Berlin’s No 1 digital detective agency is on the trail of human rights abusers

Investigators in Germany are using Google Earth, YouTube clips and social media posts to bring political crimes to the courts

With its high ceilings, white walls and bleached pine furniture it could be one of the many artist's studios or galleries that dot this corner of central Berlin. A grey curtain with plastic holes, stitched together by Franco-Italian artist Celine Condorelli, snakes between desks to divide the room into public and private spaces.

In fact, this second-floor space inside a beige brick former soap factory is something closer to a newsroom or a detective agency, tripling up as a lawyers' chambers. Next month it will formally be launched as the home of the Investigative Commons, a kind of super-hub for organisations whose work has revolutionised the field of human rights activism.