The Bureau
UK center-left
Background
TBIJ was founded in April 2010 by Elaine Potter, a former Sunday Times journalist, and her husband David Potter, founder of the computing firm Psion, who seeded it with roughly £1 million through their charitable foundation. It was created to fill a gap left by shrinking investigative budgets at British newspapers, partnering with outlets like the BBC's Panorama and Newsnight, Channel 4, the Financial Times, and The Sunday Times to publish its findings. The organization became best known for its systematic tracking of U.S. drone strikes and civilian casualties in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, work that was widely cited by journalists, researchers, and the United Nations. In 2018 it restructured its funding and governance under The Trust for TBIJ, an independent charity, to formalize editorial-independence safeguards from donors. Media Bias/Fact Check rates it left-center with a high factual-reporting record, noting its reporting priorities skew toward social-justice and accountability journalism. It has occasionally faced criticism, including from governments it investigates, over sourcing and framing in casualty estimates, though its core data has generally held up under scrutiny. Today it continues cross-border investigative work on policing, immigration, the environment, and corporate accountability, often in collaboration with major broadcasters and newspapers in the UK and US.
Sources
- The Bureau of Investigative Journalism — Wikipedia
- The Trust for TBIJ
- Our Funding — TBIJ
- The Bureau of Investigative Journalism — Media Bias/Fact Check
- Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) — Influence Watch
Profile compiled 2026-10-02; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.