Laurent Richard

Founder and executive director

Laurent is a French award-winning documentary filmmaker, producer, and founder of Forbidden Stories, a network of investigative journalists devoted to keeping stories alive. Richard has directed documentaries for 20 years.

He was a Knight-Wallace Fellow in 2017 at the University of Michigan and was named European Journalist of the year 2018 by the Prix Europa in Berlin. Read more.

Sandrine Rigaud

Editor-in-chief

Sandrine Rigaud is a French investigative journalist. As editor of Forbidden Stories since 2019, she coordinated the “Pegasus Project” published in July 2021 and the “Cartel Project,” a massive cross-border collaboration to finish the investigations of a murdered Mexican journalist that won a George Polk Award and the Maria Moors Cabot Prize.

Before joining Forbidden Stories, she directed feature length documentaries for French television. Read more.

Cécile Andrzejewski

Journalist

Cécile Andrzejewski joined Forbidden Stories as an investigative journalist in January 2022.

As a member of the freelance collective Youpress, she has worked extensively with Mediapart, collaborated with the Investigate Europe consortium and participated in the Zero Impunity project, on sexual violence in wartime. In 2019, her book “Silence sous la blouse”, an investigation on sexual violence in French hospitals, was shortlisted for the Albert-Londres Prize. Follow on Twitter.

Phineas Rueckert

Journalist

Phineas Rueckert joined Forbidden Stories as an investigative journalist in September 2020. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Global Citizen in New York City, where he reported on humanitarian issues.

He holds a joint master’s degree in journalism and human rights with a focus on Latin America from Sciences Po in Paris, and his previous work has been published in AFP, News Deeply and Atlas Obscura. Follow on Twitter.

Léa Peruchon

Journalist

Léa Peruchon joined Forbidden Stories as an investigative journalist in September 2021.

After obtaining her master’s degree in journalism, she wrote various articles for the French regional daily “37 Degrés.” She has also collaborated with a number of press agencies, including Premières Lignes Télévision on the programme Cash Investigation and Zed Productions on a France 5 documentary about vacationers in North Africa in the 1980s. In 2021, she assisted in the production of a documentary on post-traumatic stress disorder for France 3. Follow on Twitter.

Youssr Youssef

Journalist

Youssr Youssef joined Forbidden Stories as an investigative journalist in September 2022.

Addicted to data and investigations, she holds a dual degree in statistics and journalism from ENSAE and Sciences Po Paris. Before joining the team, she worked as a data journalist for the newspaper Le Figaro. Her documentary: “René Carmille, un hacker sous l’Occupation,” about the founder of the French national institute of statistics and the issue of personal data, won awards at multiple festivals in 2022.

Karine Pfenniger

Journalist

Karine Pfenniger joined Forbidden Stories as an investigative journalist in September 2022.

A financial crime nerd, she previously worked as a journalist at Gotham City in Switzerland and participated in cross-border investigative projects the Pandora Papers with Cash Investigation and Congo Hold-Up with Mediapart. She also reported for AFP and L’Obs. She holds a joint master’s degree in journalism and international economy policy from Sciences Po in Paris. Follow on Twitter.

Clément Le Merlus

Journalist and Safebox Network project manager

Clément Le Merlus joined Forbidden Stories as a journalist in 2020. He is the Safebox Network project manager.

He previously worked in New Zealand, within the New Zealand Olympic Committee communication department, and then as a journalist for the country’s largest daily newspaper, The New Zealand Herald. Graduated in investigative journalism in Sciences Po Rennes, he also reported for Libération. Follow on Twitter.

Aïda Delpuech

Investigative journalist

Aïda Delpuech joined Forbidden Stories as an investigative journalist in January 2023.

She has a master’s degree in political philosophy from EHESS and ENS, and worked for Cash Investigation and Inkyfada, an independent Tunisian media outlet. She was previously a freelance journalist, specializing in environmental issues in North Africa and the Mediterranean. Her work has been published in BBC Future, El País, Al Jazeera English, Courrier International, Climate Home News, Reporterre, and others. Aida is a member of the Environmental Investigative Forum and the Oxford Climate Journalism Network. Follow her on Twitter.

Eloïse Layan

Investigative journalist

Eloïse Layan joined Forbidden Stories as a journalist coordinator of the SafeBox Network in February 2023. She previously worked abroad, spending five years in India, and reporting from Senegal for French television (France 2). She has primarily investigated social issues, in particular drug trafficking networks, but has also reported on environmental topics. In France, she worked for Martin Weill’s reporting program. She is interested in science reporting, having previously studied cognitive science and modeling.

Marguerite Maramici

Project Officer SafeBox Network

Marguerite Maramici has been in charge of the organization, logistics and budget monitoring for the SafeBox Network Project since January 2023.

For two years, she worked as a project manager at the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, managing projects in the field of regional development and migration analysis.

Sara Guglielmi

Development manager

Sara Guglielmi has been in charge of administration, finance and fundraising for Forbidden Stories since August 2020.

She previously worked for three years as a project manager at CFI, the French agency for media development, on projects in South East Asia, Caucasus and Arab world. Then, she worked one year as a consultant at UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) on projects related to journalism education.

Elena García

Head of communication

Elena García joined Forbidden Stories as a communications officer in February 2023.

Trained in video journalism at ESJ Lille, she has worked for several international media, including France 24 and Euronews. She then joined UNESCO, where she worked on projects related to press freedom, journalist safety and cyber-threats against journalists. During her years at Sciences Po Paris, she specialized in politics in Latin America.