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 city.
She started as a reporter for Hoy newspaper in 1987. Almeida also did an internship at Europ magazine, published by the Paris-based Foundation Journalistes en Europe. She has also worked as a reporter and editor for Agence France Presse in Paris.
As a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University in 2009, she specialized in investigative journalism and regularly takes part in the Latin American Conference of Investigative Journalism organized by IPYS. She is a member of Connectas Hub, a digital platform for transnational investigative journalism in Latin America.
She has become a defender of investigative journalism and journalism standards at a time when press freedom is under attack in Ecuador. She co-authored a deep profile about former Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa, a book titled "El séptimo Rafael."
The Panama Papers in Ecuador: not even an earthquake could stop their reporting
When the Panama Papers broke in Ecuador, then president Rafael Correa encouraged the public to find the reporters and force them to hand over the documents.
