Questions for AfD: 

• In the event the firewall against your party is removed, what specific policy do you hope to see implemented the most outside of stricter immigration control?

• Germany is becoming increasingly more diverse, is there a place for migrants in how your party envisions national identity?

• What is the AfD party doing outside of Germany to further its presence on the international stage?

Berlin proposal memo: How the AfD is changing football culture in Germany

In recent years German football clubs and fan groups have become increasingly political, holding demonstrations against far-right parties and right wing extremism in stadiums on matchdays and in the streets. Back in February at St. Pauli, a Hamburg-based club with a strong anti-fascist tradition, fans made their feelings known by chanting: “The whole of Hamburg hates the AfD!”

A catalyst for football turning more political in Germany came last year when the country hosted the UEFA European Football Championship, and multiple members of the AfD criticized the team for not being German enough, and too “woke.”

Maximilian Krah, a member of the European Parliament for the  AfD, called the German team a “politically-correct mercenary squad” It’s the rainbow team. The pride team,” he said. “We can ignore it.”

Football has come to be viewed as playing an important role in defending democracy. In spite of these protests, the AfD is increasingly becoming more popular, and while there may not be banners in favor of AfD inside these stadiums, racism is becoming more tolerated in the sport. 

This was not always the case, I would like to get various perspectives around the sport – from journalists that cover it, to athletes/ managers of local teams who have either migrated or have politically supported or opposed AfD publicly, to what German-based organizations are doing to support individuals. 

Potential sources:

• One of the local football clubs in either Nuremberg or Berlin that have come out publicly against AfD to get a management perspective, a player would be great as well.
• German journalist Ronny Blaschke, who published a book about racism in football in January 2025
• Gesellschaftsspiele,” a Berlin organization focusing on football fan culture and political education.

Option 1: “As musicians, we use our way of expressing ourselves: music,” says Arne-Christian Pelz, founder of music for humanity. “But I don’t know what it takes to finally put an end to this.” Since October 7, musicians across Europe have been coming together to call attention to the suffering in Gaza and Israel through concerts which double as public demonstrations. The dynamic is particularly fascinating in Germany, as Chancellor Merz has stated that the country unequivocally supports Israel. At the same time, Germany is home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian migrants, as well as an increasing number of Israeli expats in the past decade. I’m interested in further exploring how the arts scene in Berlin, particularly music, factors into the ecosystem of Arab and Israeli migrants in the city as a form of connection and activism. 

While pro-Palestine demonstrations in Berlin have resulted in police brutality and even some deportations, these musical flashmobs have remained peaceful, largely, according to Pelz, due to the support of pro-Palestinian Israeli activists whose presence helps protect protesters. In particular, there is a Gazan singer named Wafaa Saied who it would be fantastic to get an interview with. Professor Uli Brückner of Stanford in Berlin also recommended Igor Levit, a pianist who has performed concerts against antisemitism and to call attention to the hostage situation, as a source (although I understand he is quite famous and will probably be nearly impossible to get in touch with). I want to get beyond the “how does music bring people together across cultures/across the aisle” thing and get more into what this form of protest can/can’t accomplish as opposed to other forms, and how in particular it might make it more possible for vulnerable communities, like Palestinian migrants, to participate in protests because it is nearly guaranteed that they will be more peaceful. 

Potential sources:

• Wafaa Saied, Gazan singer who has been prominent at musical flashmobs and online 
• Daniel Marwecki, originally from Berlin (now a professor in Hong Kong) who wrote a book on Israel relations with Germany (Germany and Israel: Whitewashing and Statebuilding)
• Arne-Christian Pelz, founder of Music for Humanity (who could plug me in with more sources)
• Udi Raz, Israeli pro-Palestinian activist based in Berlin who has been arrested at multiple protests 
• Alma Itzhaki, one of the founders of Israelis for Peace in Berlin (which helped organize the massive rally on Sept. 27)
• Marija Ristic, formerly an investigative journalist and war crimes reporter and OSINT expert, now works in crisis management at Amnesty International, which has been a major organizer in recent mass pro-Palestine protests in Berlin (could be helpful in plugging into a wider circle of activists)

Option 2: The second option I’m considering for Berlin is to look into the preschool and kindergarten which Chabad Berlin is building for over 60 Jewish Ukrainian refugee children. There’s not been much reporting on the large group of Ukrainians who left Odessa on the 8th day of the Russia-Ukraine War, in 2023, and came by bus via a “green corridor” Germany constructed, so that the Jewish Ukrainians could pass safely to Germany through Romania. Though there has been some reporting on how Jewish Ukrainians have adjusted to life in Berlin, I’m particularly curious about how integration into German culture is feeling three years later, as many were reluctant to return to Germany given its history with the Holocaust. Currently, it seems that the school is still in the works, but I’m curious about how Chabad is building community for Ukrainian refugees and helping children integrate, especially as Chabad schools in the U.S. are known for being particularly unintegrated places — places you send a child to get an exclusively Chabad education, without many secular subjects. 

There are Chabad schools across the country in the U.S. In the U.S., there’s been reporting on how this can alienate students from secular peers later in life, make it difficult to find jobs, and make it difficult to grow. How might this play out with the Chabad school in Berlin? Do the children feel like part of Ukraine or Germany, or that they are in a separate category? For this kind of piece, I would visit Chabad in Berlin and find most of my sources there. It could also be interesting to trace the history of the “green corridor” from Ukraine to Germany and what legal structures allowed that to be possible, because there’s very little about it online. I’m a bit low on sources for Option 2 as of now, but have reached out to the Berlin Chabad house running the program and plan on attending a program and/or shabbat meal during our visit if possible. It would be great to chat with regular chabad-goers, the parents of the children who would be attending the schools, and the children (if at all possible), and to identify people who can tell the story of how they got from Ukraine to Berlin. It would be great to interview experts about what allowed that exception to policy to be possible. 

Questions for the AfD:

The AfD party has emphasized regulating migration by attracting skilled migrant labor. Does the AfD have particular countries in mind from which those skilled laborers ought to be attracted?

The AfD has also advocated a new policy on returns for Germany, including sending people back to their country of origin or to the first EU country through which the asylum-seeker entered the bloc. How and for which immigrant groups would you ideally see this policy play out? 

As of this past September, Germany is no longer the country where the most people apply for asylum in the EU. How do you feel about that trend and what do you believe is the cause?

Idea 1: Roma displaced from Ukraine

The war in Ukraine displaced millions, but not all Ukrainians have been received equally. Roma families fleeing the conflict often face a double burden: the trauma of war and the persistence of deep-seated prejudice. A report from the Migration Policy Institute notes that Roma have struggled at border crossings and in host countries, with officials questioning their legitimacy as refugees. The European Roma Rights Centre documented cases of Roma being segregated in shelters, excluded from aid, or denied access to medical care. This pattern fits into a longer history of anti-Roma discrimination across Europe, but it feels especially stark against the backdrop of Europe’s widely praised openness to Ukrainians.

In Germany, Ukrainian refugees are often portrayed as “model” newcomers—European, Christian, culturally proximate. Even if lately the narrative has started to shift due to growing discontent. But in general, Roma refugees, by contrast, remain at the edges of this narrative. Reports suggest that Roma in Germany encounter suspicion in housing offices, barriers in schools, and a lack of targeted support. The Roma advocacy site Rroma.org highlights how German authorities sometimes treat Roma Ukrainians as economic migrants rather than as legitimate war refugees. I’d like to explore how these disparities play out on the ground, impacting housing, education, but also the marginalisation from the rest of the Ukrainian community. Many are undocumented, making asylum processes practically impossible. Yet, many family men are at the front, fighting in the ranks of the Ukrainian army. Berlin is known to be acceptive of a wide range of communities, but centuries of stigma make the Roma a different, unique case, and to this day Europe’s most marginalised minority.

Idea 2: LGBT Chechen Refugees in Berlin

For years, Chechnya has been notorious for its persecution of LGBT people. Beginning in 2017, reports of “anti-gay purges” described men being detained, tortured, and even disappeared. Some survivors have reached Europe, often through networks of activists and NGOs. In 2021, The Guardian reported on a German NGO filing a legal case against Chechen officials for orchestrating these purges, and the Associated Press has noted that Germany granted humanitarian visas to some gay Chechens as early as 2017. Berlin, with its reputation as a queer capital, has become one of the main destinations.

But exile does not erase fear. Many LGBT Chechens in Berlin remain in hiding, afraid of being targeted not only by distant Chechen authorities but also by members of their own diaspora communities. A 2019 piece in The Atlantic described the reach of Ramzan Kadyrov’s regime, which extends into exile through surveillance and intimidation. In Berlin, queer Chechens often keep their identities secret, sometimes even from other refugees, to avoid harassment or worse. NGOs such as Quarteera e.V. and Schwulenberatung Berlin provide support and safe spaces, but the need far exceeds the available resources.

My idea, whose feasibility I need to assess in the coming days, is to understand what it means to escape persecution from your home region, just to essentially be in the same situation as before. The police in Berlin will not kidnap you from your home for being gay, but extremists in the Chechen diaspora are just as hostile as at home. In Chechnya, it is normal for families to kill their own son if found to be gay, and family networks and allegiances are strikingly extensive. Those who have managed, through accidental and highly dangerous paths, to reach Germany, still find themselves in a space where safety is never absolute.

After reading and watching this week’s materials, I think it is fair to say that Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is in a lane of its own. I was particularly touched by the Bellingcat documentary and by reading the NPR article about the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab trying to track the movement of Ukrainian children in Russia. Numerous pieces this week mentioned the phrase “citizen journalism.” My research in the past has examined the intersection of media and various far-right groups, which contain members that have described themselves as “citizen journalists.” However, these members tend to be more like street agitators that like to generate conflict rather than a concerned citizen watching out for their neighbors. Therefore, I have not always had the best connotation when hearing about citizen journalism. 

OSINT turns this connotation on its head for me. I was amazed to hear that some of the people contributing to Bellingcat were volunteers and not on any type of pay roll. Bellingcat’s model gives me hope for the future of journalism. Not only do I feel that it makes the industry more accessible, because they are utilizing public documents, videos, social media posts, etc and putting a story together, something anyone can do. However I also understand that skills like coding and geolocating are more integral to how they operate, and thus their work is not as simple as going to an event/location and interviewing people. Additionally, I think Bellingcat further proves that a journalism publication does not need to be part of a big media conglomerate, or have the backing and visibility from a legacy media outlet in order to have credibility, and to know their work is making a difference. 

The example in the beginning of the Bellingcat documentary where journalists cross-referenced photos and social media accounts to identify white supremacists at the Charlottesville rally immediately made me think of January 6th. In that case, the FBI used similar open-source methods, including videos like the one captured by New Yorker reporter Luke Mogelson, where he followed Trump supporters onto the Senate floor as they stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Authorities also relied on geo-location data to identify individuals who were present during the insurrection. One of those individuals was Princeton’s own Larry Giberson, who, despite his involvement, still graduated with a degree in 2023.

My main concern with OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) is its long-term sustainability. The documentary noted that investigators are able to archive websites and documents before they are taken down, but when does this intelligence run out, and do more harm than good? Can OSINT be effective for day-to-day news coverage or breaking news situations?

Would this open news organizations to greater legal risks if stories are published too quickly, without the thoroughness of longer investigative pieces like those done by Bellingcat? I can understand why Bellingcat takes its time. Even though they can be cross referencing information from multiple photos, social media posts, documents, etc, they’re also relying on digital sources from the open internet, not from close, vetted sources.

Potential Topic 1: Syrian Refugees in Germany

When writing my news piece last week, I had the privilege of talking to a variety of sources about the experience of Syrian nationals residing in the United States under Temporary Protected Status (TPS). During all of these interviews, in light of the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, some of the questions Syrian migrants have to grapple with daily became abundantly clear: When does one choose to stay in assured safety, or when should one return to their homeland? What happens when supposedly assured safety is compromised by rising anti-migrant sentiment? How does trauma within one’s homeland play a role in this decision? These questions are complicated by reports of existing danger within Syria and attempts of the German government to deport Syrian nationals in Germany for the first time in twelve years. As of early August, about 1,300 Syrians had left Germany to return to Syria following the fall of the Assad government. This piece would dive into the personal and political factors that drive refugees to return home as opposed to staying in Germany. I would hope to speak with refugees themselves, refugee non-profit organizations in Germany and the U.S., and Middle East policy experts to create this piece. 

Potential Topic 2: Parallel Rise of AfD and Trumpism’s Anti-Migrant Politics

Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is a populist right-wing political party that rose to prominence throughout the late 2010s and became the second largest party in the Bundestag following the February 2025 elections. The party gained support due to their anti-migrant positions, including halting government spending on refugees, deporting refugees to their home countries, and removing constitutional access to asylum in Germany. The rise of AfD occurred simultaneously with President Trump’s election in the fall of 2016, campaigning on promises of building a physical wall on the U.S’s southern border to limit migrants, as well as various other anti-migrant positions. In addition to this simultaneous ascent to power, AfD and the Trump administration have a friendly relationship, with Vice-President Vance expressing support for AfD in January of 2025 and meeting with various AfD leaders since. This piece would examine the simultaneous rise of these two right-wing, populist movements with clear anti-migrant positions and what this may mean in signifying a global increase in hostility against migrants. To craft this article, I would hope to speak with supporters of both AfD and President Trump and experts on right-wing political movements. 

Questions for AfD:

1. Why do you think German citizens have increasingly resonated with your party’s platform over the past few years and which issues do you think most strongly mobilized supporters in the 2025 elections?
2. To what extent has AfD been influenced by other international political movements for policy and messaging strategies? Which ones?
3. Within the EU and the broader international community, what role does AfD believe Germany should have in refugee support and resettlement?

Germany hosts Europe’s largest Palestinian refugee population, but it has not welcomed that population with open arms. The Israel-Hamas war has further complicated the situation for incoming Palestinian refugees. I hope to report on these bureaucratic difficulties by telling the story of the people who have learned to navigate them as part of a broader story about the Palestinian community in Berlin. In doing so, I also plan to write about Germany’s ongoing crackdown on Palestinian dissent, including by threatening deportation, due to the country’s support for Israel.

Approximately 100,000-200,000 Palestinians live in Germany, although that figure is virtually impossible to verify because the government does not recognize Palestinian as a state and therefore does not collect data on the Palestinian population. Instead, Palestinians are frequently classified under “unclarified nationality,” which denies them “freedom of movement, access to education and healthcare, and the right to work,” according to one article. Granted “Duldung,” or “toleration” permits, refugees are barred from the naturalization process and are at higher risk of deportation. Indeed, because Palestinians are administered under the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), the German government does not consider them refugees and therefore has created a separate, less accommodating asylum application process for them. Many Palestinians also come from refugee camps in Syria, and this secondary migration adds additional complications in the eyes of German bureaucracy.  The government has therefore limited economic opportunities for Palestinians and put them in an arduous if not vulnerable legal situation. 

After October 7, the situation has worsened. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees “deprioritized” asylum applicants from the Gaza Strip in January 2024, referencing “uncertainty” in the situation on the ground in Gaza, before resuming applications in July of this year. This decision blocked Palestinians from entering the country. Furthermore, with UNWRA banned by Israel and struggling to fulfill its obligations toward Palestinian refugees, lawyers and legal scholars have begun to question the legal justification for Germany denying those refugees the regular asylum process. 

Meanwhile, the Palestinian community in Berlin lives a precarious existence. Some individuals have recently faced deportation because they were granted international protection status in other countries. The community as a whole has suffered from “intensified state surveillance and police crackdowns.” Indeed, the activist community has been hardest hit, with pro-Palestine demonstrations facing severe repression. The German government has revoked the refugee status of activists and arrested individuals walking near pro-Palestine protests for “looking Palestinian.” 

I propose to connect the uniquely challenging asylum process for Palestinian migrants with the current hostile environment toward migrant activists from the community. I hope to do this by speaking with individuals from different waves of Palestinian immigration, with a special focus on more recent arrivals.

To tell the activism side of the story, I hope to interview Zaid Abdulnasser, a refugee and former head of Samidoun Berlin, an activist group that Germany banned in 2023. I also want to talk to current and former Palestinian students to learn more about the student experience and its relation to activism. Finally, I would like to interview Palestinian politicians such as Ramsis Kilani, a former Der Linke member who was expelled from the party because of his statements on the Israel-Hamas war, and Samira Tanana, a Green MP who is vice chair of Palestinian community center Al-Huleh. 

Questions for AfD reps:

1. What would be your ideal immigration policy?
2. What are your thoughts on Germany’s demographic decline and what to do about it? 
3. What are some of AfD’s policies that receive less media attention than you would like? 
4. How do you connect with younger voters?

I’m interested in reporting on Israelis who have moved to Germany after October 7, perhaps claiming German citizenship in the process. There have been several major changes to German citizenship law in the past five years, including allowing for dual citizenship last summer. Germany also has a pathway to citizenship for Jews who are descended from victims of the Holocaust, a provision that was significantly expanded in 2021. Now, there’s reporting suggesting that a growing number of Israelis are interested in leaving Israel, particularly those on the left. Germany’s ambassador to Israel told Haaretz last week that “it’s not a coincidence” that more and more Israelis are moving abroad. Haaretz has also reported that the number of Israelis applying for German citizenship had dramatically spiked in the first six months of 2024 (and there’s interesting angles about families of hostages being expedited for German citizenship, even though they plan to stay in Israel).

In Berlin, I plan to focus on Israelis who have moved for political reasons. I’m interested in how they’ve integrated themselves into the city’s culture, and how they think through their decision (and ability) to immigrate while lawmakers are looking to narrow other avenues to citizenship. In April, Germany eliminated a pathway to citizenship where applicants could obtain a German passport with just three years of German residence. On the macro level, I’ll also be pursuing government data to help quantify this phenomenon post-October 7; Israelis moving to Germany has long been a fascination of a small group of academic researchers, but it’s not clear how significantly demand has spike. My sense is that it’s significant.

I’ll be speaking to researchers at the DeZIM institute, a think tank studying migration that is in the middle of a study of cultural assimilation in Berlin’s Jewish population. I’m hopeful to find a neighborhood, or even just a block, where high concentrations of Israeli immigrants have settled. I’m also in the process of reaching out to Israeli activists in Berlin who have been outspoken about Gaza as potential central characters.

One other dimension that needs to be fleshed out is Israeli tech workers and startup founders. As Israel’s international reputation flounders, do they have an easier time acquiring seed funding or contracts if they’re based in Germany or another Western European country? I may start with talking to Bard students in Berlin. but do not yet have a plan beyond that.

Perhaps naturally, I’m interested in asking the AfD about Jewish citizenship and Jewish voters. Do they want Jewish Israelis in the tent? Do they consider them “German”? Are they committed to preserving this pathway even as they look to curb citizenship opportunities for people from other countries?

OSINT is amazing. It enables truly jaw-dropping findings, from the Yale HRL’s work on Ukrainian children to Bellingcat’s investigation of the Malaysian Airlines flight. That OSINT, in theory, can be conducted by anyone, anywhere, is additionally amazing. However, I wonder if journalists have been a little too forthcoming with the techniques they’ve used to uncover airstrikes and human rights abuses. The director of Yale HRL, for instance, told me that their team started with social media posts from Russians, who were posting geotagged photos of children from what appeared to be re-education facilities. The team could then cross-reference those locations with satellite imagery, Russian property records, and other materials to determine with reasonably high likelihood that they were hosting kidnapped Ukrainian children. But what if the Russians had realized that their posts could be used as material in OSINT and turned their location tagging off? Maybe the investigation wouldn’t be dead in the water, but it would be much harder. I agree journalists should show their work, and the transparency in OSINT is important to shoring up trust in the reporting. But how much disclosure is too much? How could it inhibit future investigations?

OSINT benefits from many of the creepiest aspects of 21-century online surveillance. In 2020, for example, Bellingcat had an amazing investigation tracking the men who attempted to poison Alexei Navalny. They did so in part using cell phone and geolocation records that had been purchased from Russia’s open data market, in some instances for shockingly low prices. I’m not rubbed the wrong way behind this because there was a compelling and newsworthy reason to stalk these people, and Bellingcat was not obtaining the data via any particularly untoward means (for Russia’s standards, anyway). Still, I think it’s an interesting question to consider as these organizations convey to readers that they should be trusted.

I also think we should be careful jumping to the assertion that OSINT is truly accessible to everyone. Even if you’re an independent person not tied to a particular institution, you still have skills, connections, and expertise that most ordinary people would not have (in addition to time). Regular citizens are involved insofar as anyone can contribute video, audio, or other material to be used by an OSINT expert; I think about this Missouri man on Twitter who posted a photo of B2 bombers flying east in the hours before the US bombed Iran this summer. Is that any different from how journalism has been carried out? Ordinary people have always contributed stories, tips, perspective, and other insights that are then analyzed and narrativized by professional journalists. The Internet has just made things more accessible now.

Over the past few months, I have worked on a couple stories about female Afghan migrants in the U.S. Through this reporting, I have learned more about the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s rights, and especially its exclusion of women from education and sports. The Taliban’s current limitations on women’s rights constitute what Metra Mehran, an Afghan activist living in Virginia, has called “gender apartheid.” Yet the international community has failed to intervene in the Taliban’s human rights abuses.

As women flee this oppressive regime, they face new restrictions on immigration. Germany is a salient example. In July, the country suspended humanitarian admissions for Afghans, leaving many left stuck in Pakistan, where they had been waiting for visas and flights out. Germany resumed deportations to Afghanistan, and in July, sent 81 Afghans to their home country after rejecting their asylum applications. This was the second deportation since the Taliban took over in 2021.

Those deported from Western countries may face new risks in Afghanistan, said Wahid Wafa. Contact with the West may be grounds for the Taliban’s persecution. These vulnerabilities are heightened for Afghan women, especially those who have engaged in activities that are banned at home, like sports. In Berlin, I hope to follow the stories of women who face the risk of deportation. I am especially interested in the situation of high-profile women who faced persecution in Afghanistan before immigrating.

Nazira Khairzad was a goalkeeper for the Afghan women’s national team before fleeing the country in 2021. Khairzad immigrated to Italy and moved near Frankfurt in 2024. Her family eventually joined her, including her sister. The sisters, Nazira and Nazima, were both athletes in Afghanistan, despite the dangers women in sports faced. Though reunited, they confront new challenges in Germany. Today, Nazira may face deportation to Italy. In April, DW reported that “Nazira’s deportation back to Italy is therefore likely to stand.” There has not been anything published about her since then, and I am interested in finding out where she is now.

Nazira recently gave me her number via Instagram and we are in touch on WhatsApp. I hope to follow her story, exploring the broader vulnerabilities Afghan women face in Germany. While in Berlin, I will conduct interviews with Afghan women, German politicians, activists, and refugee support organizations. This story will be about one family’s struggles to escape persecution in Afghanistan. More broadly, it will focus on the way anti-immigrant sentiment enables the Taliban’s human rights abuses. As follows is a list of potential sources.

• Metra Mehran, activist and policy advisor for the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council (Virginia – remote interview)
• Elke Gabsa, Nazira Khairzad’s lawyer (Giessen, Germany)
• Berenice Bohlo, immigration lawyer (Berlin)
• Tobias Jung or Emily Barnickel – Hardship advisers at the Flüchtlingsrat Berlin (Berlin Refugee Council), an organization’s aiming to protect the right to asylum and refugee protection and eliminate state discrimination.
• Mawluda Akbari – researcher focusing on women’s rights at the Afghan Research Hub in Berlin. Also does volunteer work for local refugees.
• Waheed Rafie – Afghan writer in Berlin with a wide network of Afghans in Germany

AfD Questions

• AfD has connected immigration to high rents, housing shortages, and bad schools. Can you explain this connection?
• Afghan migrants who are deported face persecution in their home country for contact with the West. How, if at all, does AfD plan to protect people who are deported from violent regimes such as the Taliban?

One detail from the Human Rights Watch investigation into the Kramatorsk train station bombing was particularly striking: Alina Kovalenko realising her mother had been killed not through an official phone call, but because she saw her photo circulating online. That moment shows a new reality of war today that I believe we are still not used to entirely. Evidence and trauma surface on social media before institutions can confirm what has happened. The timelines have changed, and so did the consequences.

Across the readings, the recurring theme is how open-source methods are reshaping both journalism and accountability. The Listening Post described Syria as the “world’s first YouTube conflict,” where researchers sifted through millions of videos to geolocate chemical attacks or reconstruct bombings. The Syrian Archive, for instance, catalogued more than 2 million videos and used tools like Google Earth to confirm the location of chlorine barrel bomb strikes. Forensic Architecture went further, building 3D models of prisons based only on survivors’ memories and acoustics. This is particularly relevant in my opinion, allowing human testimony and digital tools to be combined when cameras aren’t permitted inside. It also reminded me of some similar works I read this summer while reporting from Greece, where the inhumane conditions that European governments kept migrants in inside refugee camps were exposed, something one would not automatically expect from “progressive” countries. 

The Ukraine case studies show this process at scale. HRW and SITU Research examined 200 videos and satellite imagery from Kramatorsk to demonstrate that a Tochka-U missile carrying cluster munitions came from Russian-controlled territory. Meanwhile, Ukrainian OSINT groups like DeepStateUA monitor Telegram channels around the clock, creating interactive maps that the Ministry of Defence itself uses to track troop movements. In general, the line between professional intelligence work and citizen research has blurred.

But open-source work doesn’t simply exist in a vacuum, as it has to fit in the larger media environment. The FT essay on “tech lords and populists” points out how digital platforms tilt the balance of power, empowering both grassroots investigators and authoritarian leaders who flood the same channels with disinformation. The Bellingcat documentary makes the same point in practice: Eliot Higgins and his colleagues pieced together who shot down MH17 using only online traces, but the evidence still faced skepticism, especially among audiences primed to distrust anything contradicting Moscow’s narrative. Proof alone doesn’t settle debate when publics are fragmented.

What stands out to me is less the technology than the discipline. Open-source work is not about being first, but about being able to demonstrate a pattern that holds up under scrutiny. In that sense, open-source journalism feels like a response to two crises at once: the crisis of press freedom, where traditional reporters are barred from the field, and the crisis of trust, where governments and media outlets are no longer assumed credible by default. The tools matter, but what matters more is the persistence behind them. Even in a saturated information space, the innovation of the craft still makes it possible to establish facts. The harder question is whether people, and policymakers, are willing to act on them.

Questions for AfD

1. Migrants make up a large share of Berlin’s service and care workforce. How would AfD address labor shortages if the party also seeks to significantly reduce immigration?
2. Since the beginning, AfD has presented itself as “the people against elites.” But as AfD has now gained significant influence and institutional power, do you see AfD undergoing a transformation? What does that mean for your identity as a party?
3. What does successful integration look like to you and what factors do you think determine it? Can you share examples where you think it has worked well in Berlin?