Investigative journalists – their importance
This article, through the MacArthur Foundation, highlights the work of investigative journalists, which when we discuss anti-corruption pressure, is an important part of the anti-corruption landscape. This article is a reminder of what investigative journalists do, reminding all of us of the essential work of investigative journalists. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is highlighted in this article; their work is broad “we have spent nearly two decades building a global network of investigators. On any given day, one of them might be writing code with a Python script to scrape a government database, using AI to analyze records, or working with a third-party vendor to track an oligarch’s jet.”
Why do we care about investigative journalists? As corruption grows, and goes across borders, we not only rely on cross-border enforcement, but we also rely on cross-border reporting. Just recently, the New York Times journalists showed us how the money was flowing to the Trump family and associates, in the middle east. Without such reporting, the possibility of following the money trails would be very challenging. We must continue to support independent journalism, as well as encouraging international donors to continue their support.
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