About this project: Smoke Screen

In February 2010, ICIJ launched another probe, this time following the industry’s money into the realm of international politics and lobbying. In eight countries, reporters have followed connections between the industry and government officials who are tasked with protecting non-smokers and designing rules to curb the massive public cost of treating tobacco-related illness.

The investigation has traced how multinational tobacco companies, faced with stagnant sales and health-conscious governments in developed nations, have targeted expansion in developing countries and emerging markets. Smokescreen reporters have investigated an array of industry efforts to delay or derail smoking reforms, ranging from hard-nosed lobbying and lawsuits to charitable donations and outright payoffs.

Thirteen ICIJ reporters have conducted hundreds of interviews with leading politicians, government regulators, health-care specialists, tobacco control activists, and current and former industry executives. The project has looked at six countries as case studies – India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, and Uruguay. In each of these places, court and government records are being mined – in some cases testing new freedom of information laws. And a trove of tobacco industry documents, made public after the industry lost landmark lawsuits in U.S. courts, are being examined to draw connections between past practices and present-day consequences of tobacco’s hard lobbying.