'You Are Killing Us? We Will Make You a Joke.' Meet Ahmed Albasheer.

In an effort to fight government corruption, an initiative called Tracka monitors public spending allocations and holds town hall meetings in communities across Nigeria to educate residents about the budgeting process. The organization has engaged 967 communities and helped hold officials accountable for projects that were funded but never completed, such as an electricity substation in Kawu.

The UDEME Monitor program trains student journalists to track and report on transparency and accountability around publicly-funded projects. The team has produced roughly 1,000 stories exposing corruption and gaps in implementation and has worked directly with community residents to raise awareness around procurement processes.

When New York legislators abolished a state law that had long shielded police officers’ disciplinary records from public scrutiny, they were not just responding to recent protests but also to activism over many years by reform advocates and families of victims of police violence. Long-running legal challenges had failed to pry the records loose. But activists – opposed by police unions and their allies – had used public testimony, publicity, and their families’ stories to lay the groundwork for changes that then came quickly after George Floyd’s death sparked nationwide protests of police brutality.

Citizen watchdogs can hold local police accountable by using the tactics of investigative reporters that have successfully exposed systemic problems and sparked reforms. One reporter shares five approaches he’s used to hold up policies and practices to scrutiny, some of which led to positive change. He provides a how-to on learning the existing policies, obtaining public records, engaging influencers in honest dialog, presenting verified evidence in a fair format, and seeking allies to pressure for reform.

Four Corners television produced a documentary about the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China that uses footage filmed by residents. The clips, which show people with the virus being taken by police and bodies left on the street, were found on a YouTube channel where they were uploaded to prevent deletion by government censors. The company verified the location, time, and factual context of each clip, and wove them together with original reporting. The raw footage, shot on the ground with smart phones, was particularly memorable and the film received over 12 million views and high ratings in Australia.

La Liga Contra El Silencio is an alliance of 16 news organizations and hundreds of journalists in Colombia. It protects journalists against threats, which have the effect of censoring reporting on certain topics. La Liga pools resources for in-depth investigative reporting on stories many journalists fear covering and publishes them using the organization’s name in the byline to protect journalists. About 70 stories that brought to light violence and corruption were published in 2018 and 2019, yet the group has not faced any major threats. It could offer a model for how to report under threat worldwide.

After an economic downturn, several community-based radio stations have sprung up, offering an alternative to commercial stations and allowing Argentinians, especially those in rural areas, the opportunity to come together and choose what they want to listen to and talk about. One organization called DTL! collective helps organizations set up community radio stations by providing a transmitter, antenna, and other hardware.

In Uganda, a country with high levels of corruption and political patronage, citizen-led grassroots efforts to root out graft and enforce accountability have sprung up across the country. “Village budget clubs,” trained by the Forum for Women in Democracy, learn about Uganda’s constitution, government budgeting and planning, and what is required of public officials. Club members then attend meetings, follow up with public officials, and fill out scorecards that rank lawmaker performance.

The Cartel Project formed an international team of journalists that produced a five-part series on the murder of Mexican journalist Regina Martinez. The series also explored the subjects that Martinez's killers attempted to silence: particulars about drug trafficking and political corruption. The project was founded on the principle that journalism must be a cross-border collaboration to counter transnational crime syndicates. The series documented the role Mexicans play in the international drug business and in spying on and censoring journalists who seek to reveal these secrets.

Mahoning Matters formed as a news site with laid-off veterans of the Youngstown Vindicator, filling part of a void in local accountability journalism in what is now the largest U.S. city without a seven-day print newspaper. Its funder, The Compass Experiment, set the startup on a three-year trajectory toward self-sustainability, an experiment that has yet to play out. Meantime, Compass successfully recruited a tiny band of Vindicator alumni, whose first stories have included unmasking the public official whose sexual misconduct compromised the management of a local police department.