On the road
2022
21/25 November 2022. Re-Check participated with a panel to the international congress POLI-COVID-22 Salute, Scienza e Società alla prova della pandemia, which took place in Turin (Italy). Among the international speakers: John Ioannidis, Tom Jefferson, Peter Doshi, Sunetra Gupta. Available online in open access: program and recordings.
22 June 2022. We opened with a key note speech the training module for Italian journalists Le mie evidenze, le tue evidenze e le evidenze, organised by INMP / NIHP with the patronage of the Italian National Journalism Board. Recordings are available here.
7 May 2022. Serena Tinari was the key note speaker at the Dies Academicus of USI university in Lugano. Her speech: Journalism, academia and society. In crisis mode.
4 May 2022. Serena Tinari was a jury member for ScienceFlashTalk by the Swiss School of Public Health SSPH+, a foundation of swissuniversities.
27/29 April 2022. We participated to the symposium Analyzing Ghost-management: Dynamics of Corporate Power in a Risk Society. The recording of our presentation Mapping Ghost-Management at Work in the Biopharmaceutical Sector, Public Health, and the Surveillance-Industrial Complex is available, along with the other panels, here.
29 March 2022. Episode 11 of Radio Libertà’s podcast with Serena Tinari: Il problema con il giornalismo pandemico. Uncut and open-access. In Italian.
19 March 2022. Italian Journalist Martina Pastorelli interviewed Serena Tinari.
Pastorelli’s independent and open-access productions are published as 2 minutes clips over months, and finally in full uncut version. In Italian. Here to watch the first published clips.
28 Februar 2022. Long format and uncut. Martin Bernard and Ouriel Barbezat of Anti|thèse interviewed Catherine Riva and Serena Tinari for over two hours and the result is online, in open access. They talked about #PandemicJournalism, Covid19 evidence-free policies, social media censorship, the shameful silencing of critical voices, the smearing campaign against real experts, the function creep potential of Covid certificates, how science and regulation used to work – imperfect but in hindsight reasonable – before these two years of madness. And much more. In French. COVID-19. Fin de partie?
2021
8 December 2021. Publication of Catherine Riva and Serena Tinari piece for The BMJ: Covid-19: Whatever happened to the Novavax vaccine? doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n2965
23 November 2021. New open access publication (3 episodes with a map): “Function creep in pandemic mode: the strange case of the Covid-19 certificates”. Investigation conducted with Dutch investigative journalist Jannes van Roermund, also published on Follow The Money
2 November / 4 November 2021. Catherine Riva and Serena Tinari organized and were speakers at two panels on Investigating health and medicine for the 2021 Global Investigative Journalism Conference (GIJC).
15 October 2021. At Data-SKUP in Oslo (N), Serena Tinari was a key note speaker at the Pandemic Masterclass.
23 September 2021. Serena Tinari was a jury member for ScienceFlashTalk by the Swiss School of Public Health SSPH+, a foundation of swissuniversities.
5 September 2021. Serena Tinari awarded the CICAP’s prize In difesa della ragione.
16 August 2021. Re-Check has been registered as non-profit organisation in Switzerland. New board of directors: Alessandra Di Pietro, Eva Pedrelli, Aleksandra Roth-Belkova, Catherine Riva, Serena Tinari. Financial auditor: Urs Wyss Buchhaltungsbüro. Co-presidents: Catherine Riva and Serena Tinari.
13 July 2021. Publication of Catherine Riva and Serena Tinari piece for The BMJ: Donuts, drugs, booze, and guns: what governments are offering people to take covid-19 vaccines. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1737
1 July 2021. Interview with Serena Tinari for Radio Onda d’Urto on Re-Check mission, and pandemic journalism. Listen to the recording (in Italian).
29 June 2021. Serena Tinari joined a GIJN Webinar for the launching of the #GIJNHealthGuide written by Re-Check: “Public Health: investigating Big Pharma influence”. Speakers: Juan Gervas, Fabiola Torres. Moderator: GIJN Spanish editor Andrea Arzaba. Recording available in English and Spanish LINK recording.
18 June 2021. The Ghost-Management project was awarded an Insight Grant by SSHRC, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
11 June 2021. New open access publication: Democracy in pandemic mode: the strange case of the COVID certificate. Available in English, French and German.
3 June 2021. Serena Tinari joined the experts’ pool of Le Pacte, a new organization that will distribute grants and support investigative journalists in Switzerland.
26 May 2021. GIJN en français organised a webinar to launch the French version of the #GIJNHealthGuide written by Re-Check: “Public Health: investigating Big Pharma influence”. Speakers: our Catherine Riva, Marc-André Gagnon, Hanène Zbiss and Anne Chailleu (Formindep). Moderation by GIJN’s French editor Marthe Rubio. From revolving doors to ghost management, to the science of the influence, plenty of resources and background packed in a rich session. Recording available here.
8 May 2021. Re-Check published its Ethical Charter and presented its brand new International Advisory Board. A milestone for our organization.
6 May 2021. Online presentation by Catherine Riva on conflicts of interest and ghost-management during a teaching session on conflicts of interest for junior family doctors and general practitioners. On invitation by Pr Paul Frappé, Faculty of Medicine, University of Saint-Etienne (F).
10 April 2021. Forward published an interview with Serena Tinari by Tiziano Costantini featuring pandemic journalism and how communication in Covid times is letting down both the public and the scientific methodology, by conveying context-free and not evidence-based information. “How did communication change with COVID-19?” In English / In Italian
20 March 2021. New on Re-Check website: a secure platform that allows to share information with us in a confidential, anonymous and secure manner. The open-source software GlobaLeaks has been developed by the Hermes Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights and has been already implemented by many organisations worldwide.
19 March 2021. Re-Check joined “Behind The Mask. Whistleblowing During the Pandemic” a free live-streamed conference organized by Disruption Network Lab. Panel “Digging Deeper into Healthcare: The Vaccine Rollout, Pandemic Journalism & Corruption” with our Serena Tinari, Alexander Nanau and Sarah Steingrüber, moderated by Transparency International’s Jonathan Cushing. Workshop “Get Your Numbers Straight: Making Sense of Health Data” with Serena Tinari.
12 March 2021. Catherine Riva and Serena Tinari joined Joop Bouma and Paul Thacker in the advisory board of OverNu.
10 March 2021. Serena Tinari investigation for The BMJ “The EMA covid-19 data leak, and what it tells us about mRNA instability”, doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n627.
10 March 2021. IlMitte.com interview with Serena Tinari about Re-Check methodology and pandemic journalism. In Italian, “Tutti hanno diritto alla verità” (Everyone has a right to the truth).
19 February 2020: Catherine Riva and Serena Tinari have published in English, French and German an analysis and commentary on the group of experts that is supposed to inform Swiss decision-makers about the scientific evidence in the coronavirus crisis: “Science in Pandemic Mode: The Strange Case of the Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force”. Re-Check Info-Stream
8 February 2021. Alexandra Breaud article about Re-Check methodology published by Soins infirmiers, the monthly of the Swiss professional association of nursing professionals SBK-ASI. Breaud had participated to Catherine Riva presentation organized by the nurses’ accredited Swiss training center Institut et Haute Ecole de la Santé La Source. Lausanne (CH). In French, “Le traitement journalistique des questions sanitaires. La santé au prisme des médias” (Journalism on health issues. Health through the media lens) .
2020
3 December 2020: Serena Tinari joined Peter Doshi for a webinar organized by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and moderated by Le Monde’s investigative journalist Stéphane Horel: “Investigating the pandemic: Behind the COVID-19 vaccine race”.
2 December 2020: Catherine Riva published with Jean-Pierre Spinosa the article “Has the HPV vaccine approval ushered in an era of over-prevention?” in the Journal of Scientific Practice and Integrity (JosPI), doi: 10.35122/001c.18180.
1 December 2020: Catherine Riva joined the debate “Les medias généralistes à l’ère du COVID-19. Entre devoir d’information et complaisance: enjeux, contraintes et enseignements à tirer” (Mainstream media in the era of COVID-19. Between duty to inform and complacency: challenges, constraints, and lessons to be learned). With Etienne Kocher (RTS). Hosted by AESSP, ESSOPOL Section, and ASSOPOL Alumni. University of Lausanne. Watch
26 November 2020: Serena Tinari keynote on the pitfalls of pandemic journalism opened the Dutch-Flemish Association for Investigative Journalism (VVOJ) conference.
21 November 2020: Catherine Riva and Serena joined the Misinformation in Medicine Summit with a panel organized by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and moderated by GIJN program director Anne Koch: “Investigating health and medicine: strategies and tips for better reporting”.
20 November 2020: The Guide Investigating Health & Medicine, commissioned to Re-Check by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) has been published.
19 October 2020: Catherine Riva and Serena Tinari joined the coordinating panel of the Lown List of Independent Health Experts.
14 October 2020: A Re-Check, COVID-19 related research project submitted by Catherine Riva received a Research Sponsorship of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences.
8-11 October 2020: Mentoring of Pitch section finalists by Serena Tinari and Susanne Reber. Panel “COVID-19: narrazione, ricerca e inchiesta sui temi della medicina e della salute pubblica (COVID-19: narrative, research and investigation on the topic of medicine and public health)” hold by Serena Tinari and Francesca Sironi. DIG Festival, Modena (I).
29 September 2020: Presentation by Catherine Riva at the CINQ À SEPT “Re-Check: les coulisses des affaires de santé comme vous ne les avez jamais vues (Re-Check: Snoop in the backstage of public health affairs and issues” organized by the nurses’ accredited Swiss training center Institut et Haute Ecole de la Santé La Source. Lausanne (CH).
8-10 September 2020. Serena Tinari organised and hosted the Health Track at DataHarvest Digital, the European Investigative Journalism Conference #EIJC20 #dataharvest2020: Reporting on public health in the corona-crisis
16 June 2020: Serena Tinari was a jury member for ScienceFlashTalk by the Swiss School of Public Health SSPH+, a foundation of swissuniversities. Bern (CH).
7 May 2020: Presentation by Serena Tinari at the webinar “Evaluating the Evidence” organized by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) as part of its “Investigating the Pandemic” webinar series. With Tom Jefferson (Clinical Epidemiologist) and Carl Heneghan (Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine). Video
29 April 2020: Presentation by Catherine Riva at the webinar “Journalistes: comment avoir une approche scientifique? (Journalists: How to take a scientific approach)” organized by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN en français) as part of its webinar series “Enquêter sur la pandémie (Investigating the pandemic)”. With Yvan Pandelé from Heidi News. Video
13 January 2020: Re-Check withdraws with immediate effect from the #MédiaLabInvestigation, the CFI project where Serena Tinari and Catherine Riva were to train and coach eight journalists on their investigations in the field of health and medicine. This decision was made due to the role CFI has played in the harassment and the sentencing of Beninese journalist Ignace Sossou: instead of supporting him, CFI directly contributed to his imprisonment. Such actions are contrary to the principles of ethics and integrity that Re-Check defends. Under these circumstances, Re-Check can no longer be partner of CFI. Letter sent to CFI (PDF)
2019
16 November 2019: Catherine Riva joined the conference «Medical scandals: the role of journalists and whistleblowers» at the Health Trade Fair organized by Planète Santé. Panel discussion with Christophe Ungar (RTS) and Prof. Olivier Lamy (CHUV), moderated by Isabelle Moncada (RTS). CERM Martigny (CH).
7-9 October 2019: Catherine Riva joined the 4Es Forum Improving the detection, analysis and reporting of harms in medicines, a three-day workshop organized and sponsored by the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM Oxford) and Uppsala Monitoring Centre, WHO’s Programme for International Drug Monitoring. At the session “Potential solutions to the problems of pre-marketing approvals”, Catherine spoke about Re-Check investigation’s findings on ghost-management and capture at work during the HPV vaccine approval and our Re-Check on-going research project on ghost-management (GhoMan – Chasing the Ghosts). Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture, Erice (I).
25-29 September 2019: At the Global Investigative Journalism Conference 2019 (GIJC19) in Hamburg (D) two Re-Check presentations by Serena Tinari: an half-day workshop organized by CFI, the French media development agency, and GIJN’s Investigating Health and Medicine – Tips & Techniques (1).
At GIJC19 was launched #MédiaLabInvestigation, a new CFI project to support the specialization of investigative journalists in the field of health and the production of quality investigations. Re-Check is excited to be involved in the project to provide consultancy, training and mentorship in collaboration with Tunisian investigative journalist Hanene Zbiss Zbiss. At GIJC19 Serena contributed also to the “Documentaries Track” with the panels How to Finance Your Investigative Documentary, Pitching Your Documentary Idea and the coaching session Meet the Mentor.
4 July 2019: Keynote Serena Tinari “Evidence-Based Medicine and muckraking: investigating health and medicine”. Congrès de l’immersion communautaire, Faculty of Medicine, Lausanne University (CH).
2-6 June 2019: Serena Tinari was a jury member for ScienceFlashTalk by the Swiss School of Public Health SSPH+, a foundation of swissuniversities. Bern (CH).
31 May 2019: Coaching of Pitch section finalists by Serena Tinari and Susanne Reber. DIG Awards, international investigative film festival, Riccione (I).
16-19 May 2019: European Investigative Journalism Conference Dataharvest #EIJC19, Mechelen (B). Panels by Serena Tinari:“Be a better health and medicine reporter” and “Safety when crossing borders”; Serena also moderated the debates “How to apply for work grants – meet the right funder” and “Journalism with a cause – about journalism versus advocacy”.
20 May 2019: Presentation by Catherine Riva “HPV vaccines – EBM and investigations”. On invitation by the research team for evaluation and modeling of therapeutics effects (Equipe Evaluation et modélisation des effets thérapeutiques), Pr Rémy Boussageaon, Pr Michel Cucherat et Pr François Gueyffier. Clinical Pharmacology department – UMR 5558, Faculty of Medicine Laennec, University of Lyon 1 (F).
6 May 2019: Presentation by Catherine Riva “Investigating and mapping ghost-management at work: the case of HPV vaccines”. Summer Institute 2019 “Feminist Activism and the Health Industries”, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University, Montreal (CND).
26 April 2019: Patti chiari (RSI) broadcasting of Serena Tinari investigation, with the collaboration of Catherine Riva, on mammography screening programs “Mammografia: serve davvero?”, with a live debate with Pr Michael Baum and Dr Olivia Pagani.
29 March 2019: Panel by Serena Tinari “Ta en grundig helsesjekk! (Take a thorough health check!)”. Yearly investigative journalism conference of SKUP (Association for critical and investigative press, http://www.skup.no/). Oseberg (Oslo) (N).
12 March 2019: Lecture by Catherine Riva “Susciter l’intérêt des médias – et endormir leur attention?”, for the Certificate of Advanced Studies CAS Promotion de la santé et santé communautaire organized by the Institute of Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva (CH).
8 January 2019: Presentation by Catherine Riva “Overdiagnosis and Too Much Medicine. Take-home messages from the #PODC2018 conference”. Service of Clinical Pharmacology, Lausanne University Hospital CHUV (CH).
2018
14-16 December 2018: Workshop by Serena Tinari and Alberto Nerazzini “Investigative TV documentaries”. DIG Awards, international investigative film festival, Milan (I).
10 December 2018: Publication by biomedical journal BMJ-EBM of “Lessons learnt on transparency, scientific process and publication ethics. The short story of a long journey to get into the public domain unpublished data, methodological flaws and bias of the Cochrane HPV vaccines review”, by Catherine Riva, Jean-Pierre Spinosa and Serena Tinari.
20-22 August 2018: Poster Mapping Ghost Management in Medical Research and Public Health by Catherine Riva and Serena Tinari. Preventing Overdiagnosis Conference #PODC2018, Copenhagen (DK).
1-3 June 2018: Coaching of Pitch section finalists by Serena Tinari and Susanne Reber and panel by Serena Tinari «Investigations without borders». DIG Awards, international investigative film festival, Riccione (I).
5 June 2018: Lecture by Catherine Riva “Susciter l’intérêt des médias – et endormir leur attention?”, for the Certificate of Advanced Studies CAS Promotion de la santé et santé communautaire organized by the Institute of Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva (CH).
24-27 May 2018: European Investigative Journalism Conference Dataharvest #EIJC18, Mechelen (B). “Be a Better Health and Medicine Reporter” and panel “Mining medicines procurement: Let’s talk about pharma & public tenders” by Catherine Riva and Serena Tinari. Moderation by Serena Tinari of the debate “Journalism with a cause and journalism funded by interest organisations: Business model or grey-zone?” and the workshop “Travel Opsec for journalists”.
2017
16-19 November 2017: Panels by Serena Tinari “Investigating Health – global issues” and “Encryption”. Global Investigative Journalism Conference GIJC, Johannesburg (ZAF).
18 October 2017: 36.9 (RTS) broadcasting of Serena Tinari program “Prescriptions contre l’acné : le scandale continue”, adaptation in French of her Patti chiari (RSI) investigation on the teratogenic effects of acne-drug isotretinoin.
28 September 2017: Presentation by Catherine Riva “Preventing overdiagnosis: take-home messages from the #PODC2017 conference”. Service of Clinical Pharmacology, Lausanne University Hospital CHUV (CH).
17-19 August 2017: Presentation by Catherine Riva “Mammography screening, overdiagnosis and conflicts of interest. The textbook case of the first screening programs in Switzerland”. Preventing Overdiagnosis Conference #PODC2017, Québec (CND).
2-3 June 2017: “Computer-assisted and crossborder investigative journalism” training by Serena Tinari. Corso di giornalismo della Svizzera italiana, Lugano (CH).
22 May 2017: Flash School Day, a training session by Re-Check.ch in collaboration with sept.info and Impressum. University of Fribourg (CH).
9 May 2017: Presentation by Catherine Riva “Investigating health and medicine” for the series “A l’impossible, nul n’est tenu. Récits de rêves, d’audace et d’exploits” organized by Les 4 Vents, a students body of the University of Fribourg (CH).
25 April 2017: Lecture by Catherine Riva “Communiqué de presse: susciter l’intérêt des médias – et endormir leur attention?”, for the Certificate of Advanced Studies CAS Promotion de la santé et santé communautaire organized by the Institute of Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva (CH).
3 February 2017: Patti chiari (RSI) broadcasting of Serena Tinari investigation on the teratogenic effects of acne-drug isotretinoin “Pericolo in pillole”.
LEAK TO USSUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTERDONATE