Co-host the Judith Neilson Institute has announced that this year's Global Investigative Journalism Conference will move from a live event to virtual.

It had originally been scheduled for Sydney, Australia, but will instead be held online from November 3-5.

The two organisations said they had been told by public health experts that international travel was unlikely return to normal this year, or that vaccine distribution will be widespread enough to allow attendees from many countries.

The in-person conference has been postponed to October 14-18, 2022 at Sydney's International Convention Centre.

The conference is planned as the seminal international event in investigative journalism, featuring practical panels and workshops on the latest investigative techniques, data analysis, online research, cross-border collaboration. More than 8,000 reporters are reported to have been trained by the events, resulting in the founding of investigative teams, nonprofit newsrooms and headline-making stories around the world.

The last global conference - held in Hamburg, Germany, in September 2019 -attracted 1,750 people from 131 countries.

JNI says it will co-host the programme across the Asia-Pacific, with a live in-person component in Sydney.