CIR Open Source Film Awards

Videos emerged online in August 2024 showing al Qaeda-affiliated militants conducting a massacre in the north-central town of Barsalogho in Burkina Faso.

Islamist militants gunned down scores as residents of the town dug defensive trenches on the orders of the army, according to a group of affected families and an eyewitness account.

The attack is believed to be the deadliest since violence spilled over from neighbouring Mali in 2015. 

It marked a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict that has plagued the Sahel region for nearly a decade.

On October 21, 2024, an Israeli airstrike landed meters from Lebanon’s largest public hospital, damaging it and sending chills through the country’s medical sector. The incident had shades of Gaza, where the healthcare system collapsed under the strain of similar attacks. For this visual investigation, CNN verified hundreds of airstrikes across Lebanon during the first month of Israel’s offensive, identifying bombs dropped within lethal proximity of hospitals. Cross-referencing findings with Lebanese health ministry data revealed at least 16 hospitals were damaged by nearby airstrikes. Commenting on CNN’s findings, Lebanese Health minister Firass Abiad accused Israel of “weaponizing” access to healthcare.

This feature shows how forms of pedocriminality thrive on Instagram. Journalists from Arte’s program Data Sources have discovered accounts using stolen images of children, on which users express their “sexual fantasies” in comments. Even more worrying, their investigation uncovered profiles dedicated to the sale of pedocriminal images. These profiles link to Telegram groups where folders containing hundreds of CSAM are sold. Under a false digital identity, journalists were then able to observe that Instagram’s algorithm suggested that they follow suspicious accounts and directed them to videos and photos of children. 

On March 27, 2023, a fire in a locked cell at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, killed 40 men and injured 27 others, marking the worst tragedy in such a facility in Mexico’s history. Citing lack of food and water and threats of deportation, the men set sleeping mats on fire over dire conditions, but locked doors, blocked exits, and staff inaction doomed those inside. Despite official claims, the investigation found that the keys remained in the facility, and audio revealed orders not to open doors. Using CCTV footage, audio, and 3D modeling, the investigation uncovers failures and raises questions about migrant detention in Mexico.

Since Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people in Israel on 7 October 2023, extremist Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank are increasingly using violence to seize land and property, forcing many Palestinians from their homes.

‘Settlements Above the Law’ reveals how these settlers are establishing “herding outposts”, giving them access to huge areas of land, in contravention of international and Israeli law. At least 196 of these outposts have been established in the occupied West Bank; almost half were built in the past five years.

This film investigates two extremist settlers and the powerful organisations which support them. 

Sexual violence is one of the weapons Russian soldiers systematically use against Ukrainians. However, these crimes are rarely reported or successfully investigated, and alleged criminals face no consequences. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have recorded 292 cases of sexual violence by the Russian military. This figure likely represents just the tip of the iceberg.

The war crimes investigations unit of the Kyiv Independent dedicated almost five months to identifying Russian soldiers who raped Ukrainian women. They were able to confirm that Mykola Senenko, a soldier with the 109th Motorized Rifle Regiment, raped a woman in Krasnivka, Kherson Oblast. Senenko’s unit, part of the Russian-controlled proxy army based in occupied Donetsk Oblast, was stationed in Krasnivka during the Russian occupation of parts of Kherson Oblast in early 2022. The other soldier, Nadbit Dabayev, private first class in the 8th Company of the 37th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, raped a woman in occupied Havronshchyna, Kyiv Oblast, where his brigade was stationed. The two identified Russian soldiers have not been punished for their crimes, according to information found by the Kyiv Independent.

The product of nearly six months of investigative reporting The Night Won’t End documents attacks on civilians by the Israeli military in Gaza while tracing the United States’ role in the war. Fault Lines worked with non-profit investigative groups Forensic Architecture and Earshot to provide the most comprehensive account on video of the attack on 6-year-old Hind Rajab. The film also investigates in detail a field execution that took place in Gaza City on Dec. 19, 2023. It is one of the few longform reports to detail arbitrary executions in the war.