This small investigative outlet spearheaded reporting on the Odebrecht corruption scandal and other examples of official misconduct in Peru. Now it is coming under attack from those same forces.
To mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released its annual report on the state of justice for attacks on the press around the world. It found that no one has been held accountable for 80% of all journalist murders in the past decade.
How do you tackle a fraudulent blue-chip corporation that has the means to deploy teams of lawyers, private investigators, hackers, and even foreign spies to stop your investigation? Dan McCrum, an investigative reporter at the Financial Times, told GIJN how he took down a fraudulent $30 billion company, and offered tips on how reporters can tackle bad actors with almost unlimited resources.
Independent media now have to deal with an increasing number of digital attacks on press freedom, from brute-force attacks on their servers to more sophisticated assaults on their social media presence and digitally-based legal challenges.
Latin American journalists have faced threats, attacks, and court proceedings just for doing their work. In a GIJN webinar, three leading investigative reporters recounted their experiences and gave their tips on how to face up to these challenges.
Among the most frequently used forms of legal coercion against investigative journalists are SLAPPs (“strategic litigation against public participation”), which aim to intimidate reporters into abandoning their investigations. The practice of abusing legal systems by those in power to silence critics has reached global proportions. Its damage is far-reaching and curbing it is an imperative for democracy and maintaining peace.
In an environment of increasing restrictions on civic organizations and impunity for crimes against press professionals, independent media in Guatemala are battling threats on several fronts. Here, journalists from three Guatemalan digital media outlets detail the strategies and tools they are using both to survive and to produce quality investigative stories.
Journalists are playing a critical role informing the public about the virus. Understanding it — and the measures governments are putting in place to control reporting of the pandemic — are vital if journalists are going to report safely.
