Mary Cuddehe, a U.S. journalist, was offered $20,000 to spy on plaintiffs in one of the biggest environmental lawsuits in Ecuador's history, Cuddehe revealed in a first-person account published in the Atlantic.
Despite needing the money, she refused, knowing as a journalist it would be unethical.
Oil company Chevron hired the world's largest investigations firm to recruit journalists as spies, potentially violating both U.S. and Ecuadorian law, according to Business Wire.
For 17 years, Texaco (now Chevron) and residents of the Amazon in Ecuador have been embroiled in a legal battle, explained Democracy Now in an interview with Cuddehe. Chevron is facing a $27.3 billion lawsuit, accused of dumping more than 18 billion gallons of toxic waste into the rainforest, resulting in both health and environmental damages.
A verdict in the case is unlikely until 2011, Reuters said.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
