"People are even talking about it through WhatsApp"

What exactly was your part in ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks project?

Let me start by saying that the offshore leaks is a very interesting project for several reasons. Not only is it one of the biggest leaks of offshore data ever, it is also likely the biggest journalism cooperation in history.

I joined the team in November 2012 as data research manager.  By the time I entered the project, several journalists had already been working on it for some time. They had quite some data already. Still, people were needed to do research and deliver more data, which is what I did, together with a colleague.

But two people were not enough, and as new journalists kept joining the project as it expanded, ICIJ and the project’s data journalism manager Duncan Campbell had a British programmer develop a search system for them (Interdata). That allowed journalists to download copies of those of the 2.5 million offshore documents relevant to their countries.

When and how was Offshore Leaks started?

The project started quite some time ago, back when Gerard Ryle was still working as an investigative reporter in Australia. While working on the Firepower case, a huge scandal in Australia involving offshore havens and corporate fraud, he had gotten a hold of a hard drive with 260 GB of data. So when he became ICIJ’s director in September 2011, he walked into his office with all this data under his arm. Soon after, ICIJ began work on Offshore Leaks.

In the beginning it was only a very small team that was working on it. There were a lot of concerns about secrecy and security. But it expanded rapidly and today includes more than 86 journalists in 46 countries.

Why was it important that the project was coordinated on an international level instead of several journalists working on their own country’s offshore leaks separately?

Because local journalists are able to grasp the reality of the country where they are working, something that is a lot more difficult to get across for an outsider. Also, journalists on the ground know how the local journalism reality works; what news is relevant, how to get information, which sources to contact…

Let me illustrate. In addition to being data research manager I also looked at the Spanish names. Well, just by looking at the list I realised that some of the names involved were quite famous and I instantly knew that this was going to be big. For someone unfamiliar with Spanish society this basic step of assessing the impact of a story would have required a lot more time and effort. All it took for me to spot the big names was a quick look at the list.

Another reason is of course simply because it is the ICIJ model. ICIJ is convinced that international cooperation is enriching. It benefits all journalists involved. After all, people from so many different countries working together to figure out cross-border connections, with each their own journalism methods and perspectives; that just has to be enriching!

How long did you work on the project?

Having joined the team last November, I’ve been working on the project for about half a year now. But this is just the beginning of course; we have data on 170 countries, but have only covered close to 50 countries now. So there is still a whole lot left to dig into.

Did you manage to combine it with your regular job?

I work freelance so I basically decide myself how I arrange my time. When I joined the project we agreed that I would work on it three days a week. Because there was so much work to do, however, we realised quite quickly that I needed more time. More difficult was to combine the amount of work with my job teaching data journalism at university and pushing the data journalism community in Spain. Sixty-hour weeks were no exception.

Did the offshore leaks garner a lot of attention from the Spanish media?

The project garnered a lot of media attention everywhere! I really feel part of a global project, something I realised when French president Hollande spoke out against tax havens during a press conference and promised that something would be done against them.

In Spain there were some quite well known names on the list. Carmen Thyssen for example, a Spanish art collector with museums in Madrid and Malaga. She made use of offshore structures to gain tax advantages on her purchased works of art.

The Spanish media covered the news extensively. A very important realisation of the project is that it has finally put faces to the long-known problem of offshore tax havens. It’s great that the media have picked it up, spreading information and promoting dialogue about the topic. Now, our Ministry of Economics has even signed a declaration with other European countries for a pilot program on sharing bank data.

But what’s more, most Spanish citizens now know about the tax haven situation. I’ve already given about 10 or 15 interviews, some of which TV interviews for stations that my grandmother watches. Isn’t that fantastic? The other day I was getting ready for an interview in a TV studio when the make-up lady asked me what the interview was going to be about. When I explained, she said that she had heard about it through a friend who had sent her a What’s App message about the tax haven news. “So now people are even talking about it through What’s App”, I thought, “this is amazing!”

What advantages does data journalism have over other types of journalism?

I live in a country without a Freedom of Information law. Therefore, investigative journalism here relies quite a lot on leaks from people who have something to gain in a specific situation. Data, on the other hand, allows you to expose malpractices that happen systematically. It deals with wider problems.

Another advantage is that stories that are supported by data cannot be disputed. Data can be regarded as strong evidence, especially in countries dominated by “he said, she said” journalism, like Spain. It allows you to go beyond opinion, beyond bias. Data is solid, it’s ‘there’. The offshore leaks data have made sure that no-one can deny that tax havens exist and are being used anymore.

You will be speaking at #dataharvest13. Why are such events necessary?

Traditionally, journalists were very protective of their own stories, very selfish. Why would you share? One of the most important dynamics of the profession, if not the most important, was to scoop the competition. This attitude is harmful to our mission. I believe we have a responsibility to share our knowledge. We have to come together and learn from each other’s realities, especially here in Europe, where we are increasingly influenced by our European fellow states. Journalismfund.eu’s Data Harvest Conference does just that: bring together journalists to build up their network and share their knowledge.

Secondly, there is a massive global shift towards data journalism, towards ‘big data’. Journalists need to adapt to this new reality. #dataharvest13 offers a great opportunity to learn top-notch techniques on how to crunch data. That is important because in some countries it’s harder to stay up to speed on the newest developments than in others. The US, for example, is a long-time forerunner in data journalism; Spain on the other hand is still lagging behind.

By Rafael Njotea

Read the making of article on how ICIJ's project team analysed the offshore files.
Read a a blogpost from one of the Offshore Leaks journalists on how they survived likely the largest collaboration in journalism history.