Following one of its most successful years on record, ICIJ is excited to announce the addition of 25 new members to its global network of investigative reporters.
Hailing from 20 different countries across four continents, the group includes journalists in five countries where ICIJ hasn’t had members before: Algeria, Niger, Lithuania, Iceland and Honduras.
All 25 new members have worked with ICIJ on previous investigations. Most in the group were part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Panama Papers investigation over the course of 2015 and 2016, where they routinely demonstrated not only their skills and determination as investigative journalists but also their dedication to collaborative reporting. The stories produced by these journalists led to the resignation of Iceland’s prime minister, put pressure on sitting leaders in Argentina, the United Kingdom and Russia, and led to official investigations and responses in a number of countries. While some countries responded with investigations, other journalists in this group faced threats and backlash as their reporting revealed links between offshore financial flows and powerful political allies.
“Working on an investigation like the Panama Papers presented so many challenges for the entire group, and these reporters really stood out as courageous, dogged reporters and exemplary team players,” said ICIJ Director Gerard Ryle. “We’re proud to be welcoming this group of 25 journalists into the ICIJ family, and are excited to be strengthening the network with their diverse set of skills, knowledge and expertise.”
The addition of 25 new members is one of the largest single expansions of the ICIJ network in recent years, and brings the total size of the consortium to more than 200 journalists in nearly 70 countries.
The new members are:
Moussa Aksar (Niger) is an investigative journalist who specializes in reporting on security and terrorism. He created the weekly newspaper L’Evenement in 2002.
Mónica Almeida (Ecuador) is the Quito bureau chief of El Universo newspaper. She has managed the main regional office for two decades, creating a talented team of journalists that is responsible for all the content generated from Ecuador’s capital.
Petra Blum (Germany) is a freelance investigative journalist and book author. She has worked for a number of newspapers and magazines in Germany including Handelsblatt, Manager Magazin and Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Alessia Cerantola (Japan/Italy) is a freelance investigative journalist, co-founder of the Investigative reporting project Italy (IRPI). She’s also a reporter with the BBC World Service, and has been reporting from Japan since 2007
Šarūnas Černiauskas (Lithuania) heads an investigative team of four reporters at 15min.lt, one of the leading news portals in the country.
Anuška Delić (Slovenia) is an investigative and data journalist with one of Slovenia’s leading daily newspapers, Delo.
Wahyu Dhyatmika (Indonesia) is an investigative reporter and an editor for Tempo Media Group, an independent news organization based in Jakarta.
Jesús Escudero (Spain) is an investigative data reporter in the first data unit ever created in a Spanish media organization, at El Confidencial.
Mariel Fitz Patrick (Argentina) is an investigative reporter working at the news channel A24 and América TV.
Juliette Garside (United Kingdom) is a financial correspondent at the Guardian. A business writer by training, she specializes in tax and offshore investigations.
Daniele Grasso (Spain) is a data journalist who created and now coordinates the Data Journalism Unit of the leading Spanish digital newspaper, El Confidencial.
Lyas Hallas (Algeria) is an investigative journalist who specializes in economics reporting for French-language daily newspaper Le Soir d’Algérie.
Shinovene Immanuel (Namibia) is an investigative journalist at The Namibian newspaper, specializing in corruption, politics, extractive industries, real estate and illicit financial flows.
Johannes Kr. Kristjansson (Iceland) is an investigative reporter who founded his own media company, called Reykjavik Media, in 2015. Although his membership is only being announced now, Johannes officially became an ICIJ member in early 2016.
Carla Minet (United States [Puerto Rico]) is a journalist and executive director of the Center for Investigative Journalism in Puerto Rico.
Lourdes Ramírez (Honduras) is an independent journalist and the director of the radio news program Café Informativo in the north of the country.
Martijn Roessingh (Netherlands) works as the assistant editor-in-chief for daily newspaper Trouw, and has participated in multiple ICIJ investigations.
Iván Ruiz (Argentina) is an investigative reporter and political correspondent who runs data-based investigations with the award-winning La Nación DATA team.
Ewald Scharfenberg (Venezuela) is co-director of investigative news website Armando.info and chief Venezuelan correspondent for Spanish daily newspaper El País.
Omaya Sosa Pascual (United States [Puerto Rico]) is the founding co-director of Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism and co-founder of NotiCel.com, a digital news outlet.
Jan Lukas Strozyk (Germany) is an investigative journalist working with Norddeutscher Rundfunk, a German public news broadcaster.
Fabiola Torres López (Peru) is an investigative journalist and co-founder and editor of OjoPublico, a nonprofit newsroom based in Lima
Nina Selbo Torset (Norway) is an investigative reporter and data journalist for Aftenposten, the largest daily newspaper in the country.
Oliver Zihlmann (Switzerland) is head of the joint investigation team at Le Matin Dimanche and SonntagsZeitung, two leading Sunday newspapers in Switzerland. Although his membership is only being announced now, Oliver officially became an ICIJ member in early 2017.
Scilla Alecci (United States) is an investigative reporter and video journalist. In addition to being a new ICIJ member, Scilla also heads ICIJ’s Asia Desk, coordinating the investigative work of ICIJ’s partners and members in Asia.
The addition of these new members comes just months after ICIJ’s Panama Papers investigation was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. At the beginning of 2017, ICIJ became a fully independent investigative news organization following 20 years under the stewardship of the Center for Public Integrity.
ICIJ membership is by invitation only, but if you are interested please email your resume and samples of your best investigative work to contact@icij.org.
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