Jürgen Dirrigl Journalist & Author (Nuremberg)

Dirrigl began his work in the early 2000s by building up the AMEPRES German Press Agency, officially registered as AMEPRES KENIA LTD in Nairobi. Through this platform he published press reviews, reports and roadbooks from crisis regions as part of the agency business.

Stay in Idlib and Aleppo. The aim of the research trip was to verify internationally circulating allegations of massacres in several towns. Dirrigl conducted more than a hundred interviews, accompanied both government-loyal and opposition units and documented everyday life between the front lines. Result: no verifiable massacres, but massive destruction, displacement and a markedly growing presence of jihadist groups.

(Roadbook link)

Research trip in the early phase of the French operation “Sangaris”. Dirrigl documented sectarian violence, refugee camps and the security situation between Seleka and Anti-Balaka militias. In Bangui he interviewed interim president Catherine Samba-Panza. His observations show a divided society, fragile security and a transitional government in crisis mode.

(Roadbook link)

Research in areas under AQAP control, including Habban. Dirrigl found that the town was de facto administered by al-Qaeda, contrary to Western accounts. He also examined the site of a US drone strike on a wedding party near Qaifa, spoke with survivors and reconstructed the sequence of events. The trip made clear the gap between the official account and local reality.

(Roadbook link)

Short mission to Aleppo. Dirrigl moved within the circles of the Free Syrian Army, documented house-to-house fighting close to the citadel and the return of Friday prayers to the Great Mosque. His observations illustrate how everyday life and war are intertwined in the heart of the city.

(Roadbook link)

Assignment to document the Russian air war in Idlib/Latakia. Dirrigl gathered evidence of strikes on civilian or not clearly military targets, including telecommunications facilities and industrial sites. He compared local observations with take-off and landing data of the Russian air force at Hmeimim base. Result: clear indications of targeted strikes also on areas controlled by the opposition but not by jihadists.

(Roadbook link)

Under the title “Vom Ländle ins Land der Mitte” Dirrigl planned a horseback project from Germany to China, combined with a campaign for stem cell typing. The project received coverage in regional and national media (SternTV, BILD-Online, Merkur) as well as TV appearances on ARD and BR. Pandemic-related delays and the war in Ukraine have so far prevented it from going ahead.
Alongside his agency work, Dirrigl has also volunteered to this day in the AMEPRES-RechercheNetzwerk, a private network of investigative journalists. There he works with colleagues on complex topics that often go unreported because of editorial cost pressure. The focus is on background stories in Germany, but above all on research in East Africa and the Middle East. This commitment complements his main profession and remains a strong statement for independent, in-depth research.

(Project website)
(Supporters’ website)
(AMEPRES research network)

Since 2024 Dirrigl has been active as author and co-founder at the Vogtlandstreicher. There he writes about culture, sport, transport and regional history. His topics include:

• Technical reports, e.g. on Admiral cinema Nuremberg (Dolby Vision/Atmos)
• Sports reports, e.g. from motorsport events at the Schleizer Dreieck
• Investigative business stories at municipal and state level
• Reports on innovations in electric aviation at Hof-Plauen Airport
• Accessible reports on complex situations

Alongside this he continues his international work within AMEPRES, including analyses of the situation in Syria (2025).

(Vogtlandstreicher author page)

As early as the 2000s, Dirrigl developed the editorial system of his agency AMEPRES himself, working intensively on complex workflows from research and editorial planning through to publication. Out of this knowledge, built up over some 30 years between text, technology and journalistic practice, AMEPRES Tools emerged in 2025.

Through it he advises newsrooms and fellow journalists on complex editorial systems and builds them for them. Beyond that, he creates communicative, visually distinctive websites for culture, journalism and other fields: individually designed, without site builders, without bought templates.

A core focus is the productive use of artificial intelligence in process management and research: in steering editorial workflows, in analysing large bodies of sources and data, and in verifying information. Dirrigl also implements AI in OSINT research, the systematic analysis of openly available sources that major investigative projects require. This rests on in-depth knowledge of how current AI models can be deployed both in the cloud and locally on in-house systems. He develops workflows in which AI is firmly and transparently integrated, and advises newsrooms and companies on implementation.

(AMEPRES Tools: services and references)