“It’s been 17 years of this red accounting (cuenta roja) in which we have not stopped counting the number of journalists killed. There are 109, and a good part of them in the last two administrations,” said Daniela Pastrana, director of Mexican journalists organization Periodistas de a Pie. “But the counting began, paradoxically, with the start of the democratic transition. That is one of the things that I still cannot explain.”
In its two years of existence, Peruvian site Convoca has produced investigative reports based on the law of transparency and access to information that were internationally awarded and even motivated a legislative change in Peru. Now, Convoca will use its expertise to help train the next generations of investigative journalists who will monitor those in power in the country.
The Costa Rican newspaper La Voz de Guanacaste, founded in 2002 as La Voz de Nosara, began as a printed newsletter featuring local stories from the northwestern Costa Rican province of Guanacaste. Today, it is the only non-profit Costa Rican newspaper with digital and print versions published in English and Spanish, and almost 42,000 followers on social networks.
On July 12, a Brazilian federal judge sentenced former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to nine and a half years in prison for corruption, obstruction of justice and money laundering in relation to the Lava Jato case, a corruption scheme in at least 12 countries involving several Brazilian companies and politicians in Latin America.
Those involved in the Lava Jato scandal, the bribery scheme formed by Brazilian companies and politicians from at least 12 countries, resorted to sophisticated methods of corruption, such as the use of offshore companies, the creation of accounts in tax havens and overcharges in public works contracts. And of course, they also took care that their actions did not leave a trace.
U.S. journalism organization Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) recognized slain Mexican journalist Miroslava Breach Velducea with its first Don Bolles Medal, named for a U.S. reporter killed in 1976.
The 977 participants of the 12th International Congress of Investigative Journalism, held between June 28 and July 2, set a record for the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) as it celebrated its 15-year anniversary.
Eight Latin American journalists are among the 25 newest members of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the transnational investigative network behind the Panama Papers investigation.
In the era of big data, journalism can benefit greatly from using information technology to reinvent methods for searching, analysis, and news coverage.
Freedom of expression organizations in Panama are on alert after the Public Prosecutor's Office disclosed it is investigating whether money laundering occurred during the purchase of a media company.
On Apr. 3, 2016, the world learned about the so-called Panama Papers investigation, a project involving 370 journalists from 76 countries – including 96 journalists from 15 Latin American countries – who revealed a network of evasion and the creation of companies in tax havens by businessmen and leaders from around the globe.
The “barrage” of censorship and pressure to which Mexican journalists have been exposed in recent years reminds reporter Alexandra Xanic of the 1990s. The dependence of the media on official advertising, reductions in newsrooms and the search by media outlets to “fill spaces,” mean that investigative journalism is increasingly forgotten, and the little that is done fails to have the impact it should.