When the committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) launched its 2015 Global Impunity Index—a survey of countries with the worst records for solving the murders of journalists—it was no surprise that Mexico, a country with a long track … Read more
Xalapa, Veracruz In Noé Zavaleta’s bedroom, there’s a framed picture on the wall of the February 15, 2014 cover of Proceso, a leading newsmagazine in Mexico. It features a photo of Javier Duarte, the governor of Veracruz, the Mexican … Read more
Last November, Anna Merlan got an unexpected e-mail from Domino’s Pizza. The pizzas she ordered were ready, and she could pay for them in cash when they were delivered. The problem was, she hadn’t ordered pizza, and she no … Read more
When Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed in the French Alps on March 24, the deaths of the 150 people on board were initially assumed to be a tragic accident. But within 48 hours, a transcript of the plane’s voice recorder … Read more
Imagine that the water in your home runs more slowly in the morning, when you most need it. Cooking, drinking, showering, and watering the garden are all possible, but they take longer because the flow has been reduced to … Read more
Actually, it’s about ethics in games journalism.” Earlier this year, this simple sentence came to encapsulate a vicious online debate. Was the social media storm known as “GamerGate” an honest attempt to expose the cozy relationship between the video … Read more
In 2002, Mark Schleifstein and a team of reporters in New Orleans wrote “Washing Away,” a five-part series in The Times-Picayune that predicted the devastation of Hurricane Katrina three years later. When the series ran, the public was … Read more
When a chemical spill contaminated the drinking water of hundreds of thousands of people in West Virginia in January, Charleston Gazette reporters Ken Ward and David Gutman repeatedly asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) how it … Read more
ProPublica’s investigation “The Prescribers: Inside the Government’s Drug Data” has provoked a swift response from the federal government. Winner of the 2013 Philip Meyer Award, it exposed the Medicare system’s failure to provide oversight for thousands of physicians who have written prescriptions that in some cases put patients at risk, in others cost the federal government far more than necessary, and sometimes were simply fraudulent. Charles Ornstein, who has specialized in healthcare investigations for years now, was joined on the project by ProPublica’s Tracy Weber, Jennifer LaFleur, Jeff Larson, and Lena Groeger. Nieman Reports spoke by phone with Ornstein as he prepared to travel to Baltimore to accept the award. Read more
For six years, New York Times national security reporter James Risen has been fighting to keep his promise of anonymity to a source who told him about a failed CIA initiative. The latest round started last month when Risen asked the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize his First Amendment right to protect his source. If the justices don’t accept his case or rule against Risen, he’ll have to take the stand or risk going to jail. Read more
