A consortium of independent news organizations is working hard to understand possible bias on the part of the giant international journalism organizations involved in the first impeachment of President Donald Trump and the targeting of people seen as opponents of the American political system. I cooperated.
report On Monday, it was announced that the bulk of the funding would come from the U.S. Department of State.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project is a large investigative journalism organization that has long worked with news organizations on every continent, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and The Times (UK). This includes the Panama Papers, the Pandora Papers, the Swedish telecommunications bribery scandal, and theRussian laundromat“Money laundering scheme.
OCCRP
claim The company said on its website that the investigation has resulted in more than $10 billion in fines and asset seizures. 430 official investigations. 251 “Civil Society Reaction.” 820 government measures. 135 people resigned or were fired. There were 736 indictments, arrests, and sentences. and 135 corporate actions.
Drew Sullivan, the group's co-founder and publisher, reportedly boasted to a news consortium that reported on OCCRP's U.S. support, which is made up of left-wing factions.
Drop Substack for your site And a small number of European news outlets have reported that OCCRP has “probably moved from about five or six governments to another, citing Bosnia and Kyrgyzstan, as well as North Atlantic Treaty Organization members Montenegro and the Czech Republic.” He is responsible for the change of government.” As an example.
“The truth is that OCCRP accepted funding from USG. We understand that a reasonable person might think that was a bad idea.”
The drop site noted Monday that the targets of OCCRP's “game-changing revelations” are often enemies of the United States.
But at least one adversary appears to have been a domestic critic of the American deep state, President Donald Trump. The OCCPR report is as follows: cited 4 times In a whistleblower complaint about a 2019 phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
According to Drop Site, OCCRP has not been very forthcoming about its origins or funding.
For example, OCCRP indicated on its website that it was initially launched with funding from the United Nations Democratic Fund. However, that money reportedly went elsewhere and pre-dated the establishment of OCCRP. Drop Site News says, “The initial $1 million that made OCCRP's creation possible came from the International Bureau of Narcotics and Law Enforcement (known as INL), part of the State Department, in 2008. It's accurate.”
OCCRP list Its supporters include the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, George Soros' Open Society Foundations, and the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation. Critics suggest that although OCCRP acknowledges receiving funding from the US government, it appears reluctant to promote the US as a major supporter.
According to the joint report, 52% of the funds spent by OCCRP from 2014 to 2023 came from the U.S. government.
Mr. Sullivan told the consortium that the U.S. subsidy OCCRP redirects to other organizations It shouldn't count. Still, US government funding reportedly accounts for about 46% of his organization's budget.
OCCRP's board of directors said in a statement obtained by The News Consortium:
The truth is that OCCRP accepted funding from USG. We understand that reasonable people might think it's a bad idea, especially since it's not the norm in American journalism (although government support for journalism is not the norm in Europe or elsewhere). (not uncommon in the country). This was thoroughly discussed many years ago when OCCRP was founded. The board of directors at the time (which included several members who remained on the board and had impeccable personal reputations as journalists and business owners), in exchange for the investigative reporting that OCCRP could produce with this financial support. judged to be of value.
Shannon MaguireA former National Endowment for Democracy official who currently manages the OCCRP file at the U.S. Agency for International Development reportedly said the U.S. government is proud of the work it has done to support the organization.
“We are proud to be the first public donor, USAID is the first public donor, and the U.S. government is the first public donor to support OCCR.” Maguire told the consortium.
“The US government is weaponizing @OCCRP reporting.”
Maguire reportedly suggested that the funding was contingent on the U.S. government being able to veto senior officials and editorial staff, despite an editorial firewall allegedly in place. .
If Sullivan wanted to make any key changes, Maguire suggested he would first need to seek permission from U.S. authorities.
Democratic USAID Administrator Samantha Power
referred to In November 2021, he joined OCCRP as a “partner” at a Foreign Policy magazine event. This “partner”, unlike WikiLeaks, is clearly controllable. be considered U.S. Military Security Threat: Benefiting from Russian Collusion Disinformation, Bipartisan Congressional Effort Secures Significant Funding to Fund State Department Efforts to Combat 'Russian Disinformation' .
The drop site noted that from 2015 to 2019, the U.S. State Department spent $2.2 million on OCCRP for the stated purpose of “balancing the Russian media sphere.” The State Department pumped an additional $1.7 million into the organization from 2019 to 2023 for the purpose of “strengthening investigative reporting in Eurasia.” Similar efforts carried out by OCCRP have also been fueled by millions of American taxpayer dollars in recent years.
In other words, the supposedly editorially independent organization receives funding that the U.S. State Department is obligated to spend investigating issues it deems priorities.
Yan Philippines, co-author of the damning report and member of the European Commission for Research and Co-operation, said:
noticed In X, “The U.S. government is weaponizing @OCCRP reporting by paying journalism organizations to launch judicial investigations, sanctions, and lobbying based on published stories. Supervised by U.S. State Department officials at @OCCRP.”
“The truth is, we don't know how deep the impact is on some news organizations.”
In addition to the perceived threat of internalizing American national bias, OCCRP may also have to contend with domestic liberal bias from its veto-wielding backers. the hill
reported Prior to the 2016 election, more than 99% of donations from State Department employees who supported and apparently supervised OCCRP went to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
A top editor in Latin America who has worked with OCCRP told Drop Site that news organizations are not required to provide the U.S. government with information that is useful to them. ’ army,” he suggested. US”
“But it is always the corruption of others,” said the editor. “If you are paid by the U.S. government to fight corruption, you know that you can stop that money by biting the hand that feeds you. If you look around, almost every major philanthropic funder is partnering on some initiative, giving the impression that there is a limit to how much you can get funded to do journalism. Enter the newsroom.”
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