Arab Spring

Against the Odds, Investigative Journalism Persists in Middle East

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In the past year, a group of Arab journalists has been working secretly in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Algeria, and Yemen as part of a global network of investigative reporters mining the so called “Panama Papers.” They found that some Arab strongmen and their business partners are linked to offshore companies and bank accounts. What’s astonishing about this story is not that Arab dictators are going offshore to hide their wealth and evade sanctions. It’s that a community of Arab journalists is continuing to do investigative reporting in a region where there is increasingly little tolerance for accountability of any kind.

Panama Papers

Panama Papers Reporters Face Global Backlash

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Even as the Panama Papers disclosures have sparked almost 150 official investigations in at least 76 countries, they have also provoked pushback from individuals and governments displeased with revelations of the hidden economic holdings of the global elite. Politicians, business executives and thousands of their supporters have responded with vitriol, threats, cyber attacks and lawsuits. But one of the benefits of collaboration is the way journalists can band together to overcome these issues.

Armando.info

Investigative Journalism and the Crisis in Venezuela

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Venezuela is currently in the midst of an economic, political and constitutional crisis. Amid widespread rationing, tensions between President Nicolás Maduro and members of the opposition continue to escalate. Ewald Scharfenberg, cofounder of GIJN member organization Armando.info, talks about the role investigative journalism plays in Venezuelan politics. Scharfenberg will be speaking at #GIJC17 in November in Johannesburg.

Methodology

Behind the Panama Papers: A Q&A with ICIJ Director Gerard Ryle

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“Hello,” wrote the anonymous source to a German newspaper, “this is John Doe. Interested in data?” Thus began what would soon become an international financial investigation into what are being called the Panama Papers—an investigation so massive that even whistleblower Edward Snowden, on Twitter, called it the “biggest leak in the history of data journalism.”

Top 10 in Data Journalism

Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links

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What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are the top links for April 12-18: top #ddj tools (@duc_qn); global app economy (@ddjournalism); Kobe’s shots (@LATimes); Panama Papers tech (@source); China economy dataviz (@guardian); colors for data scientists (@jacomyma); algorithms in our lives (@CJR), & more.

Top 10 in Data Journalism

Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links

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What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are the top links for April 2-11: Behind the Panama Papers Investigation (@ICIJorg, @SZ); Best #ddj on taxes (@OKFN); Spies in the Sky (@BuzzFeed); EU Data Journalism Manifesto (@medium); World scientific collaboration (@storybench); & more.

Methodology

The People and the Technology Behind the Panama Papers

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The trove of files that make up the Panama Papers is likely the largest dataset of leaked insider information in the history of journalism. For ICIJ’s Data and Research Unit, it offered a unique set of challenges. The overall size of the data (2.6 terabytes, 11.5 million files), the variety of file types (from spreadsheets, emails and PDFs to obscure and old formats no longer in use), and the logistics of making it all securely searchable for more than 370 journalists around the world are just a few of the hurdles faced over the course of the 12 month investigation.

Data Journalism

Top Ten #ddj: 2016’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links

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Here are the top data journalism tweets for 2016, per our NodeXL mapping: #PanamaPapers (@ICIJorg); #ddj awards (@GENinnovate); China stereotypes (@ForeignPolicy); U.S. poor & shrinking middle class (@NYTimes, @FT); Earth temps (@HomesAtMetacoda); Germany’s greenest cities (@morgenpost); & more.

Homepage Featured

Are Panama Papers Really a Campaign Against Privacy?

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We do agree with Ramon Fonseca about one thing: that “Each person has a right to privacy, whether they are a king or a beggar.” But that’s where our commonality with co-founder of disgraced Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca ends. This scandal isn’t about privacy. If anything, it’s about the need for transparency about how the powerful wield their power.

anti-corruption

Stunned Open Government Community Searches for Solutions

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December might be when thoughts turn to the holidays, but this year it’s also when anti-corruption activists and advocates for transparency and accountability came together at two major international events: the 17th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) and the 2016 Open Government Partnership summit.