Jelena Cosic is the ICIJ’s Training Director, Eastern European Partnership Coordinator and Data Reporter, and Journalist in Residence at TU Dortmund University. For more than five years, Cosic has worked on ICIJ’s award-winning global investigative projects such as Cyprus Confidential, FinCEN Files, Deforestation Inc. and the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Pandora Papers project. Jelena has trained over 2000 investigative reporters around the world. Before joining ICIJ, she worked as a reporter, regional coordinator and project manager for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN). Image source: https://www.journalistik-dortmund.de/news/neues-seminar-zu-crossborder-und-investigativjournalismus-mit-jelena-cosic-vom-icij/
By Johanna Mack
Investigative journalism is one of the most prestigious forms of reporting – and one of the riskiest. While famous examples such as the Pandora Papers have made headlines, teams from around the world are working to uncover more hidden stories that explain international affairs and their winners and losers. Sometimes this research is based on big data leaks, but it all has potential implications on a political, economic and personal level. Investigative journalist Jelena Cosic has been involved in major research projects ranging from the Pandora Papers to the FinCEN Files. She is also the training director of the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). In an interview with EJO, she provides insights into the work of cross-border research teams and explains how seemingly disparate people and practices are often connected.
Jelena Cosic is an education director, coordinator of Eastern European partnerships and data reporter for the ICIJ, as well as journalist in residence at the TU Dortmund. For more than five years, Cosic has worked on the ICIJ’s award-winning global research projects such as Cyprus Confidential, FinCEN Files, Deforestation Inc., and the Pulitzer Prize-nominated project Pandora Papers. Jelena has trained over 2,000 investigative reporters around the world. Prior to joining the ICIJ, she worked as a reporter, regional coordinator and project manager for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN).
EJO: ‘Money’ and ‘victims’ – what do these two terms mean in the context of investigative reporting?
JC: Both are very relevant, because the most common topic in investigative reporting is following the money – we shed light in places where, for various reasons, there is no light. This may be caused by limited press freedom, non-transparent systems or anything else that prevents people in certain countries or communities from understanding how systems work.
But none of the cross-border projects or investigative reports would have a reason to be published if the victim’s side were not also highlighted. No matter how much money you are trying to track down in your research, the most important thing is that you do it for the victims, to tell their part of the story from their point of view.
Who are the victims, actually? If you have a story about deforestation and illegal logging, for example, you need to show readers how they lose out as a result – not only because they lose trees, but also how they are all victims of this type of crime, investment or other related issues.
There are investigative stories that attract a great deal of public attention, such as the Pandora Papers, in which you were involved. But there are probably also many stories that do not make such a big splash, even though they expose equally significant wrongdoings?
That’s true, but that’s exactly what cross-border projects and organisations are for. We and other networks try to highlight the significance of stories from different regions. We’re basically in the same boat: it’s not possible for there to be a huge corruption case in Africa or Latin America, or for a drug cartel to be uncovered in one place, without there being connections to other places.
Even with stories that you might initially think are unrelated, for example, people who cause harm in far-flung regions and are not normally in the public eye, I am sure that you will find a connection at the end of the day. Firstly, crime knows no borders and secondly, there are certain trends that are always there. People who make money buy assets in certain areas of the world, they hide them, there are jurisdictions that guarantee secrecy, and so on. We are all basically connected, no matter how much we don’t pay attention to what is happening elsewhere.
How does the information about such dynamics reach you? Can you give an example?
Most people associate ICIJ with these globally leaked documents, and it is true that some of our biggest investigations are based on major leaks revealing offshore systems. But there are also projects that are not like that. In the Implant Files, we revealed how medical implants can malfunction in patients who need them. This investigation was not based on leaks, but on open documents that can be found online, in archives or databases, but also on freedom of information requests. To follow the story, we used synergies by working on it from many places.
A more recent example is our project on deforestation, which is also not based on leaks. It deals with the problems and consequences of deforestation worldwide, but also with the import of illegally harvested timber and timber products. We used documents from online databases that marked timber products with a green stamp. If you take a look at the notebooks on your desk, you will probably find these stamps, which state that they have been made from ecologically sustainable materials that are harmless to the environment.
But when we went through these documents online, we found that even some of these certified companies were not treating their customers properly, were accused of various crimes, were not adhering to the procedures, and sometimes even attacking the guardians of certain forests in various regions of the world.
So, our job was to investigate these cases in detail, map them, export them from the databases, and then review them and work with local partners who wanted to do stories from their own country. That means if the company was from their country, they would basically do the reporting on that company or case.
When ICIJ receives the first information that triggers such research, what are the next steps? How does the process work?
We work on issues that explain systemic failures. This can be linked to any country in the world because our approach is global. I mentioned deforestation, which also involves illegal logging, where rules and sanctions are bypassed to buy prohibited goods such as teakwood from countries such as Myanmar. The story transcends national borders – you will find partners in many other countries around the world who are pursuing the issue from their side – that doesn’t have to mean that we do the same story. The common idea that something is not working on a global level is more relevant.
Even the larger investigations such as the Pandora Papers or Cyprus Confidential show that shifting funds through offshore jurisdictions remains popular and current, only the patterns change. Politicians and shady characters around the world make extensive use of these systems.
We spend part of our working hours doing research to find data on trends in the documents we have or to find more data and information, online or offline. We do interviews from time to time and talk to our media partners a lot. We constantly have our own meetings because we have to coordinate, and meetings with partners.
It takes many factors for this machine to run well, because it is not easy to produce this kind of project. It requires a lot of resources and a lot of time. On the one hand, it is really hard work, but on the other hand, we feel privileged that we have enough time for topics that are really relevant to us and our partners.
Would you say that there is a shared vision of what investigative journalism means, across different media systems and contexts with very different degrees of press freedom?
I would say that organisations that conduct cross-border investigations, such as OCCRP, but also regional networks like ARIJ, DARAJ or El Clip in Latin America, do exactly the same thing as we do: they try to find a topic of international importance. It is not that difficult to find such a topic because either the patterns are the same or the connections are always there or the same people turn up. Our partners in such investigations use the same kind of scheme – regardless of whether they come from Kenya, Brazil, the USA or France, for example. The patterns are similar and so is the abuse.
This brings me to the question of impact. You invest so much time, energy and resources into uncovering relevant abuses, and at the same time we see that freedoms are increasingly being restricted in many parts of the world, both for the media and for other civil liberties. How do you see the impact of your work?
Impact plays a really important role in deciding which projects we will work on. Reasons for deciding to work on a story could be that there are not enough laws in the area under investigation, which could easily be changed with more attention. Or that we show that money is ending up in the wrong part of the world, in the wrong hands, and that it could be given back to the governments of the countries and help them a lot.
We believe it is important to report on places where democratic systems are in decline and where, above all, fundamental human rights are not respected to the extent that they should be. We work with partners there. Even if there is no immediate impact, we do it to inform people so that they can see what is actually going on. And that is very important, even if the impact might not be as big as we would expect. But it is worthwhile to report on things that are highly topical for communities, countries or in some cases even regions. Because not many organisations are able to do that. We take advantage of this and then report on behalf of these people or in their place or together with them.
With your investigations, you probably step on a lot of toes. Can an organisation like ICIJ offer its members protection? What is the security dimension of your work?
Unfortunately, there is not enough protection against the bad guys. It’s just a question of how much money and time they have. But we and all similar organisations offer a network of journalists who fight back: they report when these reporters cannot report, they are able to strike back as a group and not as individuals. We can inform important bodies in the world so that they respond to certain things and create public pressure that helps these local journalists and media centers to continue their work.
On the other hand, we always evaluate our ideas from a security perspective and consider whether we can work with partners to help them and provide them with the level of security they need to do their reporting. Usually, we publish something and only then do the bad guys realise that their names are being published in a cross-border report.
Security is extremely important, but we work with a team of professionals who understand that objective, and accurate journalism protects them in most cases. And if need be, we don’t publish their names or the names of their media organisations. Or in the worst case, we help them leave their locations and just don’t publish the work in the country they come from, because each of these activities can expose them to certain risks depending on the situation.
How does online security work, especially when you work with colleagues from such diverse countries and backgrounds, with different levels of connection and access?
That’s why we have a whole range of colleagues who are part of the technical team. And we also have important partners outside our network who provide us with valuable guidelines for online security. In addition, we stream and explain our guidelines and rules to ensure security.
The technical team provides secure communication platforms or databases, such as search engine platforms, that are secured and encrypted. Thanks to them, everyone can work online regardless of where they joined the project. This is actually one of the reasons why we were able to release projects like Luanda Leaks or the FinCEN files in less than two years, because it also allowed us to share information with partners to keep them safe during the COVID pandemic, and everyone published hundreds of stories, basically all over the world.
Jelena Cosic during a training for investigative journalists. (Image source – ICIJ: https://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2021/09/what-it-takes-to-train-hundreds-of-the-best-investigative-reporters-in-the-world/)
You also train investigative journalists in various countries. What important skills do you teach during this training?
It depends on the skills that the journalists or other people we train already have, but we always make sure that they have sufficient knowledge of how to use certain platforms – a certain level of technical skill is required. And, of course, investigative skills. This means following the flow of money and documents or the paper trail, understanding and using data, and understanding complex financial documents. With media partners, our support is very much based on the project at hand – depending on what topics they have and what they need.
I introduce students to the world of research and encourage them to value and develop an investigative mindset.
What advice do you have for young journalists who would like to break into the field of investigative reporting?
It is important that there are always more journalists or journalism students willing to work as investigative reporters. It is a great feeling when you solve a case, when you uncover wrongdoing related to local politicians, shady characters who harm the system and thereby profoundly affect people’s lives. These days, more than ever, we need people like her to fight for justice.
To pursue this career, you have to develop an investigative mindset, dig deeper, and try to sharpen your instincts so that you question things and expose injustices.
This article was first published on: https://de.ejo-online.eu/ Read the original article here: https://de.ejo-online.eu/qualitaet-ethik/wir-decken-systemfehler-auf-ein-interview-mit-investigativjournalistin-jelena-cosic
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