The CORRECTIV (or CORRECT!V) is a German nonprofit

investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years res ...

newsroom whose stated goal is "to give citizens access to information." With about 20 staff members, CORRECT!V is the only nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative center in Germany. CORRECT!V describes itself as an organization that is "one of the many answers to the media crisis." CORRECT!V releases its reports in English, German and Russian languages via its web site to media outlets throughout Europe and around the globe.

History

CORRECT!V was initiated in 2014 by the charitable organization "CORRECTIV – Recherchen für die Gesellschaft" ("CORRECTIV – Research for Society") based in Essen and has been supported by the Brost Foundation with a grant of €1 million per year for three years.

Organization

CORRECT!V is a member of the International Fact-Checking Network.

Funding

CORRECT!V is a nonprofit organization and exempt from taxation under German law. The funding comes entirely from charitable foundations as well as membership fees and donations from the users and readers. CORRECT!V does not depend on sales or advertising. All donations of more than €1000 are listed on the website. CORRECT!V is "nonprofit, independent and investigative".

Board of directors

David Schraven David Schraven (born 1970 in Bottrop, Germany) is a German journalist. From 2010 to 2014, he was head of investigations at Funke Mediengruppe, one of the largest European media holdings for regional newspapers including Westdeutsche Allgemeine Z ...

is the publisher and Simon Kretschmer the executive director.

Editorial stance

CORRECT!V wants "to make investigative and informative journalism affordable and accessible to media organizations throughout Germany."

Reports/Publications

CORRECT!V reported amongst other things on * "The System of Putin" (Dirty Money and State Collapse) * "TTIP - The Deal" (Investigative, Analytic, Interactive: All about the Free Trade) * "

Flight MH17 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17) was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down by Russian forces on 17 July 2014, while flying over eastern Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed. C ...

" (Searching for the truth) * "The Invisibles" (Hundreds of thousands live in Germany without papers) * "Weisse Wölfe" (A graphic investigation into the Nazi underground) * "Court Donations" (How Judges And Prosecutors Hand Out Millions Every Year With Almost No Oversight) * "Mafia in Africa" (How the mafia infiltrates the African economy) * "Mafia" (Stories about the Mafia: drugs, dirty money, murder and investigations) * "Deadly Superbugs" (An investigation of one of the largest health risks of the next decades) * "Football Doping" (Everything about Doping and Painkillers in Football) * "Generation E" (The big migration from South to North) * Couchsurfing * "Business Cheats" (How Fraudsters Turn Forged Bonds Into Cash) * "Das Olivenöl-Kartell" (The Olive-Oil-Cartell) * " CumEx-Files" * "Grand Theft Europe"

Flight MH17

CORRECT!V described the

as one of the greatest war crimes of modern times. Over several months it gathered facts, investigated in eastern Ukraine and Russia, and found witnesses to the missile launch, unveiled a clear chain of evidence that MH17 was downed by a BUK missile ground-launched by a unit of the 53rd Russian Air Defense Brigade from Kursk. The brigade unit operated in mid July on Ukrainian territory without displaying national emblems.

Awards

* 2014:

Journalist des Jahres A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

in category "newcomer" for the team of Correctiv * 2015: Grimme Online Award for their investigation "MH17 – Die Suche nach der Wahrheit" * 2015: Deutscher Reporterpreis in category "innovation" for graphic feature "Weisse Wölfe" by

and Jan Feindt * 2015: Deutsch-Französischer journalism award for "MH17 – Die Suche nach der Wahrheit" * 2016: Deutscher Reporterpreis in category "innovation" * 2016:

in category "Team des Jahres" (Team of the year) * 2016: LeadAward in category Independent of the year * 2016: Axel Springer Preis in category "Investigation" for undercover-Feature "animal thieves" * 2016: Award "Innovation of the year" by '' Wirtschaftsjournalist'' magazine for developing the softwar
CrowdNewsroom
and the analysis of mutual banks "Sparkassen-Check" * 2016: Deutscher Reporterpreis in category "innovation" * 2017: ERM-Mediaaward for sustainable development. Award for Fabian Löhe and Annika Joeres for Correctiv * 2018: Deutsch-Französischer journalism award for the project
searise
by Annika Joeres and Simon Jockers for Correctiv * 2018: Dr.-Georg-Schreiber-Mediaaward * 2018: Journalistenaward by Apothekerstiftung Westfalen Lippe for reporting on "Alte Apotheke" * 2018: Otto-Brenner-Preis for journalism for the works "Er kommt am Abend" and "Vergewaltigt auf Europas Feldern" by Pascale Müller (Correctiv) and Stefania Prandi (

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. ...

) * 2018: UmweltMedienpreis ny Deutschen Umwelthilfe for the project "Irrsinn der Agrarpolitik" by Justus von Daniels, Stefan Wehrmeyer and Annika Joeres for CORRECTIV * 2019: Nannen Preis in feature for article "Vergewaltigt auf Europas Feldern" by Pascale Müller (Correctiv) and Stefania Prandi (BuzzFeed)