TRAILER
Article by Forbidden Stories
June 17, 2019 6:00 pm
On every continent, journalists have faced danger and difficulty investigating environmental issues...
On every continent, journalists have faced danger and difficulty investigating environmental issues. Since 2009, at least 13 journalists have been killed after working on environment-related stories, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. CPJ is still investigating 16 additional deaths, so there may be as many as 29 cases.
The “Green Blood” series pursued the investigations of several reporters who faced threats when covering environmental damage and other abuses by mining companies.
For the first time, 40 journalists from 15 countries organized by Forbidden Stories were able to go in to the field, track supply chains and use open source tools to look into mines in India, Tanzania and Guatemala where questionable practices had previously been covered up.
The results of this eight-month-long collaborative investigation will be published the week of June 17 in 30 media organizations around the world to keep those stories alive.
These are the 13 reporters killed between 2009 and 2019:
These are the 13 reporters killed between 2009 and 2019: Crispin Perez (Philippines, 2009), Desidario Camangyan (Philippines, 2010), Ardiansyah Matra’is (Indonesia, 2010), Gerardo Ortega (Philippines, 2010), Darío Fernández Jaén (Panama, 2011), Wisut “Ae” Tangwittayaporn (Thailand, 2012), Hang Serei Odom (Cambodia, 2012), Sai Reddy (India, 2013), Mikhail Beketov (Russia, 2013), Jagendra Singh (India, 2015), Soe Moe Tun (Myanmar, 2016), Karun Misra (India, 2016), María Efigenia Vásquez Astudillo (Colombia, 2017)
They support us

Maria Ressa
2021 Nobel Peace Prize
“All they want in killing a journalist, or in attacking a journalist, is to stop the story.”

Can Dündar
Former editor of the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet
“It will send a very clear message to oppressive governments that if they touch a journalist anywhere in the world, many others will be ready to support and follow up their story.”

Khadija Ismayilova
Azerbajani investigative journalist
“What you are suggesting is creating a newsroom for journalists who have no press freedom. You will get fantastic stories.“

Matthew Caruana Galizia
Maltese journalist, son of slain reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia
“We couldn’t allow our mother’s stories to die with her. They were too important. For them to be forgotten would have been like killing her twice.“

Fabrice Arfi
Mediapart‘s head of investigations
“The finest project of investigative journalism, in solidarity against censorship.“

Sandhya Ravishankar
Indian journalist
“Now I know that Forbidden Stories will always have my back.”

Bastian Obermayer
2017 Pulitzer Prize winner
“Even if Forbidden Stories rescues just a handful of investigations that fall into a sort of limbo each time a journalist is jailed or killed, it will already be a great victory for citizens.”

Marina Walker
Executive editor at Pulitzer Center
“By working together, journalists can make it harder for censorship to win. We’re proud to support Forbidden Stories.”