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Forbidden Stories

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Forbidden Stories
Formation2017; 7 years ago (2017)
FounderLaurent Richard
Founded atParis
Websiteforbiddenstories.org

Forbidden Stories is a non-profit organization with the mission "to continue and publish the work of other journalists facing threats, prison, or murder." To achieve this, it allows journalists to send their work to Forbidden Stories, so other journalists have access to the material in case the original investigator is not able to follow it anymore. It partners with organizations such as Reporters Without Borders[1] and Freedom of the Press Foundation.[2]

Internationally it has been praised by the Columbia Journalism Review,[3] Daily Times,[4] Deutschlandfunk,[5] The Guardian,[6] Le Monde,[7] and RTBF.[8]

In March 2018, it received the "journalism project of the year" grand prize at the French Annual Journalism Summit[9] and was on the shortlist of the European Press Prize for the category innovation in 2019.[10]

Background

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The Forbidden Stories venture was envisioned by Laurent Richard, a French investigative journalist and filmmaker[Notes 1] in 2015, after the January 7, 2015, Charlie Hebdo shooting in which 12 people were killed and 11 others were injured—all journalists and cartoonists—by members of terrorist group Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen.[11] The offices of Charlie Hebdo were near Richard's workplace.[11]

Daphne Caruana Galizia died in a car bomb explosion on October 16, 2017. On October 30, 2017, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and NGO Freedom Voices Network announced the launch of "Forbidden Stories," a secure encrypted online platform[Notes 2] that allows threatened journalists to upload their work and secure their data and information. Forbidden Stories, which was founded by Laurent Richard, allows journalists to continue the investigative reporting of "silenced" journalists and to unveil their stories to a wide audience.[12][13][14][Notes 3] The purpose of "Forbidden Stories" was to "deter would-be attacks on journalists by backing up their work, and to publicize murders and disappearances of colleagues such as Caruana Galizia."[15] Forbidden Stories continues the "work of killed, imprisoned, or otherwise incapacitated journalists."

Richard said The Daphne Project was modeled after similar initiatives in the past involving the murder of other journalists, such as The Arizona Project, in which 38 American journalists completed the investigative work of Don Bolles following his 1976 murder.[11] In 2015 colleagues of Khadija Ismayilova of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) continued her work on "the corruption and tax evasion of the ruling family in Baku" through The Khadija Project, after she was imprisoned in Azerbaijan. Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo Investigativo (ABRAJI), a Brazilian investigative journalism NGO, carried on the work of Tim Lopes who was burned alive for his work on drug trafficking in Rio de Janeiro in 2002.[11][9]

Stories

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Forbidden Stories has continued the work of journalists after they have died:

In 2021 Forbidden Stories was part of the team of investigative journalists that published the Pegasus Project, about NSO spyware that targeted activists and journalists.[34]

Supporters

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Prominent supporters are:[35]

Notes

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  1. ^ According to the April 17, 2018, Nieman Reports article, Laurent Richard is the co-founder of French public television show "Cash Investigation" and the producer of "several long-form investigative stories for television". In 2012 "Cash Investigation" uncovered the tax evasion scandal in Luxembourg, known as LuxLeaks. Richard oversaw coverage of LuxLeaks. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists expanded on LuxLeaks with the Panama Papers. Richard was a 2017 Knight-Wallace fellow at the University of Michigan. He is also the founder and executive director of the nonprofit investigative newsroom Freedom Voices Network.
  2. ^ They use three open source technologies—Signal, PGP, and SecureDrop and host the data in many places.
  3. ^ Richard and his cameraman were briefly detained in Baku on May 14 and their equipment was confiscated including his footage of his report on government corruption in Azerbaijan. Fortunately he had given a copy to Khadija Ismayilova, who "smuggled it to France on his behalf". According to an October 24, 2017 article by CJR's Jon Allsop, this experience was another motivation for "launching a centralized online platform for investigative journalists in dangerous situations". According to the Nieman Report, Azerbaijan filed a failed lawsuit against Richard and his colleague for "describing the country as a dictatorship on "Cash Investigation" —the "first time in history that a foreign government brought a defamation suit against French journalists on their own soil".

References

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  1. ^ "Launch of Forbidden Stories project". Reporters without borders. October 30, 2017. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  2. ^ "About Us". Forbidden Stories. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  3. ^ "A new project will keep stories alive when journalists are killed". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  4. ^ Marsi, Federica (September 20, 2020). "Investigation Keeps Work of Silenced Journalists Alive". Daily Times. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  5. ^ "Investigativjournalismus – Für die Pressefreiheit kämpfen". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  6. ^ Greenslade, Roy (November 5, 2017). "Boris Johnson's £1m for press freedom: a small response to a big threat". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  7. ^ "Forbidden Stories, le site qui sauvegarde l'information des journalistes". Le Monde (in French). November 9, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  8. ^ "Un projet pour poursuivre les enquêtes de journalistes assassinés". RTBF (in French). October 31, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  9. ^ a b "Collaboration Is Really Our Best Protection". Nieman Reports. April 17, 2018. Retrieved January 31, 2019. Richard visited the Nieman Foundation in March, 2018 to discuss The Dapne Project
  10. ^ "Forbidden Stories". European Press Prize. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  11. ^ a b c d Richard, Laurent (April 16, 2018). "A warning to the corrupt: if you kill a journalist, another will take their place". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
  12. ^ "Launch of Forbidden Stories project". Reporters without borders (RSF). October 30, 2017. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
  13. ^ "A new project will keep stories alive when journalists are killed". Columbia Journalism Review. October 24, 2017. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  14. ^ "French Journalist Detained In Baku". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Azerbaijan. May 14, 2014. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
  15. ^ Allsop, Jon (April 19, 2018). "Breathing new life into a murdered journalist's work". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
  16. ^ "Project Miroslava". Forbidden Stories. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  17. ^ "The Leads Not Investigated In The Miroslava Breach Murder". Bellingcat. September 4, 2019. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  18. ^ Ronderos, María Teresa (September 5, 2019). "El Proyecto Miroslava le sube el costo al asesinato de periodistas en México (Published 2019)". The New York Times (in Spanish). ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  19. ^ "Green Blood". Forbidden Stories. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  20. ^ "Green blood". The Guardian. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  21. ^ "Deadly Border". Forbidden Stories. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  22. ^ "Death On The Border". Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. October 24, 2018. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  23. ^ "The Daphne Project". Forbidden Stories. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  24. ^ Borg, Jacob (October 14, 2020). "Daphne Project returns with more reports". Times of Malta. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  25. ^ "Javier Valdez: internal war in the Sinaloa Cartel". Forbidden Stories. November 17, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  26. ^ Saliba, Frédéric (November 9, 2017). "Forbidden Stories, le site qui sauvegarde l'information des journalistes". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  27. ^ "Cecilio Pineda: shady ties between local officials and drug traffickers". Forbidden Stories. October 24, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  28. ^ Jaclyn, Cosgrove (December 21, 2017). "Outside of war zones, Mexico is the most dangerous place for journalists". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  29. ^ "Football in Ghana : an off-limits investigation". Forbidden Stories. January 16, 2020. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  30. ^ "Ahmed Suale Muder: Ghana Police Failed To Follow Key Lead – Report". Modern Ghana. January 16, 2020. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  31. ^ "About the Cartel Project". Forbidden Stories. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  32. ^ "The cartel project". The Guardian. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  33. ^ "Story Killers". forbiddenstories.org. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  34. ^ "Pegasus project: spyware leak suggests lawyers and activists at risk across globe". the Guardian. July 19, 2021. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
  35. ^ "They support us". Forbidden Stories. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  36. ^ "Marina Walker Guevara". RSF. Reporters without borders. September 9, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  37. ^ "Fabrice Arfi". Mediapart (in French). Retrieved October 26, 2020.
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