Sylke Gruhnwald is editor-in-chief of the Swiss magazine Republik.

Gruhnwald was born 1981 in Munich, Germany. After being based in Vienna, Austria, she now calls Zurich, Switzerland, home. Gruhnwald studied sinology and business administration. She worked for The Economist Group, its Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as well as the Swiss daily newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), the Swiss magazine Beobachter and lead the data- and document-driven investigation unit SRF Data at public broadcaster Swiss Radio and Television (Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, SRF).

Sylke Gruhnwald is co-founder of Hacks / Hackers ZurichLobbywatch.ch as well as Reporter-Forum Switzerland. She is former chairwoman of Journalismfund.eu. and board member of Investigativ.ch.

Gruhnwald also initiated the investigation project The Migrants’ Files. She is a jury member with the Reporterpreis as well as the Nannen-Preis. Together with her teams, Gruhnwald herself won several awards.

Basic information

Name
Sylke Gruhnwald
Country
Switzerland
City
Zürich

Supported projects

The Migrants Files: Follow The Money

  • Data Journalism
  • Human Rights
  • Migration

BRUSSELS - Refugees and migrants spend over €1 billion a year to reach Europe. Europeans pay a similar amount to keep them out. A few companies benefit handsomely in the process. The hope business is cruel—and highly lucrative.

The Migrants Files

  • Data Journalism
  • Human Rights
  • Migration
  • Politics

The Migrants Files is a project by a European consortium of journalists that aims at precisely assessing the number of men, women and children that died as a result of EU Member States migration policies.

Mentor for

Camel Trafficking From Syria

  • Armed conflict
  • Migration
  • Trafficking

Over thousands of camel shepherds have fled Syria to the European Union, crossing the sea and mountains to seek refuge following the tragic ongoing war, that has changed their lifestyle with loss of camels to illegal trafficking. 

Diplomatic immunity and impunity

  • Exploitation
  • Human Rights
  • Migration
  • Trafficking

MANILA - “Immunity & Impunity: How Diplomats Get Away with Exploiting Domestic Workers” is a multi-country, multimedia investigative series that examines how diplomats exploit their foreign domestic workers and escape prosecution because of diplomatic immunity. It also reveals the complicity of sending countries in protecting diplomats implicated in domestic trafficking and exploitation.

Diplomatic immunity and impunity

Hands On Deck: Exploitation of Migrant Fishing Workers in Ireland

  • Exploitation
  • Fishing industry
  • Human Rights
  • Trafficking

DUBLIN - Recruited to Ireland with the promise of good wages, fishers from the Philippines - often in debt after paying illegal recruitment fees - travel across the world to provide better opportunities for themselves and their families. But a work permission scheme, introduced following exposure of trafficking and exploitation of undocumented workers in the sector, has now become a vehicle to exploit the same workers it was introduced to protect, according to workers' advocates. 

Open Doors and Barbed Wire: Europe's Asylum Paradox

  • Human Rights
  • Migration
  • Politics

BRUSSELS - A team of reporters have investigated the impact of the first-ever application of the Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) by the EU to Ukrainian refugees.

Thomson Reuters Foundation/ Joanna Gill

Simandou: a mountain of wealth and bribery cases

  • Corruption
  • Environment

CONAKRY - A team of journalists followed the money, investigating Guineagate, a corruption case that involved a French national promoting the interests of a private company that sought a mining license at Simandou Mountains, the world’s largest known deposits of untapped iron.

Waterstories.eu: the dark side of the European bottled water industry

  • Environment
  • Industry

VOLVIC - An in-depth investigation of the We Report network uncovers the dark side of the bottled water business in Europe, where the market is dominated by multinational companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Danone.