Investigative journalism is having a good run this week, at home and abroad.
In what’s being billed as the largest cross-border consortium of journalists ever, media organizations across the world began publishing an investigation known as the Panama Papers. The project is spearheaded by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and includes dozens of reporting partners throughout the world.
The project began with a leak of data and records from a law firm based in Panama that specializes in setting up secret offshore companies and accounts for politicians and power players of all kinds. The leak of 11.5 million documents contains information on more than 200,000 companies.
The Panama Papers draws back the veil of secrecy and reveals the offshore holdings of 140 political figures worldwide, including 12 current and former leaders.
They include the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, the president of Ukraine and the Saudi Arabian king. The Panama Papers also documents how Russian President Vladimir Putin’s associates have helped funnel $2 billion to various shell companies, likely intended to benefit the Russian leader as well as his family and friends.
Tuesday, the prime minister of Iceland stepped down amid fallout over revelations that he and a business partner, who he later married, set up a company in the British Virgin Islands through the Panamanian law firm. The prime minister brokered a deal in 2013 to recoup money owed to claimants by three Icelandic banks, but failed to disclose that his company claimed it was owed $4.2 million by the same banks.
The fallout has also put Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron on the defensive. In the past, Cameron has spoken out in favor of greater financial transparency.
Many of the companies, where money obtained through questionable means is essentially laundered, are established in British territories. Cameron’s late father had set up a company in one of them.
We can expect the findings of this unprecedented investigative project to continue reverberating throughout the world.
Here in the United States, it’s clear that investigative reporting is also alive and well.
I just returned from a weekend in Columbia, Mo., where I chaired a committee that selected the winners and finalists of the annual contest sponsored by Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. In the world of investigative reporters, an IRE award is one of the most prestigious awards bestowed on journalists.
Though IRE hasn’t announced the winners yet, we read and judged literally dozens of stories entered by radio, television, print and online organizations. The impact from some of these investigations is astounding.
One project, the Associated Press’ Seafood from Slaves, is credited with freeing more than 2,000 slaves. The practice of enslaving Thai men on fishing boats and processing operations was largely created by Western demand for cheap seafood.
Though others have written about the connection between slavery and seafood before, the AP was actually able to trace shrimp shelled by slaves on an Indonesian island to stores including Wal-Mart, Kroger and Albertson’s as well as restaurants such as Olive Garden. Fish caught by these Thai slaves also wound up in brand names such as Chicken of the Sea and Fancy Feast.
The Baltimore Sun’s coverage of Freddie Gray’s death in police custody is another powerful example of the current state of investigative reporting.
As huge demonstrations turned violent last year, reporters at the Sun put Gray’s death in context. The newspaper’s interactive, video-driven timeline traced his fatal ride in a police van and called into question what police were saying. Their coverage also focused on other detainees seriously injured in police vans and how detainees often showed up at the jail with injuries.
I was also humbled last week to receive the Ben Blackstock Award from Freedom of Information Oklahoma Inc., a non-profit devoted to promoting government transparency. The award is named after the legendary Blackstock, the respected, longtime head of the Oklahoma Press Association.
The award recognizes a long legal battle I have waged, along with my former employer the Tulsa World, to force the state to fully disclose records related to the 2014 botched execution of Clayton Lockett. While thousands of pages have been released as a result of the lawsuit, Gov. Mary Fallin and the Department of Public Safety continue to drag their feet on others and fight our efforts to obtain unredacted documents already produced.
This heavily redacted document related to the botched execution of Clayton Lockett is among the records we are asking a judge to unseal in a lawsuit against the state.
Dozens of entries on the governor’s calendar and the identity of whoever gave the order for the execution to begin are among the redactions.
The lawsuit is being supported by the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press. Our attorney, Robert Nelon, is an expert on First Amendment issues.
Months and even years of arguing with public officials to obtain records that should be made public can wear down a reporter. Reading investigations by journalists all over the world facing obstacles of their own inspires me to keep going.
