IPI marks World Press Freedom Day 2023
This year on World Press Freedom Day, IPI is championing the trailblazing journalism carried out by our network of members and award-winners around the world. From exposing high-level corruption, illegal government surveillance programs, and even war crimes, to pushing for greater access to information, our network of journalists, editors, and media organizations is driving some of the most courageous, innovative, and impactful public-interest stories and investigations around the world — even in the most restrictive and challenging environments.
On this World Press Freedom Day, IPI stands with all of our members around the globe who continue to bring us news and information that hold the powerful to account and make our democracies stronger and our societies safer.
Here are just a few examples.
Carmen Aristegui
Mexico
This year’s IPI/IMS World Press Freedom Hero Carmen Aristegui conducts fearless and critical reporting on corruption in Mexico —regardless of the government in power and in the face of targeted efforts to silence her. For her vigorous watchdog journalism, Aristegui has been subject to a range of abuses at the hands of the Mexican state and other powerful actors, including smear campaigns and politically motivated firings. She and her family were illegally targeted with Pegasus surveillance in 2015, in one of the first known uses of the powerful spyware against journalists.
Image courtesy of Carmen Aristegui
Image courtesy of Carmen Aristegui
Image courtesy of El Faro
Image courtesy of El Faro
El Faro
El Salvador
El Faro has been a paragon of independent investigative journalism in Central America, covering drug wars, corruption, inequality, and human rights violations across the region since its inception in 1998. Founded by veteran investigative journalist and 2022 IPI/IMS World Press Freedom Hero Carlos Dada, El Faro has been at the forefront of multiple investigations that have uncovered high-level corruption in El Salvador. These investigations have drawn such ire that El Faro this year has been forced to relocate its operations to Costa Rica for fears about safety.
El Surtidor
Paraguay
Online news site El Surtidor is using visual storytelling to produce deeply compelling public-interest stories on social issues, climate, and politics that engage young audiences in Paraguay in new ways. In advance of the presidential election this April, El Surtidor tackled disinformation head-on, with a project focused on raising public awareness about disinformation tactics and narratives. The organization also hosts public exhibits and experiments with animation and other forms of collaborative, interactive storytelling.
Image courtesy of El Surtidor
Image courtesy of El Surtidor
Image courtesy of Eliza Triantafillou
Image courtesy of Eliza Triantafillou
Eliza Triantafillou
Greece
Veteran Greek journalist Eliza Triantafillou has been instrumental in revealing the abuse of the illegal spyware tool called Predator to surveil both politicians and journalists in Greece. Along with her colleagues at Inside Story, Triantafillou broke multiple stories unveiling a snooping scandal connected to figures in the prime minister’s office, paving the way to high-profile resignations, parliamentary inquiries and EU probes. Her team continues to publish revelations about the export of the technology to authoritarian regimes abroad.
The Shift News
Malta
Online investigative news portal The Shift News has led the way in investigating and explaining the sources and proliferation of disinformation campaigns in Malta going back to 2018. The news organiszation is also at the center of an exhausting freedom of information (FOI) battle with the Maltese government over access to public documents, in a case that’s become critical for government transparency and watchdog journalism in the country.
Image courtesy of The Shift News
Image courtesy of The Shift News
Image courtesy of Wael Sharha
Image courtesy of Wael Sharha
Wael Sharha
Yemen
Investigative journalist Wael Sharha’s 2020 report Eternal Hostages contributed to the release of thousands of people unjustly held in Yemeni prisons. His in-depth investigation revealed how a combination of lengthy litigation processes, a lack of proper due process, and under-resourced prison facilities had resulted in thousands of inmates languishing in the country’s prisons, in some cases for sentences that had already been served. Sharha’s report, which was supported by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), led to an internal investigation by authorities, who then released 1,600 individuals from dozens of prison facilities in North Yemen.
IJ4EU project grantees
Europe
IPI’s Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) grantees are carrying out some of the most groundbreaking cross-border investigative journalism across Europe. The Recovery Files is a pan-European investigation into the post-Covid recovery package — the largest EU stimulus package in history — revealing how the money will be spent by recipient member states. In The Investment Trap project, journalists from Kosovo, Albania, and Austria uncover an investment scam involving billions of euros. The Dutch non-profit Lighthouse Reports has led multiple investigations about human rights abuses on Europe’s borders, including Frontex at Fault: European Border Force Complicit in ‘Illegal’ Pushbacks and Unmasking Europe’s Shadow Armies. The Forever Pollution Project is unveiling the scale and character of the pollution with PFAS “forever chemicals”.
Image courtesy of International Press Institute
Image courtesy of International Press Institute
Anna Babinets
Ukraine
Anna Babinets is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Ukrainian outlet Slidstvo.Info — one the seven Ukrainian media outlets to be honored with IPI’s Free Media Pioneer Award in 2022 — and specializes in uncovering high-level corruption, money laundering, and organized crime. She worked on the Panama Papers team, reporting on stories about Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko’s offshore companies. Together with her colleagues at Slidstvo.Info, Babinets has been instrumental in documenting Russian war crimes in Ukraine and maintaining a database to track Russian war criminals.
Image courtesy of Anna Babinets
Image courtesy of Anna Babinets
Image courtesy of Article 14
Image courtesy of Article 14
Article 14
India
Article 14 is a collaboration between lawyers, journalists, and academics, which takes its name from the article of the Indian Constitution that guarantees equal rights to all. The organization produces research and investigations on topics related to equal rights, justice, and democracy. Its in-depth project on the rampant use of draconian, colonial-era sedition laws to charge and imprison thousands in India since 2010 is an example of how the organization combines academic research, data visualization, and storytelling to produce incredibly compelling and engaging public-interest journalism.
Doğu Eroğlu
Turkey
Doğu Eroğlu, an investigative journalist with independent Turkish outlet Medyascope, used leaked documents to expose a mass surveillance operation in Turkey — the biggest such illegal surveillance program to be revealed in decades. The so-called “BTK-gate” scandal showed that ISPs were transmitting the data traffic of all users in the country connected to the internet via their computers or mobile devices to the Information Technologies and Communications Authority (“BTK”)—on an hourly basis.
Image courtesy of Doğu Eroğlu
Image courtesy of Doğu Eroğlu
Image courtesy of Alina Pechenkina
Image courtesy of Alina Pechenkina
Kloop Media
Kyrgyzstan
Kloop Media is redefining what it means to be a news organization. It not only leads some of the country’s best investigative reporting but also helps train the next generation of journalists, offering a journalism school for young reporters in both Kyrgyzstan and across the region. Even in the face of mounting pressure from the Kyrgyz government, Kloop continues to hold power to account with its critical investigations into politics and corruption, while also actively working to develop a strong public-interest journalism culture in Kyrgyzstan and beyond.
Project Multatuli
Indonesia
Project Multatuli is a collective initiative of writers, editors, filmmakers, photographers, and data journalists dedicated to creating public-interest journalism that holds power to account in Indonesia. The organization publishes articles, photo essays, and video projects that feature underreported stories about poverty, injustice, and discrimination.
Image courtesy of Project Multatuli/Tubagus Rachmat
Image courtesy of Project Multatuli/Tubagus Rachmat
Image courtesy of Debunk Media
Image courtesy of Debunk Media
Debunk Media
Kenya
The Nairobi-based independent news outlet Debunk Media uses data-driven storytelling to cover politics, culture, and social issues. The outlet was founded in 2020 to help inform young audiences about how issues in the news affect their daily lives. During the 2022 election campaign, they published a series of helpful explainers that broke down the key issues pertaining to the electoral process and produced a video series on disinformation.
The Continent
Africa
The Continent, a news weekly designed to be shared on the messaging platform WhatsApp, was launched at the height of the global pandemic in 2020 to tackle the infodemic of disinformation in Africa. The founders decided to try launching a pan-African newspaper (in PDF format) to spread truthful news and information using the same social media platforms that are too often used to spread disinformation. The Continent has since emerged as one of the most widely-distributed newspapers in Africa, covering politics, business, and culture.
Image courtesy of The Continent
Image courtesy of The Continent
Image courtesy of Myanmar Now
Image courtesy of Myanmar Now
Myanmar Now
Myanmar
Myanmar Now continues to publish independent news and information in an extremely hostile climate, despite an order to cease its operations following the military coup in the country in 2021. The news service offers non-partisan news in both Burmese and English, covering humanitarian issues, politics, and environmental topics, and is committed to restoring the independent media ecosystem in Myanmar by training and mentoring reporters.
Image courtesy of NTB
Image courtesy of NTB
Maria Ressa
Philippines
Maria Ressa, Nobel Laureate and founder and CEO of award-winning news site Rappler as well as an IPI Executive Board member, continues to stand for truth and the power of independent journalism — even in the face of relentless online abuse and a maze of politically motivated criminal and tax evasion charges aimed at silencing her. Amid these challenges, Ressa remains an indefatigable and inspiring champion of press freedom and truth as the antidote for the spread of disinformation and other efforts to subvert democracy in the Philippines and around the world.
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