The Ferret is an independent non-profit media cooperative in Scotland set up to investigate stories in the public interest which launched in May 2015.
The Ferret was launched in May 2015. [1] With the support of members, it aims to produce independent investigations that can be sold to outlets in the mainstream media. [2] The cooperative structure was chosen to allow readers to be more than passive recipients of their stories. [3]
The Ferret was the first publication in Scotland to join press regulator IMPRESS, [4] and adopt an editorial policy compliant with the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry.
A crowdfunding appeal was chosen to launch their first investigation into aspects of the fracking industry and unconventional gas. They hit their target within a week. [5] By the close of the appeal, they had raised more than double their target and so they decided to look at the treatment of asylum seekers too. [6]
They organised a conference with Strathclyde University held in April 2016. [7]
In November 2016 The Ferret was shortlisted in the "Digital Innovation" category of the 2016 British Journalism Awards. [8]
In April 2017, the co-operative launched a fact checking service. [9] It remains the only fact checking project in Scotland to be independently assessed as meeting the International Fact Checking Network Code of Principles. [10]
In 2018, Ferret co-founding director Billy Briggs and photographer Angela Catlin were awarded Outstanding Digital Journalist of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards. [11] The award recognised Briggs and Catlin's reporting from Iraq the previous year, which was published by The Ferret. [12]
The organisation also won the Online/Digital Award at the 2018 Scottish Refugee Media Awards [13] for a story by Ferret director Karin Goodwin and Angela Catlin highlighting the increasing numbers of children being made destitute in Scotland.