Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://archive.gijn.org/tag/drug-war/)
Anabel Hernández is one of the most prominent investigative journalists in Mexico. With more than 30 years of experience, she has dedicated her career to investigating organized crime and the complicity of politicians, the military, and businessmen in the war on drugs in Mexico and beyond.
Journalist Marcela Turati has spent years investigating who is responsible for the thousands of people who have gone missing in Mexico. She spoke to Revista 5W magazine about her work, the dangers of investigating corruption in the country, and why it is so difficult to try and track down who is behind violent crimes against journalists and migrants.
Megha Rajagopalan has reported from over 23 countries in Asia and the Middle East, on stories ranging from the North Korean nuclear crisis to the peace process in Afghanistan. Her team’s investigation into prison camps in Xinjiang, China won a Pulitzer Prize. In this podcast, she discusses how she got into investigative journalism and gives her tips for speaking to vulnerable sources.
Despite worsening legal and physical attacks on the press, solidarity among journalists in Russia and the Eastern European region is growing. Our list of the eight best investigations of the year reveals that more and more cross-border, joint investigations are being carried out, and illustrate continuing reporting courage in the region that should inspire the entire journalism community.
For our series on journalists’ favorite tools, we spoke to award-winning Mexican journalist Marcela Turati, co-founder of Quinto Elemento Lab, about the resources she uses to investigate disappearances in Mexico’s drug war. While information from victims’ families is paramount, she also shared insights on the value of open source tools, bank records, social media mining, and collaboration with nonprofit forensic teams in tracking the patterns behind the crisis.
A group of independent reporters and photographers, working in different parts of Mexico, decided to come together and try to answer a fundamental question: Where do the disappeared of the drug war end up? GIJN’s Spanish editor Catalina Lobo-Guerrero spoke with the team of journalists to find out how they did it.
Drawn from a selection of 15 global and regional journalism awards, this list of best reads from 2017 is an inspiring selection of storytelling, investigative techniques, collaborative enterprises and fearless reporting against all odds.