura Barrón-López will headline our keynote conversation for AccessFest26, the organization’s sixth virtual-by-design conference Oct. 8-10. Barrón-López serves as an MS NOW White House Reporter.

By | Published September 8, 2026 Inclusive reporting is more important than ever as basic democratic freedoms are under attack in the U.S. More and more, LGBTQ+ people are being excluded from spaces like public bathrooms and youth sports, the government is restricting their access to medical care, and some states are even changing laws to invalidate trans people’s driver’s licenses. LGBTQ+ individuals and communities rarely have the opportunity to see themselves in mainstream reporting.

AccessFest is our most affordable and accessible annual conference! No travel, no hotels, no early-bird deadlines, just world-class training at your fingertips. Join us online, October 8-10, for AccessFest 2026. Professional, Early-career professional, Academic, Retiree and Associate members can register at any time for just $76 (a nod to our very first IRE Conference in 1976). Student members can register at any time for just $26 (a nod to our 50th year of conferences).

Nadia Nadesan & Digit / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ AI may bode ill for the journalism industry as a whole, but for us data journalists, it opens up a new method for answering important questions in ways readers should trust. LLM classification — and its cousin, extraction — sits in the Venn diagram overlap: an AI tool that helps us do more valuable, credible work, and that we can convince our readers to trust.

Watchdog training is coming to students in the Midwest and Puerto Rico this fall. As higher learning institutions work to hinder, pressure or punish student newspapers over reporting controversial stories, IRE, in partnership with Open Campus, is proud to bring watchdog training to two universities in September.

IRE wants your help to design the blueprint for its future! As investigative journalism continues to evolve, so must our organization. Your feedback will help identify the priorities that should guide IRE over the next several years – from supporting journalists in a rapidly changing media landscape to strengthening IRE for the future. Fill out the online survey here. “The best strategic plans are built by listening to the people they serve,” said IRE Board President Josh Hinkle.

By Katrina Michalak, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, Arizona State University Erin Orr was at the inception of her journalism career in the 1990s, working the business and real estate beat. As she was interviewing a source at an evening business event, the man repeatedly called her “honey,” commented on her dress, and drew her in for a lingering embrace — all in front of his wife.

The staff of Investigative Reporters & Editors is planning the next webinars for the rest of 2026 and we want your help! If you’ve attended any webinars from IRE in the past year, we’d love it if you filled out this short survey that will help us figure out what’s most important to our members. Whether you attended one, watched a recording, or registered and couldn’t attend, we want to hear from you.