International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

ICIJ was launched in 1997 as a project of the Center for Public Integrity to extend globally the Center’s style of watchdog journalism in the public interest by marshaling the talents of the world’s leading investigative reporters to focus on issues that do not stop at water’s edge.

For decades, people around the world have seen or heard news of global events simultaneously, from political and economic scandals to wars and natural disasters. But commercial demands of the news industry have often meant that such information is brief, disjointed, confusing in the larger context, and seemingly less relevant to people. Broadcast networks and major newspapers have closed many of their foreign bureaus, even as the Internet and satellites have made national borders permeable.

Yet many of society’s major issues today cannot even be broached without addressing their global dimensions and context. How, for example, can journalists investigate and write comprehensively about the international arms and drug trade, political corruption, financial fraud, or the environment without information on these subjects from different parts of the world? Too often, most of these kinds of significant but complicated issues are ignored.

Meanwhile, in many developing countries, investigative reporters are killed, threatened, or imprisoned with alarming regularity. Amazingly unbowed by these life-and-death realities, they are unable to communicate or collaborate with colleagues who may be doing similar work.

Following the successful path forged by the Center for Public Integrity, ICIJ and its international network of journalists investigate major global issues that affect us all and release its findings in media around the world.

ICIJ also supports international investigative journalism by showcasing the work of its individual members and by presenting the biennial Daniel Pearl Awards for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting.

ICIJ is always on the lookout for outstanding investigative journalists. If you know of someone who should be considered for membership, please contact us using this form.