Marcel Metze, The Netherlands, founded The Investigative Desk in 2018. This non-profit organization for investigative journalism focuses on chemicals, defence and security, energy, finance, food and agriculture, pharmaceutical and healthcare, and tobacco industries. It puts much emphasis on international collaboration.
Since 2011, Metze has been running a successful teaching lab for young investigative journalists, which is now part of The Investigative Desk.
Metze has been working as a journalist since 1980. In the 1990s, he began investigating big business and government. He authored books on Philips Electronics ("Short Circuit"), the Dutch banks and the powerful Highways and Waterways Agency.
In 2012, Metze used the WikiLeaks cables to expose unknown political connections of Royal Dutch Shell. In 2013, he discovered records showing that Philips Electronics worked closely with US Military Intelligence during WWII. In 2014, he revealed that the company used NSA-algorithms in its cryptographic equipment in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
His political biography of Royal Dutch Shell is scheduled for publication in 2023.
