Impact, stories, change and growth highlight the first five years since ICIJ went independent in 2017.
For many in the industry, the unique challenges of the past few years forced us to become innovative to achieve our mission. In some cases, news outlets cut jobs and slashed budgets — often to the detriment of costly and time-intensive investigative reporting projects.
Fortunately for ICIJ — despite these challenges — we continued to produce work that holds the powerful to account and makes opaque industries, institutions and governments more transparent.
As you read through our 2021 report, you will see that success at ICIJ was achieved on many different levels.
With our landmark Pandora Papers investigation — the largest cross-border journalism collaboration in history — the numbers speak for themselves: more than 600 journalists from 150 media outlets based in 117 countries and territories worked together to uncover the stories hidden in 11.9 million leaked files.
Pandora Papers — launched worldwide on October 3, 2021 — advanced ICIJ’s role to uncover systemic corruption and structural inequities.
The ongoing impact of our investigations and all that we achieved in 2021 was the culmination of decades of work, dating back to our very inception 25 years ago. The results of these efforts to combat corruption, injustice and inequity have led to unprecedented global impact, including world leaders challenged and, in some cases, deposed in the wake of our investigations; laws changed in dozens of countries; more than a billion dollars in lost tax revenue recouped; and so much more.
At ICIJ — we want to challenge, inspire and promote change.
This level of impact is a result of one of ICIJ’s core tenets: the sharing of ideas and resources, based on the belief that global teams of journalists can have more impact than one journalist working alone.
Combined with cutting-edge technology and powerful analysis to better expose global systemic failure, our work continues to effect and promote real-world, lasting impact and change.
And while we celebrate our successes, we are humbly reminded of the work that remains ahead of us. At ICIJ, our board and team members are up to the challenge in large part because of support from people like you.
Investing in ICIJ empowers not only journalists but also private global citizens — especially at a time when democracy worldwide has been under sustained attack on multiple fronts.
ICIJ exists because of you. With ongoing support from our community of readers and donors, our global team of reporters can expose even more wrongdoing so that the world can make it right.