International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ), is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 140 media organizations spanning more than 100 countries.[2] It is based in Washington, D.C., with personnel in Australia, France, Spain, Hungary, Serbia, Belgium and Ireland.[3]
Abbreviation
ICIJ
1997
Rhona Murphy (chair), Alexander Papachristou, Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab Wilhelm, Tom Steinberg, Dapo Olorunyomi, Birgit Rieck, Tony Norman
$3,022,355[1]
The ICIJ was launched in 1997 by American journalist Charles Lewis as an initiative of the Center for Public Integrity,[4] with the aim of exposing international crime and corruption. In 2017, it became a fully independent organization and was later granted 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.
The Panama Papers were the result of a collaboration with the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 other media partners,[5] with journalists spending a year sifting through 11.5 million leaked files from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. It culminated in a partial release on 3 April 2016, garnering global media attention.[6][7] The set of confidential financial and legal documents included detailed information on more than 14,000 clients and more than 214,000 offshore entities, revealing the identities of shareholders and directors including noted personalities and heads of state[8]—government officials, close relatives and associates of various heads of government of more than 40 other countries.[9][8][10] Süddeutsche Zeitung first received the released data from an anonymous source in 2015.[8] After working on the Mossack Fonseca documents for a year, ICIJ director Gerard Ryle described how the offshore firm had "helped companies and individuals with tax havens, including those that have been sanctioned by the U.S. and UK for dealing with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad."[11]
The ICIJ helped bring about the Corporate Transparency Act in the United States.[12] The Enablers Act, included in the annual defense bill, was first proposed shortly after ICIJ's Pandora Papers investigation exposed widespread exploitation of lax financial disclosure rules in the U.S.[13]
Governments have recovered more than US$1.36 billion in taxes as a result of the Panama Papers project alone,[14] and some continue to collect lost tax revenue.[15]
History[edit]
In 1997, the Center for Public Integrity began creating the consortium. By 2000, the ICIJ consisted of 75 investigative reporters in 39 countries."[16]: 11
In early November 2014, the ICIJ's Luxembourg Leaks investigation revealed that Luxembourg under Jean-Claude Juncker's premiership had turned into a major European centre of corporate tax avoidance.[17]
In February 2015, the ICIJ website released information about bank accounts in Switzerland under the title Swiss Leaks: Murky Cash Sheltered by Bank Secrecy, which published information on 100,000 clients and their accounts at HSBC.[18][19]
In February 2017, ICIJ was spun off into a fully independent organisation, which is governed by three committees: a board of directors, an Advisory Committee, and the ICIJ Network Committee.[20]
ICIJ was granted nonprofit status from US tax authorities in July 2017.[20]
In 2017, the ICIJ, the McClatchy Company, and the Miami Herald won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for the Panama Papers.[21] In total, the ICIJ won more than 20 awards for the Panama Papers.[22]
Selected reports[edit]
Global tobacco industry[edit]
From 2008 to 2011, the ICIJ investigated the global tobacco industry, revealing how Philip Morris International and other tobacco companies worked to grow businesses in Russia, Mexico, Uruguay and Indonesia.[23]: 23
Offshore banking series[edit]
The ICIJ partnered with The Guardian, BBC, Le Monde, the Washington Post, SonntagsZeitung, The Indian Express, Süddeutsche Zeitung and NDR to produce an investigative series on offshore banking.[24][25] They reported on government corruption across the globe, tax avoidance schemes used by wealthy people and the use of secret offshore accounts in Ponzi Schemes.[26]
In June 2011, an ICIJ article revealed how an Australian businessman had helped his clients legally incorporate thousands of offshore shell entitles "some of which later became involved in the international movement of oil, guns and money."[27]
In April 2013, a report (Offshore Leaks) disclosing details of 130,000 offshore accounts, some of which conducted international tax fraud.
In early 2014, the ICIJ revealed that relatives of China's political and financial elite were among those using offshore tax havens to conceal wealth.[28] In July 2019, the Mauritius Leaks showed how Mauritius was being used as one such tax haven. In 2022, ICIJ partnered with the Washington Post to investigate the role of registered agents in Wyoming such as Registered Agents Inc. to enable scams and financial crimes.[29]
Developer(s)
Collaborative journalism[edit]
The ICIJ's collaborative journalism model has been described as a new departure for global journalism[73][74] that embraces collaboration.[75] ICIJ's cross-border collaboration, involves more than 140 newspapers, television and radio stations, and online media organizations, and is marked by transparency and peer scrutiny.[76] The stories that result from the collaboration are published simultaneously around the world and made available to readers free.
Funding[edit]
The ICIJ is funded by donations. Financial supporters of the project include the Adessium Foundation, the Bertha Foundation, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Open Society Foundations.[77][78]
Awards and recognition[edit]
ICIJ's collaborations have received several awards, including the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.[79] Their work to uncover financial secrecy was nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.[80] In 2021, the ICIJ also won a News Emmy along with PBS Frontline for its Luanda Leaks investigation[81] and was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for the FinCEN Files.[82]
In 2022, the ICIJ was awarded the Katharine Graham Award for courage and accountability by the White House Correspondents’ Association.[83] ICIJ also received an Honourable Mention award at the 2022 Allard Prize for International Integrity.[84]
The ICIJ organized the bi-annual Daniel Pearl Awards for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting. The award is currently not being awarded.[20][85][86][87][88][89]
GuideStar, a nonprofits evaluator, gave the ICIJ a "Gold Seal of Transparency" in 2019.[90]