Craig Shaw is the editor and director of The Black Sea. As a journalist, he has worked on human rights, political corruption, financial and organised crime reporting, and transnational investigative projects.

His work has appeared in leading international media outlets, such as The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Independent, L’Espresso, Expresso, Der Spiegel, De Correspondent, Cumhuriyet, Reuters, and infoLibre others.

Notable cross-border work includes European Investigative Collaborations' Football LeaksMalta Files and Billions for Borders; ICIJ's Offshore Secrets; and several other independent projects, like Mafia in Africa, and Mafia in Africa 2, and Passport for Profit.

Craig Shaw

Basic information

Name
Craig Shaw
Title
Investigative journalist
Expertise
corruption, human rights
Country
Romania
City
Bucharest

Supported projects

An Unquenchable Thirst: Who Stole Almeria's Water

  • Agriculture
  • Environment

ALMERIA – The environmental crisis in southern Spain is hitting hard: even drinking water is becoming scarce. A 40-year free-for-all on the “Garden of Europe”, a thriving agricultural industry, has led Almeria to the brink of catastrophe. 

Stranded: Impact of Asbestos in Maritime Industry

  • Environment
  • Healthcare
  • Industry

ALIAĞA – Asbestos, that is especially hard to track in ships, often causes lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis. The team investigated several shipbreaking yards, including Kılıçlar in Turkey, where workers are exposed to the deadly substance without adequate protection. 

asbestos in ships

Black Trail

  • Climate
  • Environment
  • Industry

LONDON - The shipping industry is central to the global economy. But among the world's biggest polluters and tax avoiders. Its emissions, from the dirtiest fuel-oil on earth, are larger than those of Germany, and have a serious impact on climate change.

The Toxic Valley

  • Environment
  • Healthcare
  • Industry

DILOVASI - The Toxic Valley project looks into the environmental consequences of industrialisation in Turkey, and reveals a pattern of chemical dumping and polluting that has led to a widespread health crisis in the Kocaeli region, the most heavily industrialised area of the country.

Passport for profit

  • Corruption
  • Migration
  • Organised crime

Thousands of refugees from Africa and the Middle East risk their lives to reach the shores of Europe and escape conflict and repression.  But for the wealthy there are easier options available. With enough money, it's possible to purchase a EU passport - or at least residence. 

The Malta Files: How the smallest EU country became a haven for global tax avoidance.

  • Corruption

VALLETTA - The Mediterranean republic of Malta operates a tax system where companies pay the lowest tax on profits in the EU - only five per cent. Over the last three months, journalistic network European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) dug into over 150,000 documents that show how international companies take advantage of this system, using Malta as a pirate base for tax avoidance in the EU.

Security for sale: the price we pay to protect Europeans

  • Security
  • Terrorism

Since the late 1990s, the European Union has worked to encourage a European security market, where major defence and technology companies develop products and services that better protect us from crime and terrorism. This industry should also create jobs and be globally competitive. Over the past year, more than twenty journalists in eleven European countries investigated this burgeoning sector. And they discovered there’s a lot wrong with the European security market.

Mafia in Africa 2

  • Industry
  • Organised crime

Mafia in Africa 2 exposes the fraudulent business empire of Italian criminal Curio Pintus, who was sentenced to three years in jail in 2001 for laundering drug money for the 'ndrangheta, but remains active as CEO of US “merchant bank”, the Pintus Group.

Mafia in Africa

  • Industry
  • Organised crime

The Italian mafia has established a hidden but lethal presence in Africa. Its members own diamond mines, nightclubs and land, all with the complicity of corrupt regimes.

Ghosts of Sochi

  • Corruption
  • Politics
  • Sport

Seven years under construction at a reputed cost of over 40 billion Euro, the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia are the most expensive sporting event in history.  But the Games also had a human cost.