A new digital handbook designed to help investigative journalists track corruption across borders was introduced Nov. 22 at the European Investigative Journalism Conference in Brussels. The two-day conference in Brussels focused on investigating financial misconduct and white-collar organized crime and tracking down trans-border corruption, especially in the context of the global financial crisis.

The author of the handbook, Paul Radu, introduced "Follow the Money - A Digital Guide to Tracking Corruption" during a panel discussion at the conference, where European, U.S. and Australian journalists discussed trends in investigative journalism and opportunities for cross-border cooperation. The handbook provides an array of new tools for investigative journalists that will help them give the public a better understanding of regional and global criminal networks.

Radu is training journalists in the Balkans and Eastern Europe to use the online handbook and other investigative methods to uncover corruption as part of his year-long Knight International Journalism Fellowship - a program of the International Center for Journalists in Washington, DC.

During his panel discussion, Radu demonstrated features of the manual including new techniques in cross-border investigative journalism and lists of Web sites and databases with information about commercial enterprises worldwide. Participants in the session discussed joint regional and global investigative projects that will make use of the new tools and databases.

The handbook is posted on the International Center for Journalists Web site www.icfj.org, on the Web site of the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism www.crji.org, and on other journalism Web sites including the conference’s Internet site: www.vvoj.nl.