Investigative Reporters and Editors

Corruption and power work on a global scale, so in order to expose wrongdoing in today’s world, journalists need to as well. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has developed a unique approach to this issue. It brings together teams of multinational reporters that use technology and Big Data techniques to create bridges across borders and maximise investigative results and impact. In 2016 ICIJ published the Panama Papers, which was the largest investigative collaboration in journalism history on the biggest leak ever and gathered more than 370 journalists working for a year sifting through 11.5 million files. History repeated itself in 2017, with the Paradise Papers expose, proving once again the worldwide power of these cross-border collaboration methodologies.

The European Union's growing political clout is leading to new paradigms of environmental and health regulation. The E.U. is putting teeth behind new guidelines governing the toxicity of chemicals in consumer products, cosmetics, and automobiles that are forcing American companies to reconsider longstanding production practices. While U.S. government oversight over environmental and health concerns is being weakened, the E.U.'s strengthened governance over these and other arenas is rapidly, through the leverage of international trade, setting the stage for a new global standard. Europe's new standards present a historic choice to U.S. manufacturers: either conform to the E.U.'s preemptive screening for toxicity, or risk sacrificing the 450-million strong European market. The author explores the American response, and how the United States is slipping to the lower rungs of a double standard for protecting the health of citizens.