60-495: The European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) network is a European collaborative hybrid project of transnational investigative journalism . EIC was established in the fall of 2015 with founding members, including Der Spiegel , El Mundo , Mediapart , the Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism (CRJI), and Le Soir , and launched in the winter of 2016. On March 18, 2016, after three months research, they published
120-743: A "company mill" which registered and operated companies for clients included organized crime groups, state-owned oil companies, and fraudulent banks. The release was compared to both the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers . Belgian tax authorities initiated an investigation based on the Cayman bank and Formations House leaks. In December 2019, DDoSecrets published "PacoLeaks" and "MilicoLeaks": data from Chilean military police and military . PacoLeaks revealed police personnel data, extensive police files on activist groups and leaders, and evidence that
180-655: A "warming effect to reverse the chilling effects of censorship" as part of its broader mission to ensure the free transmission of data in the public interest by making itself a "publisher of last resort". In June 2024, DDoSecrets' revamped their website and in July, DDoSecrets launched two new projects, the Library of Leaks and Disclosure Without Borders . The Library of Leaks focuses on preserving existing data and coordinating with outside groups and Disclosure Without Borders focuses on new publications and source protections. DDoSecrets and
240-821: A collection of military documents from Latin America and Mexico totaling more than 13 terabytes, which Emma Best called "the largest leak in history". The leak included the Chilean Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Mexican Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Command of the Armed Forces of Peru . In November, they published documents from Innwa Bank in Myanmar and republished files from Liberty Counsel . In January 2023, DDoSecrets published files from ODIN Intelligence ,
300-752: A contractor for law enforcement and police departments. They also published files from the Cyprus -based corporate service provider MeritServus . In February 2023, DDoSecrets published documents from the 2022–2023 Pentagon document leak , and tax records from Myanmar . In August 2023, DDoSecrets published over 500,000 documents and other files from the National Police of Paraguay . In October, they published intelligence documents about investigations involving former president of Paraguay Horacio Cartes . They also published emails and documents from Ethiopia's Financial Intelligence Service. In November 2023,
360-460: A lot of sensitive information." In December 2018, DDoSecrets listed a leak from Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs , portions of which detailed the deployment of Russian troops to Ukraine at a time when the Kremlin was denying a military presence there. About half of the material from that leak was published in 2014; the other half emerged in 2016. WikiLeaks reportedly rejected a request to host
420-529: A report. Practitioners sometimes use the terms "watchdog reporting" or "accountability reporting". Most investigative journalism has traditionally been conducted by newspapers, wire services , and freelance journalists. With the decline in income through advertising, many traditional news services have struggled to fund investigative journalism, due to it being very time-consuming and expensive. Journalistic investigations are increasingly carried out by news organizations working together, even internationally (as in
480-544: A secret drone program funded with off-the-books cash, and the city's problems with police chases and the George Floyd protests . In May 2021, DDoSecrets republished the leak of Washington D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department , including over 90,000 emails. Among other things, the files revealed details of surveillance of right-wing extremists and the response to the 2021 United States Capitol attack. In September 2021, DDoSecrets publicly released emails and chat logs from
540-765: A transparency collective. In December 2019, politicians in Sweden and the UK, including anti-corruption chief John Penrose said that leaks published by Distributed Denial of Secrets showed the need for reforms on company creation and registration. That month, Belgian tax authorities initiated an investigation based on data published by DDoSecrets the prior month. In 2020, the U.S. counterintelligence strategy described leaktivists and public disclosure organizations like Distributed Denial of Secrets as "significant threats," alongside five countries, three terrorist groups, and "transnational criminal organizations." A June 2020 bulletin created by
600-625: Is a nonprofit whistleblower site founded in 2018 for news leaks . The site is a frequent source for other news outlets and has worked on investigations including Cyprus Confidential with other media organizations. In December 2023, the organization said it had published over 100 million files from 59 countries. Sometimes called a successor to WikiLeaks , it came to international attention for its June 2020 publication of internal police documents, known as BlueLeaks . The group has also published data on Russian oligarchs , fascist groups, shell companies , tax havens and banking in
660-605: Is called investigative journalism and is distinct from apparently similar work done by police, lawyers, auditors, and regulatory bodies in that it is not limited as to target, not legally founded and closely connected to publicity." Early newspapers in British colonial America were often suppressed by the authorities for their investigative journalism. Examples include Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick and Benjamin Franklin's New England Courant . Journalists who reported on
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#1733085771192720-542: The New York Times as a "watchdog group", and Business Insider as a "freedom-of-information advocacy group", as an "alternative to WikiLeaks" by Columbia Journalism Review , Krebs On Security , ZDNet , and Forbes , and as "the most influential leaking organization on the internet" by VICE News ." In 2019, the Congressional Research Service recognized Distributed Denial of Secrets as
780-401: The 2018 United States midterm elections . On June 19, 2020, DDoSecrets released BlueLeaks , which consisted of 269 gigabytes of internal U.S. law enforcement data obtained from fusion centers by the hacker collective Anonymous . DDoSecrets called it the "largest published hack of American law enforcement agencies." Betsy Reed described BlueLeaks as the U.S. law enforcement equivalent to
840-523: The 2022 Freedom Convoy , DDoSecrets began providing journalists and researchers with a hacked list of donors' personal information from GiveSendGo. Later that month, GiveSendGo was hacked again, exposing donors for every campaign in the site's history, which DDoSecrets gave to journalists and researchers. In May 2022, DDoSecrets published 128,700 emails allegedly associated with a Hunter Biden laptop that were being circulated by allies of and former staff of President Donald Trump. DDoSecrets said it published
900-685: The Cayman Islands , as well as data scraped from Parler in January 2021 and from the February 2021 Gab leak . The group is also known for publishing emails from military officials, City Hall in Chicago and the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department . The site's leaks have resulted in or contributed to multiple government investigations, including the second impeachment of President Donald Trump . During
960-514: The Center for Public Integrity which includes 165 investigative reporters in over 65 countries working collaboratively on crime, corruption, and abuse of power at a global level, under Gerard Ryle as Director. Working with major media outlets globally, they have exposed organised crime, international tobacco companies, private military cartels, asbestos companies, climate change lobbyists, details of Iraq and Afghanistan war contracts, and most recently
1020-515: The Cyprus Confidential findings in less than 24 hours after it was released, calling for a crackdown on financial corruption and launching criminal probes into allegations of money laundering. According to Emma Best , the Department of Defense asked DDoSecrets to remove the 2022–2023 Pentagon document leaks , but DDoSecrets "basically just ignored them". In June 2020, the organization
1080-544: The Department of Homeland Security 's Office of Intelligence and Analysis erroneously described them as a "criminal hacker group". Elements of the report were challenged as inaccurate by DDoSecrets and media such as The Verge . On July 3, German authorities seized a public server used by Distributed Denial of Secrets at the request of the US government. The same month, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recognized
1140-589: The Islamic Relief Deutschland website as a prominent backer withdrew his support after Mario Breros intelligence firm Alp Services insinuated links from Qatar with Islamism and terrorism. Investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, racial injustice , political corruption , or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing
1200-608: The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project joined with more than 40 media partners including Cerosetenta / 070, Vorágine , the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP) and Distributed Denial of Secrets and journalists in 23 countries and territories for the largest investigative project on organized crime to originate in Latin America, producing the ' NarcoFiles ' report. The investigation
1260-567: The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project . In May 2020, DDoSecrets partnered with European Investigative Collaborations and the Henri-Nannen-Journalistenschule journalism school . In December 2020, the group announced its affiliation with Harvard University's Institute for Quantitative Social Science. In January 2024, DDoSecrets launched the Greenhouse Project to preserve censored information and create
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#17330857711921320-585: The Panama Papers and Paradise Papers . The investigative Commons center opened in Berlin , Germany in 2021 and houses the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights , Forensic Architecture , and Bellingcat . An investigative reporter may make use of one or more of these tools, among others, on a single story: Organizations, Publications and People Distributed Denial of Secrets Distributed Denial of Secrets , abbreviated DDoSecrets ,
1380-652: The Pentagon Papers . In July 2020, DDoSecrets released documents relating to the United States' case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange . The release also included chat logs and letters between Assange and various sources. In January 2021, DDoSecrets made videos scraped from Parler available to journalists. Some of these videos were later used as evidence during the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump . In February 2021, DDoSecrets gave journalists access to hundreds of thousands of financial documents from
1440-566: The Proud Boys , many of whose fundraising efforts were directly related to the 2021 United States Capitol attack . Also in April 2021, DDoSecrets published a cache of emails from Chicago City Hall . The emails revealed that the city's handling of fatal shootings by police officers violates state law and a federal consent decree. The emails also exposed the Mayor's secret lobbying for qualified immunity ,
1500-614: The Russo-Ukrainian War , it was considered one of the best public repositories of all the Russian files leaked since the invasion began. Distributed Denial of Secrets was founded by Emma Best , an American national security reporter known for filing prolific freedom of information requests , and Thomas White, an administrator of the Silk Road 2.0 . At its public launch in December 2018,
1560-660: The American far-right Oath Keepers organization to the public. They also provided member and donor data to the press. This exposed hundreds of members in law enforcement, over a hundred members with ties to the military and dozens in political office. In November 2021, DDoSecrets released 1.8 terabytes of police helicopter surveillance footage from the Dallas Police Department and the Georgia State Patrol . In February 2022, after many anonymous donors supported
1620-561: The Cayman National Bank and Trust. The files were provided by the hacktivist known as Phineas Fisher , and included lists of the bank's politically exposed clients . The leak was used by researchers to study how elites use offshore banking. In December 2019, DDoSecrets published "#29 Leaks" in partnership with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and more than 20 outlets in 18 countries. The 450 gigabytes of data came from Formations House (now The London Office),
1680-700: The EIA aims to strengthen the European transnational investigative journalism by joint reporting with the utmost transparency. They exchange documents and articles and coordinate publication, and to improve the tools used in their investigations from one investigation to another—for example in their data processing capabilities, servers, secure forums, etc. At Dataharvest 2015 and other networking events, discussions related to "establishing this European Network" started with "Jörg Schmitt, Jürgen Dahlkamp, Alfred Weinzierl and Klaus Brinkbäumer from Der Spiegel and Stefan Candea from
1740-463: The Myanmar Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA). Justice For Myanmar called the release "biggest leak in Myanmar history." On February 28, DDoSecrets revealed "GabLeaks", a collection of more than 70 gigabytes of data from Gab , including more than 40 million posts, passwords, private messages, and other leaked information. The group said that they would not release
1800-467: The Netherlands had joined along with dozens of European media and over forty investigative journalists. The Black Sea, led by "award winning journalists and photo-journalists from the Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism (CRJI)", is "a web project bringing together journalists, photographers and videographers. That story came about after a meeting at the end of last year. The essentials concerning
1860-502: The OCCRP and more than 270 journalists in 55 countries and territories produced the ' Cyprus Confidential ' report on the financial network which supports the regime of Vladimir Putin , mostly with connections to Cyprus, and showed Cyprus to have strong links with high-up figures in the Kremlin, some of whom have been sanctioned. Government officials including Cyprus president Nikos Christodoulides and European lawmakers began responding to
European Investigative Collaborations - Misplaced Pages Continue
1920-925: The Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism (CRJI). Stefan Candea , a founding partner explained how following the terrorist attacks, such as the November 2015 Paris attacks , journalists "started to bounce ideas off each other." This led to their first collaborative transnational investigation resulting in the series Mapping the Weapons of Terror . Others joined the group, including, "Alain Lallemand from Le Soir , John Hansen from Politiken , Milorad Ivanovic from Newsweek Serbia , Florian Klenk from Falter , Paula Guisado from El Mundo , Vlad Odobescu from The Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism, Michael Bird from The Black Sea , Fabrice Arfi from Mediapart and Vittorio Malagutti from L'Espresso . By 2017, NRC Handelsblad in
1980-533: The budgets for investigative journalism. A 2002 study concluded "that investigative journalism has all but disappeared from the nation's commercial airwaves." Non-commercial journalism has increasingly stepped-up to work on this growing need for in-depth investigations and reporting. One of the largest teams of investigative journalists is the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) launched in 1997 by
2040-412: The case of the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers ), or by nonprofit outlets such as ProPublica , which rely on the support of the public and benefactors to fund their work. University of Missouri journalism professor Steve Weinberg defined investigative journalism as: "Reporting, through one's own initiative and work product, matters of importance to readers, viewers, or listeners." In many cases,
2100-505: The data publicly because it contained a large amount of private and sensitive information, and instead shared the data with select journalists, social scientists , and researchers. In April 2021, Distributed Denial of Secrets made donor information from the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo available to journalists and researchers. The information identified previously anonymous high-dollar donors to far-right actors including members of
2160-901: The dataset of almost one million documents. The project exposed the offshore holdings of prominent Germans, the tax activities of ExxonMobil , as well as offshore business entities belonging to the DeVos and Prince families. In March 2020, DDoSecrets published 156 gigabytes of data hacked from the Myanmar Investment Commission . The leak also revealed how millions of dollars allegedly flowed from Mytel subscribers to Myanmar military generals, and exposed business dealings of family members of prominent military leaders. In April 2020, DDoSecrets published almost 10 million messages from more than 100 Discord servers used by neo-Nazi and QAnon conspiracy theorist groups. The leaked chats showed threats of violence and attempts to influence
2220-475: The dataset of almost one million documents. The project exposed the offshore holdings of prominent Germans, the tax activities of ExxonMobil , as well as offshore business entities belonging to the DeVos and Prince families. In July 2023, Abu Dhabi Secrets were published how UAE Abu has sought to discredit its rival Qatar, which was picked up by numerous media. In Germany der Spiegel wrote that German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier , whose photo had been on
2280-554: The doings of the British authorities would later contribute to revolutionary sentiment in the run-up to the American Revolution ; one prominent example was the Boston Gazette , contributed to by Samuel Adams among others. American journalism textbooks point out that muckraking standards promoted by McClure's Magazine around 1902, "Have become integral to the character of modern investigative journalism." Furthermore,
2340-534: The drug trade and how criminals corrupt politicians, bankers, accountants, lawyers, law enforcement agents, hackers, logistics experts, and journalists in order to use logistical, financial, and digital infrastructures. Also in November 2023, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists , Paper Trail Media [ de ] and 69 media partners including Distributed Denial of Secrets and
2400-546: The emails "to counteract possible deceptions by persons with an agenda who are currently distributing the dataset without the relevant context or warnings," because there were "considerable issues with this dataset including signs of tampering" and "more than one altered or implanted emails". DDoSecrets also made a copy of the alleged laptop available to journalists and researchers. During the Russo-Ukrainian War , DDoSecrets published more than 40 datasets of Russian leaks, totaling at least 5.8 terabytes. Emma Best estimated that
2460-399: The full cache of files in 2016, at a time when founder Julian Assange was focused on exposing Democratic Party documents passed to WikiLeaks by Kremlin hackers. In January 2019, DDoSecrets published hundreds of gigabytes of hacked Russian documents and emails from pro-Kremlin journalists, oligarchs , and militias. In November 2019, DDoSecrets published over 2 terabytes of data from
European Investigative Collaborations - Misplaced Pages Continue
2520-610: The group as a 501(c)(3) non-profit . In 2021, legislators in Maine introduced a bill to close the state's fusion center in response to BlueLeaks and whistleblower reports. In 2022, law enforcement agencies in New York , New Jersey , Washington and Oregon launched investigations into officers who appeared in the leaked Oath Keepers records published by DDoSecrets. In November 2023, governments including Cyprus president Nikos Christodoulides and European lawmakers began responding to
2580-399: The group had published over six million Russian documents in under two months after the war began. NBC News reported that the site "might be the single best public repository of all the Russian files purportedly leaked since the start of the invasion", and The Intercept wrote that it had become the "de facto home" for Russian leaks. In September, they published Fuerzas Represivas ,
2640-476: The group was closed without notice after publishing data from Israel's Ministry of Justice. As of April 2022 , the site hosts dozens of terabytes of data from over 200 organizations. In December 2023, the organization said it had published over 100 million files from 59 countries. The group has said it uses "a mixed distribution model, publishing information both to the general public and restricting some information to journalists and researchers when there's
2700-423: The investigation's findings in less than 24 hours, calling for reforms and launching probes. In 2024, DDoSecrets launched the "Greenhouse Project" to preserve censored information and create a "warming effect to reverse the chilling effects of censorship" as part of its broader mission to ensure the free transmission of data in the public interest by making itself a "publisher of last resort". The first entry in
2760-526: The network had been agreed on, so then we started bouncing ideas off each other. How easily are guns available for big terrorist attacks like the ones in Paris that at that time had just happened? And then we took it from there. After three months of research On March 18, 2016, EIC journalists published "Mapping the Weapons of Terror" in which they revealed how a "shadow gun market" in East Europe fuelled "terrorism in
2820-599: The next entry in the Greenhouse Project was mirroring all of WikiLeaks' data after datasets became unavailable to download from the site and Julian Assange's plea deal required the organization to remove information. Emma Best said that the goal was making the WikiLeaks data more accessible and resilient against additional censorship and future website failures. Some of the data were things that DDoSecrets said they "would have handled that data differently than WikiLeaks did,
2880-496: The people behind the project have been described by Wired as a "transparency collective of data activists" and a successor to WikiLeaks, by the Congressional Research Service , Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project , Human Rights Watch and The Nation as a "transparency collective", by The Hill as a "leaktivist collective", by Columbia Journalism Review as a "journalist collective", by Brookings Institution as "a WikiLeaks-style journalist collective," by
2940-591: The police had infiltrated activist groups MilicoLeaks included details on Chilean army intelligence, including operations, finance and international relations. In 2020, DDoSecrets published a copy of the Bahamas corporate registry . DDoSecrets partnered with European Investigative Collaborations and the German Henri-Nannen-Schule journalism school to create the Tax Evader Radar, a project to review
3000-587: The project was a November 16, 2023 Reuters story that alleged that a hacking-for-hire firm called Appin had stolen secrets from executives, politicians, military officials, and wealthy elites around the globe and supporting documents. The story was removed by Reuters following an order from a district court in New Delhi , India. At the Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conference in June, DDoSecrets announced that
3060-427: The project were driven to radical transparency work by their past background with the state, which they compared to Chelsea Manning and other whistleblowers. Best said, "Those associations all ended well prior to DDoSecrets coming together and were internally disclosed early on." In April 2021, the website listed 10 members and advisors. In December 2019, Distributed Denial of Secrets announced its collaboration with
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#17330857711923120-565: The prosecution of football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and coach Jose Mourinho ." In May 2017, European Investigative Collaborations published Malta Files, an investigation into "how the Mediterranean state works as a pirate base for tax avoidance inside the EU. Although profiting from the advantages of EU membership, Malta also welcomes large companies and wealthy private clients who try to dodge taxes in their home countries." Among those included in
3180-404: The reports are Italian mafia figures, Russian billionaires and the families of both Turkey's president and prime minister. In 2020, Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) published a copy of the Bahamas corporate registry . DDoSecrets partnered with European Investigative Collaborations and the German Henri-Nannen-Schule journalism school to create the Tax Evader Radar, a project to review
3240-607: The results of their first joint investigation spurred on by the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris , in which they revealed how in spite of security risk warnings, "the EU’s freedom of goods policy facilitated the sale of weapons leading to [the 2015] terror attacks in Paris." In 2017 working with "over 60 journalists in 14 countries", the EIC published the Football Leaks —the "largest leak in sports history". Through "joint reporting and publication",
3300-454: The site held more than a terabyte of data from many of the highest-profile leaks. The site originally considered making all of the data public, but after feedback made some of it available only to journalists and researchers. Best has served as a public face of the group, which lists its members. In February 2019, they told Columbia Journalism Review that fewer than 20 people worked on the project. According to Best, several early members of
3360-507: The subjects of the reporting wish the matters under scrutiny to remain undisclosed. There are currently university departments for teaching investigative journalism. Conferences are conducted presenting peer-reviewed research into investigative journalism. British media theorist Hugo de Burgh (2000) states that: "An investigative journalist is a man or woman whose profession is to discover the truth and to identify lapses from it in whatever media may be available. The act of doing this generally
3420-484: The successes of the early muckrakers continued to inspire journalists. The outlook for investigative journalism in the United States was improved by the 1960s with the Freedom of Information Act and New York Times Co. v. Sullivan . The invention of the photocopier also offered an assistive tool to whistleblowers . The growth of media conglomerates in the U.S. since the 1980s has been accompanied by massive cuts in
3480-433: The west, as criminal gangs use legal loopholes and open borders to traffic weapons." They revealed how in spite of security risk warnings, "the EU’s freedom of goods policy facilitated the sale of weapons leading to [the 2015] terror attacks in Paris." The EIC working with "over 60 journalists in 14 countries" published a "series of articles called Football Leaks —the "largest leak in sports history". Football Leaks "led to
3540-500: Was banned from Twitter in response to BlueLeaks , citing a breach of their policies against "distribution of hacked material" in a move that was criticized as setting a "dangerous precedent." In September 2023, The Intercept reported that access to the organization's website was blocked by Indonesia and Russia and censored by Twitter and Reddit . In 2024, they refused a take down letter from Brainstack over data from their spyware company, mSpy . A Telegram channel operated by
3600-478: Was based on more than seven million emails from the Colombian prosecutor's office which had been hacked by Guacamaya , including correspondence with embassies and authorities around the world. The files dated from 2001-2022 and included audio clips, PDFs, spreadsheets, and calendars. The investigation revealed new details about the global drug trade and over 44 tons of "controlled deliveries" carried out to infiltrate
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