A Letter To Those Who Try to Silence Us

You can sue us. You can threaten us. You can hack our reporters, jail our colleagues, surveil our movements, and pass laws designed to stop the truth from being told. But, still, we report.

As the editor in chief of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, I face many people who believe that investigative journalism can be silenced through threats, pressure, or force. 

When we discovered that Swiss private bank Reyl was being investigated for failures in anti- money laundering, you threatened us with criminal prosecution under Swiss secrecy laws. You sent lawyers. The message was clear: Don’t publish. We published anyway.

Our Scam Empire investigation revealed the inner workings of the global investment fraud industry, but our local colleagues in Georgia couldn't be named in the story — the threat to their safety was too great. You’ve made it costly to uncover global crime. We published anyway.

When we worked with partners to expose a vast illegal betting empire in Europe, or reveal how elites in Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan enriched themselves at the public’s expense — we did so knowing the risk that you might come after us. Some of you did. We published anyway.

You’ve forced us into exile. Attacked our partners. You’ve targeted us with smear campaigns and dragged us in front of courts. 

But journalism is not a crime.
Your crime and corruption is.
And we will keep exposing it.

You have deeper pockets and darker intentions. But we have strength in numbers, a powerful global network, and a determination to seek justice. We work across borders. When you target one of us, we will all respond.

To those who try to stop us — you will not succeed.

Still, we report.

What We Do

OCCRP is one of the largest investigative journalism organizations in the world, headquartered in Amsterdam and with staff across six continents. We are a mission-driven nonprofit newsroom that collaborates with investigative media outlets around the world to expose organized crime and corruption and helps people hold power to account. We also help outlets develop and thrive.

To our colleagues, partners, and supporters — thank you for standing with us. We do this work because we believe that the truth matters, that the public deserves to know, and that power should be held to account.