#investigative journalism
An investigative journalist returns from an undercover mission in North Korea—only to face her critics.
I lived in a locked compound under complete surveillance: Every room was bugged, every class recorded. I scribbled down conversations as they happened and buried my notes in a lesson plan. I wrote at night, erasing the copy from my laptop each time I signed off, saving it to USB sticks that I carried on my body at all times. I backed up my research on an SD card, which I hid in the room in different spots, always with the light off, in case there were cameras. After six months, I returned home with 400 pages of notes and began writing.
Read more from the New Republic.
As the traditional media business model crumbles, leading to massive layoffs in newsrooms—with investigative journalism teams often among the first casualties—collaboration is becoming indispensable. Networks with few actual employees but the ability to pool expertise and spread the expenses of costly investigative endeavors across a wide range of partners are making vast and complex investigations possible.
This week revealed a remarkable example of one such effort. About 100 media outlets around the world—including Suddeütsche Zeitung, the Guardian, BBC, Le Monde, German broadcasters NDR and WDR, theMiami Herald, Univision, and many others—began publishing reports exposing a sprawling worldwide system of offshore companies that enable financial secrecy.
Collectively known as the Panama Papers, the reports were based on a leak of over 11.5 million records—perhaps the largest data leak in history. Spanning 40 years, from 1977 through 2015, the leak provides an unprecedented window into the money that flows through the dark corners of the global financial system.
Read more from Open Society Foundation
Investigative journalist Carmen Aristegui fired from Mexican radio station
She exposed government corruption with investigative reporting that made international headlines, helped launch the Mexicoleaks whistleblower website, and was voted second most powerful woman in the country last year by Forbes Mexico, but Carmen Aristegui, one of the country’s most popular radio journalists, has been fired from MVS Radio after demanding that the privately owned station reinstate two investigative reporters.
Read more.
Image: Supporters deliver signatures in support of Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui during a protest against her dismissal, outside MVS Radio’s station building in Mexico City March 16, 2015. Aristegui, whose team revealed a conflict-of-interest scandal ensnaring President Enrique Pena Nieto last year, has been fired, her employer MVS Radio said on Sunday. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
“I figure everything I do is tracked, watched, stored and shared and if ever the government, or hackers, wanted to know or expose everything I do, they could, and would. Scary, but I’m resigned to it”
– Investigative journalists largely believe the government has collected information on their communications. Read their experiences in their own words here. (via pewresearch)
