Photo: Carlo Gabuco/Rappler.

In the run-up to the 11th Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Hamburg this September 26 to 29, we’re featuring one Global Shining Light Award finalist per day. The winners, chosen from 12 outstanding investigative projects, will be announced at the conference.

The Shining Light Award, first given out at our 2007 Global Conference, uniquely honors investigative journalists in developing or transitioning countries whose work was done under threat, duress, or in the direst of conditions.

The finalists were selected by an international panel of judges from a record 291 projects. All the stories were published in 2017 or 2018. The award is sponsored by the Global Investigative Journalism Network, an association of 182 organizations in 77 countries.

This year, given the broad range of work submitted, we divided the submissions into two categories: large outlets (with ten or more staff) and smaller outlets (with fewer than 10 staff). We hope you’ll agree that this year’s finalists showcase extraordinary journalism by some extraordinary journalists.

Large Outlets Category: “Murder in Manila,” Rappler (Philippines).

Team: Patricia Evangelista, Carlo Gabuco, Lian Buan, Rambo Talabong, Chay Hofileña.

Photo: Carlo Gabuco/Rappler.

This series tells the story of President Rodrigo Duterte’s so-called war against drugs, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people since he took office in 2016. Rappler’s six-month investigation showed strong indications that the police were outsourcing extrajudicial killings to a vigilante gang.