Pulitzer Center

10/09/2025

Gold-standard on paper. Devastating in practice.

In the last 20 years, European governments—including Dutch development bank FMO, France’s AFD, Belgium’s BIO, Austria’s OeEB, and Norway’s Norfund—have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into Cambodian loan firms.

Borrowers and family members say pressures from credit officers have contributed to su***des.

“Microfinance institutions and their investors must take the situation seriously and ensure that their activities do not deepen the burdens faced by affected communities,” said Eang Vuthy, executive director of the Cambodian NGO Equitable Cambodia.

Leila Goldstein and Phon Sothyroth report for Follow The Money. 👇

Om dit rapport in het Nederlands te lezen, klik hier. Content warning: This article discusses su***de. In a country that is struggling with poverty and high illiteracy rates, Europe-funded firms are...

10/07/2025

New toolkit for investigating vessels!

We’ve put together a toolkit on how journalists can use OSINT for vessel tracking. On this first part, we share practical tips on how to:
🚢 Map a vessel’s identifiers;
💰 Understand its corporate structure;
👷‍♂️ 👷‍♀️ See who’s involved with crew information;
🔍 Use search engine operators to find more leads.

We promise you will finish this toolkit with inspiring next steps for your investigation.

Read the toolkit below. 👇

Knowing how to track ships helps journalists uncover hidden stories and hold wrongdoers accountable. From drug trafficking and illegal fishing to the smuggling of goods and weapons, maritime...

10/02/2025

AI Spotlight coach Gabriel Geiger and Pulitzer Center data specialist Federico Acosta Rainis are heading to Buenos Aires for Media Party 2025, a journalism and innovation conference, taking place on Oct. 2-4.

Gabriel will be diving into "Beyond the Hype: Investigating AI in Your Community" on Oct. 2. The session will offer a clear framework and practical tools to identify AI systems in local contexts and investigate their real-world impact.

Meanwhile, Federico will be giving a lightning talk on "Why AI Also Needs Critical Journalists" on Oct. 3.

Federico will present the work of the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network, with examples of how critical coverage exposes the invisible impacts of AI.

Joining Media Party 2025? See the full schedule here 👇

Rebooting journalism / Reiniciando el periodismo. Periodistas, programadores para repensar las noticias.

10/01/2025

If you follow Pulitzer Center staff on LinkedIn, you’ve probably seen us mention “The Shark Story.”

It’s a powerful investigation led by our data editor, Kuek Ser Kuang Keng, together with Mongabay journalists Philip Jacobson and Karla Mendes, revealing how nearly 6,000 public institutions in Brazil may have received shark meat through more than 1,000 government tenders.

The series sparked public debate and prompted immediate action, including a lawmaker’s call for a parliamentary hearing to address the findings.

We have documented the methodology behind the reporting so you can learn how to uncover similar stories.

Find out more! 👇

A recent Mongabay investigation found widespread government purchases of shark meat in Brazil to serve in thousands of public institutions. The series has generated public debate, with a lawmaker...

09/26/2025

Campaigners are accusing the Peruvian government of breaching international human rights law and endangering lives in the Amazon after it blocked the creation of a vast Indigenous reserve meant to protect some of the world’s most isolated communities.

After more than 20 years of debate, a government commission voted early this month against establishing the Yavari Mirim reserve — 1.2 million hectares (2.9 million acres) of pristine rainforest along the Brazilian border. The tally was decisive: eight against, five in favor, with three members absent from the crucial vote.

This rejection comes despite mounting evidence of uncontacted peoples living deep in the forest. A 2024 study recorded 113 indicators of human presence, including longhouses, trails, campfires, ceramic pots, bows and arrows, and cultivated plots. Aerial surveys also revealed 25 sites with clear signs of habitation.

Read more from grantee John Reid for The Guardian.

Campaigners shocked after ministers voted against the 1.2m-hectare Yavari Mirim reserve after 20 years of debate Campaigners have accused the Peruvian government of violating international human...

09/25/2025

As floods become increasingly common along the banks of the Mississippi River, farmers are trapped between flawed federal farm policy and their failing crops.

Steve Williams owns 1,200 acres in Dogtooth Bend surrounded on three sides by the Mississippi. Ever since flooding in 2019 submerged the southern tip of Illinois for months, all but 200 acres of his land have become un-farmable.

His family can’t afford to leave, so they continue to plant their fields to collect federally subsidized insurance. “We planted what we could and insured everything we could. It was a nightmare,” said Brandy Renshaw, Steve William’s daughter.

Congress approved emergency funds to retire farms where the land had become unproductive. But these programs were slow and underfunded, leaving farmers in limbo.

One man, Blake Gerard, saw the rising tides 25 years ago and decided to take a different path. Instead of fighting the changing climate, Blake Gerard planted a crop that thrives when submerged in water: rice.
The change hasn’t been without difficulties. He’s sunk nearly a million dollars into the transition, borrowing money to pay for farming equipment, fuel tanks, turbines, and water control structures.

But his risk has paid off. In 2024, he had his most successful rice-farming year yet.

Pulitzer Center grantees Julia Rendleman, Molly Parker, and Lylee Gibbs spoke with farmers who are reckoning with their changing terrain.

This story is part of “The Rural Dilemma: Inside America’s Fastest-Shrinking County” project, a look into the lives of the remaining residents of the country’s fastest-shrinking county for ProPublica.

Read the full story!
👉 https://bit.ly/3VH3fP0

09/24/2025

Indonesia’s carbon trading is raising several environmental concerns, such as land-grabbing, deforestation, and inadequate protection for Indigenous land rights.

As part of the Pulitzer Center’s Interconnected Webinar Series, join journalist Agoeng Wijaya () in a conversation on the lack of transparency in forestry licensing with experts Rudi Syaf (KKI Warsi), Riko Wahyudi (Research Center for Climate Change Universitas Indonesia), Wahyu Marjaka (Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry), Lasti Fardilla Noor (Working Group ICCAs Indonesia), and Indigenous leader Mama Ocha.

Register for this online discussion in the link in our bio.

09/24/2025

Indonesia’s carbon trading is raising several environmental concerns, such as land-grabbing, deforestation, and inadequate protection for Indigenous land rights.

As part of the Pulitzer Center’s Interconnected Webinar Series, join journalist Agoeng Wijaya (Tempo Magazine) in a conversation on the lack of transparency in forestry licensing with experts Rudi Syaf (KKI Warsi), Riko Wahyudi (Research Center for Climate Change Universitas Indonesia), Wahyu Marjaka (Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry), Lasti Fardilla Noor (Working Group ICCAs Indonesia), and Indigenous leader Mama Ocha.

Still time to register for this online discussion.
👉 https://bit.ly/4mvGQPC

09/23/2025

Should we engineer the poles to fight climate change?

As the Arctic and Antarctic melt at alarming rates, scientists are increasingly divided over whether geoengineering techniques, such as pumping up seawater or launching aerosols into the atmosphere to cool the planet’s surface, offer hope or pose dangerous risks.

Ocean Reporting Network Fellow Alec Luhn, for Scientific American, dives into this debate: While some researchers argue these interventions could soften the blow of climate change, others warn they risk worsening the crisis.

👉 https://bit.ly/4pHBS5s

Scientists are beginning to take clear sides on whether or not to use human-made interventions to preserve polar ice, such as pumping up seawater or launching aerosols into the atmosphere to cool the...

09/22/2025

Cut the cord, save the whales

Rope-heavy fishing traps are a deadly hazard for whales and other endangered animals. But why haven't safer options caught on?

Dive into the latest instalment of the Entangled series.

Story by Ocean Reporting Network Fellow Jenn Thornhill Verma for Globe and Mail, with videography by Lauren Owens Lambert and photography by Nick Hawkins.

👉 https://tgam.ca/46fP21Q

Reel produced by Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail.

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Image credits:
1-3, 8-11: Mike and Jake Lane in Massachusetts in March, 2025. Lauren Owens Lambert/The Globe and Mail
4-6: A NOAA Fisheries team disentangles a right whale. Georgia Department of Natural Resources (NMFS MMHSRP Permits #18786 and #15488)
7 and 12: Illustration of conventional lobster gear w/ vertical buoy endlines. Murat Yükselir and Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
13 and 14: An entangled right whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Nick Hawkins/The Globe and Mail
15: The necropsy of right whale ( #5120) on Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head lands in February, 2024 (NOAA permit #24359). Lauren Owens Lambert/The Globe and Mail
16: Snow Cone #3560 with her calf off Georgia in 2021. Georgia Department of Natural Resources (NOAA permit 20556)
17 and 18: Calvin ( #2223) gear-free in 2025 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. New England Aquarium under DFO SARA permit with Canadian Whale Institute
19 and 20: The Campobello Whale Rescue team disentangles whale ( #5312) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2024. Nick Hawkins/The Globe and Mail
21-24. An on-demand trap deploys to the surface on Mass Bay in March, 2025. Lauren Owens Lambert/The Globe and Mail (edited)

09/19/2025

Los bonos de carbono buscan contrarrestar la contaminación que generan las empresas.

En el caso de los bonos de carbono REDD+, estos protegen la capacidad de los bosques, manglares y otros ecosistemas, de ser sumideros de carbono.

¿Pero qué pasa cuando estos mecanismos causan conflictos de tierras en el proceso? Ese es el caso del Proyecto Tángara: Se hizo en tierras que se traslapan con territorios de comunidades afro en Colombia, pero nunca les informaron, consultaron ni beneficiaron económicamente.

Periodistas colombianos de y investigaron a fondo este caso.

Conoce todos los detalles de esta investigación en la página web del .

09/18/2025

Cut the cord, save the whales

Rope-heavy fishing traps are a deadly hazard for whales and other endangered animals. But why haven't safer options caught on?

Dive into the latest instalment of the Entangled series, produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s Ocean Reporting Network.

Story by ORN Fellow .thornhill.verma for , with videography by Lauren Owens Lambert and photography by Nick Hawkins. Reel produced by Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail.



Image credits:

1-3, 8-11: Mike and Jake Lane in Massachusetts in March, 2025. Lauren Owens Lambert/The Globe and Mail

4-6: A NOAA Fisheries team disentangles a right whale. Georgia Department of Natural Resources (NMFS MMHSRP Permits #18786 and #15488)

7 and 12: Illustration of conventional lobster gear w/ vertical buoy endlines. Murat Yükselir and Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail

13 and 14: An entangled right whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Nick Hawkins/The Globe and Mail

15: The necropsy of right whale ( #5120) on Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head lands in February, 2024 (NOAA permit #24359). Lauren Owens Lambert/The Globe and Mail

16: Snow Cone #3560 with her calf off Georgia in 2021. Georgia Department of Natural Resources (NOAA permit 20556)

17 and 18: Calvin ( #2223) gear-free in 2025 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. New England Aquarium under DFO SARA permit with Canadian Whale Institute

19 and 20: The Campobello Whale Rescue team disentangles whale ( #5312) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2024. Nick Hawkins/The Globe and Mail

21-24. An on-demand trap deploys to the surface on Mass Bay in March, 2025. Lauren Owens Lambert/The Globe and Mail (edited)