News stories about the Panama Papers have brought a lot of unwelcomed attention to the world’s rich and powerful and their connections to offshore banking accounts. The leaders of Britain, China and Russia are among the 140 politicians and public officials put in the spotlight. Iceland’s prime minister was forced to resign. News stories based on the papers – 11.5 million documents leaked from a Panamanian law firm – first appeared in news outlets worldwide in early April. Those stories resulted from a year of investigation by nearly 400 journalists working with over 100 news organizations, and in 25 languages. What made this possible? Journalism professor Brant Houston, the Knight Chair in Investigative Reporting at Illinois and co-founder of the Global Investigative Journalism Network, says it’s the culmination of efforts that go back at least four decades. He detailed some of that history in a recent article for the network’s website and spoke about it with News Bureau social sciences editor Craig Chamberlain.
We hear so much about the decline of mainstream media, especially newspapers, which often cut expensive investigative reporting as a cost-savings. How and why did this international investigative reporting capability develop in that atmosphere?
Before the decline of U.S. newspapers, many journalists realized that local stories were becoming more global – even as U.S. newspapers were closing their international bureaus. So the need for cross-border reporting was clear as the 21st century began. Then, as newspapers began dramatically cutting staffs, their investigative journalists left commercial newsrooms to create or gravitate to nonprofit newsrooms. Internationally, investigative journalists, wanting more independence from owners and governments, also created nonprofit newsrooms. The number of nonprofit newsrooms has grown from a handful to hundreds. But nonprofit newsrooms still had limited resources, so collaboration was the logical way to go.
Beyond just the determination to organize and collaborate, what are the key elements that have made this new kind of journalism possible?
The advent of the Web and the ability to share encrypted documents online using specialized software made collaborations far easier and safer. But the importance of professional associations of investigative journalists – especially Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Global Investigative Journalism Network – cannot be stressed enough. Their conferences not only provide training in best practices in traditional reporting and data journalism, but also offer venues for in-person meetings where journalists get to know and trust each other.
In addition, with end of the Cold War and increased global trade, it became easier for journalists to travel and communicate across borders. During that time, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists was formed separately, but the investigative journalism conferences provided a way for the consortium to meet and recruit members and collaborators. The ICIJ is the organization that coordinated the Panama Papers investigation.
You note that more than a quarter of the news organizations that partnered on the Panama Papers are nonprofits. Why are they playing this larger role and where do they find funding?
The model of nonprofit newsrooms has emerged as a leading player in investigative reporting in the past decade as a replacement for the loss of investigative reporting in mainstream media. Nonprofit newsrooms have been around a long time – The Associated Press and public broadcasting are two examples – but the surge in the number is what is different.
These newsrooms find funding from foundations such as the Knight Foundation, the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation or the Open Society Foundations. Or they find it from wealthy individuals such as the Sandlers family who backed ProPublica, which just won another Pulitzer Prize, or from the general public. Internationally, they find funding from U.S. or European foundations or government funds from Western nations.
Even though there’s a good argument for investigating the secret finances of the rich and powerful, should we be concerned that this is just one more demonstration that nothing stays private? What are the challenges for journalists, when getting leaked documents, in knowing where to draw the line?
History shows that journalism is among the last to “invade” people’s privacy and that good journalists discuss and often debate the associated ethical issues on a daily basis. Journalism can’t come close to the invasive techniques of government and business, which collect information on us with few restraints and often are only curtailed when caught at it.
Good journalists toil over the questions of how much to reveal and work hard to verify the information they find and use, constantly balancing the greater good against the disclosure of private information.