skills
Education
MA in international political economy, University of Manchester (distinction), and BA in history and Spanish, Lancaster University (first class).
Training (click to open dropdowns)
I have extensive training from leading journalism experts, including on libel, media law, fact-checking, ethical interviewing technique, safeguarding, data journalism, editing, house-style and storytelling. Click the dropdowns below for details.
BBC mentorship
Since January 2025 senior BBC reporter Katie Hunter has been my mentor, with monthly mentoring sessions. These sessions have ranged from meeting with BBC Scotland’s head of investigations, to attending Edinburgh High Court for training on court reporting. Organised via Women in Journalism Scotland (2025-present).
Centre for Investigative Journalism
- Finding stories with data course: five sessions (2024).
- Attended the #CIJGlasgow Conference. Sessions included e.g. supply chain investigations and source protection, advanced Google dorking, and using social media for investigations (2024).
Dark Green: Investigating climate finance
15 journalists from across Europe were selected to participate in this funded, in-depth series of 8 training sessions by leading investigative journalists, coordinated by Centre for Investigative Journalism. One of five participants awarded a story grant at the end of the training series (2025).
Ethical Consumer
- Media law (2020-26). In-house training and extensive practical experience of libel, right of replies, liaising with libel lawyers to check investigations, requesting free libel checks via TrustLaw.
- Press work (2020-26): Writing press releases, offering exclusives (including cross-border exclusives in different languages e.g. with The Guardian and El Pais), tracking press coverage.
Global Investigative Journalism Network
Detecting AI-Generated Content: Updated Tools and Techniques. Webinar (2026).
Journalismfund Europe
Environmental investigations and the law: What editors expect freelancers to know. Webinar (2026).
National Council for the Training of Journalists
- Media law and ethics. Training day (2023).
- Editing masterclass series of 5 sessions with the former BBC writing standards editor (2024).
Sessions on: Proofreading and punctuation; house style; engaging readers; story structure; and writing for web, SEO and headlines.
New Internationalist
A bespoke training session on ethical interviewing technique and safeguarding (2023).
Rory Peck Trust
Covering protest and civil unrest training day (2025).
Solutions Journalism Network
Building a “Good Conflict” Story webinar.
Society of Professional Journalists
Solutions journalism. Webinar (2026).
The Ferret
Three bespoke training sessions (2024) on:
- Fact-checking and misinformation.
- Local investigations.
- Storytelling.
Transitions and Journalismfund Europe
Using AI as a journalist webinar (2026).
Frequently used methods and tools
| FOI requests | OSINT & data scraping | Finding whistle-blowers |
| Interviewing & safeguarding | Right of replies & libel checks | AI assistants |
| Social media scanning | Spanish-language | Surveys |
Memberships
Jasmine Owens journalist profile 