What could bring Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin and salmon together? Answer: a new investigative series from Arte titled “Sources”. For “open sources”: that is, documents (almost always) freely available on the Internet for those who know exactly what they are looking for, and where to look.
Gold mines for intelligence services and journalists, especially during conflicts – preferably cold -, and what to check and cross-check information when you suspect “fake news”. At the helm, Alexandra Jousset, Albert London Audiovisual Prize 2022, with her colleague Ksenia Bolchakova for the powerful documentary Wagner, Putin’s shadow army.
From the first episode, we put the cover back on with the Wagner Group and its enigmatic chef and founder. From hacked documents, journalists deploy the Prigozhin system: its private military company and its ties to the Russian state; the Lakhta Project and disinformation campaigns that target the West; the establishment of a service responsible for monitoring political opponents and covering up war crimes committed by Wagner’s mercenaries.
Making of black on white
The second issue is devoted to the underside of the organic salmon that we consume in Europe. Journalists trace how European companies are ravaging Mauritanian fish stocks to produce oils and flours that will be used to feed farmed salmon – a sector supposed to preserve ocean reserves from overfishing – consumed on the Old Continent.
By browsing through social networks, retrieving videos or photos from messaging applications, searching freely accessible databases on the Internet, satellite images or even GPS location tools for boats or planes, these journalists (in the World too) take advantage of the astronomical amount of data that is generated every day on the Web. For each Osint (Open Source Intelligence) survey, the method is described in length, a kind of black and white making of. “We wanted people to be able to follow our journey,” explains Alexandra Jousset. We are committed to restoring trust in journalistic work. »
This new Arte magazine, which should have six episodes per year, emphasizes rigor, served by ubiquitous graphic animation. The investigations and the methods deployed, as arid as certain stages are, are perfectly clear, leaving the viewer with the feeling that the investigation has unraveled before their eyes. Next issue end of May.