Panama

Panama Shootout

The workshop featured Alicia Ortega, an investigative reporter and TV anchor from the Dominican Republic, interviewed here by a TVN reporter.

Panama Shootout

The investigative reporting workshop presenters included (l-r) Axel Rivera, news director for Medcom-Telemetro; Alicia Ortega, SIN vice president; Guido Rodriguez, TVN news director; John Law, acting U.S. ambassador, who inaugurated the workshop; Victor Castillo, investigative reporter; and Flor Ortega, executive director of the Forum of Journalists.

Panama Shootout

Knight Fellow Jorge Luis Sierra (left) checks his flip cam video at the TVN facilities in Panama City. To his right, an editor prepares a story on the shootout for broadcast.

Panama Shootout

The bullet landed here, in the apartment ceiling, as a family slept nearby.

Panama Shootout

The day after the shooting, a bullet hole through an apartment window was proof of just how dangerous the situation was: A family was sleeping in the apartment at the time.

Apr 92012

A Crowdsourced Website and a Shootout Lead to a Crackdown on Crime

As part of a TV investigative reporting workshop, I was working with 12 Panamanian journalists and journalism students eager to learn how they could use Mi Panama Transparente (MPT) to investigate crime and corruption in their areas. I had planned a demonstration I thought would showcase the possibilities. Little did I know it would involve an exchange of gunfire the participants would catch on tape… and lead to a series of high-profile news reports.

MPT is a crowd-sourced website I developed as part of my Knight International Journalism Fellowship.

Panama-Jorge Luis-Oct blog stats

Since September 21, the website have had 292 new unique visitors, 720 visits, and 1,616 page views.

Mi Panama Transparente stats

From September 21 to October 25, the campaign prompted 35 citizen reports, most of them about corruption.

El presidente del Fórum de Periodistas, Guido Rodríguez

Guido Rodríguez, president of Forum of Journalists of Panama, unveils the new PSA campaign at a press conference.

Colombia and Panama: Journalism Training (1999)

Knight International Journalism Fellow Ana Arana completed eight months in Colombia and Panama in 1999, partnering with Fundacion para el Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano and Centro Latinoamericano de Periodismo.