The Panama Papers leak is just the beginning
The Panama Papers, the biggest leak of classified documents in journalism's history, has led to a global investigative effort to untangle how fiscal paradises work. Under the leadership of Spanish journalist Mar Cabra, the global data team from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) was the brain behind the investigation that required an analysis of millions of documents.
Cabra is head of the data and research unit of ICIJ, a global network of more than 190 investigative journalists in more than 65 countries who collaborate on in-depth investigative stories. She fell in love with data while being a Fulbright scholar and fellow at the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University in 2009-2010. Since then, she's promoted data journalism.
In an interview with The Daily Star during the Second Asian Investigative Journalism Conference in Nepal last month, she spoke about the Panama Papers project.
TDS: How did it all begin?
MC: It all began with an email saying- "Hello, are you interested in data?" A German newspaper based in Munich received the email from an anonymous source. And the answer to the email led to the biggest leak in journalism history. The newspaper received 11.5 million files. They did not keep it to themselves, but shared them with the ICIJ and then what we did is share the information with more than hundred media organisations all around the world. It is the largest collaboration in journalism history with around 400 reporters in 80 countries.
TDS: How much time did it take to complete the investigation?
MC: We worked for around a year. We received 11.5 million files. It was a long process because there are many files. But of course we were able to make it in just one year, thanks to technology. If we had to have printed all the documents and read them one by one, it would basically take us decades to look at all the documents. Thanks to technology, we processed all those documents, put them in the cloud, on the internet, in a private website that all the reporters could access and anybody from anywhere in the world anytime could do research and find names connected to their countries.
TDS: How did you manage the data?
MC: For the Offshore Leaks, in 2013, we worked with 260 gigabytes of information, and for the Panama Papers there were 2.6 terabytes, so much more! Also, we created a transnational team with over 370 journalists, which required considerable coordination efforts and data management. This leak allowed us to understand the operation of fiscal paradises like never before, because Mossac-Fonseca is one of the main firms in the world creating offshore companies in fiscal paradises. And it had high-level clients. This also has made the content more interesting journalistically.
TDS: What made ICIJ involve journalists from different countries?
MC: It is impossible to deal with such a huge amount of information by yourself, even we had the most sophisticated technology to know how to analysis millions of documents. So the best way to tackle this is through collaboration. Which is why we have established ICIJ where we have been building trust between journalists and media organisations since 1997. So for the past 20 years we picked one or two media organisations in each country. This way they don't compete with each other: the media in Spain, for example, does not compete with the media in Bangladesh. So they bring local expertise and that's why we decided to share. It's a win-win situation basically.
TDS: Did you face any pressure following the release of the Panama Papers?
MC: Working in a team in collaboration actually works like a protective shield where it is very difficult to attack just one journalist. Because if one is attacked it will be considered as an attack on the whole team. So I think this has worked to the benefit of all the people who worked in the team. There have been some countries where working on the Panama Papers has been more complicated like Ecuador or Venezuela or Turkey, Russia, and some other countries. But in general, it really has helped to say 'I am not alone. I am a part of a big team of 400 journalists.'
TDS: Are there more such revelations from the Panama Papers in the pipeline?
MC: The good thing about the Panama Papers is that it is not over. It is a resource that journalists can use. We have around 500 journalists now using it. They are finding stories all the time. Sometimes, it happens that a name become news in the country, they look into the Panama Papers and they find actually more documents. So it's an ongoing research. We don't know if we missed those stories. So, it is not over yet. And the big part is going to come from the overlap of these leaks. ICIJ had published a leak, about the offshore world, a Swiss bank account and the connection between all these leaks.
TDS: What impact has the Panama Papers leak had in the way journalists go about doing stories? Has it changed you?
MC: I think the main change is not in me or my team. The main change has taken place in society. It is like now they are realising this is the way to go. We have been doing this in collaboration for the past four years. So the main change to me is that people come to me and say 'hey I want to do this'. And that is interesting.
TDS: It is said that the names of many Americans or American business organisations were mentioned in the list.
MC: There are names connected to more than two hundred countries including people from United States. The New York Times did a great front page story explaining all the connections of the people connected to the United States. However, it is true that the people that we found in United States are not people who are famous or politicians. They were not big profile cases. There were cases of, for example, criminals, there were people connected to court cases. So they were not well known. We have to bear in our mind that United States has their tax haven. So probably that is one of the reasons why there were not many names from the US in this leak. Remember, the Panama Papers is a leak about one, only one Panamanian law firm in offshore jurisdiction. So it was just the tip of the iceberg.
TDS: So what can we expect next from your team in the future?
MC: Let's see. I don't know but the reality is that we live in a new era where electronic leaks are neo-normal and we are getting more electronic leaks, faster and bigger and news organisations are getting used to receiving this. Many news organisations including ICIJ actually have a secure leaking platform where whistleblowers can leak documents securely, anonymously and perhaps we are yet to see the biggest leak in journalism history. This record that we hold right now with Panama papers will soon be over. But I am sure that we are all going to be dealing with big leaks in the near future.
The writers are journalists, The Daily Star.
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