Behind the Scoop: The Teams That Broke the Panama Papers

More than 400 journalists collaborated to tell stories of global corruption thanks to the biggest leak in data journalism history. ICFJ has supported three regional investigative journalism groups involved in the project. Meet the players from Africa, Latin America and the Balkans, who helped cast light on the secret finances of the rich and powerful.

Panelists:

Justin Arenstein, ICFJ Knight Fellow and Founder of the African Network of Centers for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR), South Africa

Carlos Eduardo Huertas, Director, Connectas, Colombia
Miranda Patrucic, Lead Investigative Reporter, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Bosnia and Herzegovina
Paul Radu, Executive Director, OCCRP, Romania

Master of Ceremonies

Randall Pinkston, Former Anchor, Al Jazeera America
 

Justin Arenstein is an ICFJ Knight International Journalism Fellow and              award-winning investigative journalist. He co-founded the African Network of Centers for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR), which led the coordination of newsrooms in 11 African countries to produce stories on the African leaders and companies named in the Panama Papers. Arenstein started the Code for Africa movement, which embeds technologists into newsrooms to train journalists to mine and visualize data for stories. He also launched Impact Africa, a reporting contest that aims to promote data-driven investigative reporting across the continent.

Carlos Eduardo Huertas is the chief of party of the ICFJ Investigative Reporting Initiative in the Americas. In that capacity, he also serves as director of Connectas, a cross-border platform on which journalists can exchange information on key issues in the Americas. The group played a major role in combing through the Panama Papers. Huertas specializes in reporting on corruption, violations of human rights and the environment.

Miranda Patrucic is a lead investigative reporter and regional editor for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), focusing on Central Asia, the Balkans and Caucasus. She collaborated with the  International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on the Panama Papers as well as on projects involving tobacco smuggling and the $4 billion black market in endangered bluefin tuna. Other highlights of her work include exposing billions in telecom bribes in Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan and uncovering ties between organized crime, government officials and corporations in Montenegro.

Paul Radu is the executive director of OCCRP, a key player in analyzing the Panama Papers leak. Radu is a co-creator of the Investigative Dashboard, which provides journalists easy access to hundreds of databases from around the world, and the Visual Investigative Scenarios visualization software, a special software that allows journalists to easily create data visualizations. He is the director of the RISE Project, a network of journalists and programmers who use the latest technology to generate investigative stories on crime and corruption. Radu served as an ICFJ Knight International Journalism Fellow.

Master of Ceremonies

 Randall Pinkston was a freelance correspondent and anchor for Al Jazeera America until the network recently closed operations. Pinkston previously worked for CBS for 33 years. During his tenure there, Pinkston served in New York City as a reporter for CBS Evening News, CBS News Sunday Morning, and 48 Hours, and in Washington, D.C., as a White House correspondent. At CBS News, Pinkston covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. intervention in Haiti, and the Unabomber story.

Announcing the 2016 Knight International Journalism Awards

José Zamora, Vice President, Strategic Communications, Univision News

José Zamora is vice president of strategic communications at Univision News, where he ensures that the news organization’s content has the widest possible reach and impact. Previously, Zamora helped manage the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's journalism and media innovation portfolio and its Knight News Challenge, an initiative to spur global media innovation. In 2003, Zamora’s father, José Rubén, received the Knight International Journalism Award for his outstanding work as publisher of Guatemala’s El Periódico. The Zamora family was held hostage and attacked in 2003 after José Rubén published an investigative report on organized crime and its links to the Guatemalan government and military.

ICFJ thanks United Airlines for supporting our Bringing Home the World International Reporting Fellowship Program for Minority Journalists.