Survival Tactics: Investigative Journalism Methods Under Threats and Barriers in Kazakhstan

Investigative journalists face growing legal, physical, psychological, and institutional pressures that shape how investigations are conducted. While prior research has documented risks to journalists, little empirical work has examined how different threats reconfigure investigative methods, particularly in Kazakhstan. This study addresses this gap through semi-structured interviews with 13 investigative journalists. The findings show that risk does not lead to the abandonment of investigative practices but to method-specific adaptations. Legal threats encourage the use of legally defensible approaches such as open-source research, official documents, data journalism, and collaboration, while discouraging anonymous sources and undercover work. Physical threats shift investigations toward remote and digitally mediated practices. Psychological pressure favors emotionally sustainable, analytical methods, and structural barriers limit access to official information, prompting reliance on independent data reconstruction and verification. By linking specific threats to distinct methodological responses, the study offers an empirically grounded framework for understanding how risk reshapes investigative journalism in Kazakhstan.