Digicop Overview

Anas Aremeyaw Anas has redefined what investigative journalism looks like in the 21st century. We have repeatedly conducted journalistic collaborations so big, so visionary and so aspirational that they are unlike any others in history.

We have shined a light on the deadly effects of agrochemicals in the sugarcane fields of Ghana, on the brutal confinement of immigrants in detention centers in the Africa and the failure of the World Bank to protect people living in the path of large development projects in Europe.

We brought together more than 75 journalists from 14 countries to reveal how Uighurs and other Muslim minorities were subjected to surveillance and mass internment without charge in the Xinjiang region of China.

We showed how two decades of corrupt deals made Isabel dos Santos Africa’s wealthiest woman while oil-and-diamond-rich Angola remains one of the world’s poorest countries. We did this by sharing more than 750,000 secret documents with more than 120 journalists from 20 countries, leading to a worldwide freeze of her assets.

A team of more than 250 journalists from 36 countries exposed the human cost of defective and poorly-regulated medical devices, leading to the worldwide withdrawal of textured breast implants linked to a rare cancer in women.

Our Offshore Leaks, Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Pandora Papers and FinCEN Files investigations were the biggest cross-border journalism projects ever. They revealed secrets of the rich and powerful and involved separate teams of hundreds of reporters spread across 80 countries, working in more than 30 languages and combing through more than 25 million documents.

Our work has shaken the establishment and led to public protests, multiple arrests, sweeping legal reform and official inquiries in more than 70 countries, and to the resignations of the leaders of Pakistan, Iceland and Malta after allegations of corruption.

We helped bring about the Corporate Transparency Act in the United States, hailed as the biggest anti-corruption measure since the Patriot Act of 2001. Our work has also been credited for helping bring more than 130 countries together to sign a worldwide minimum tax rate as a measure to stop giant corporations avoiding their responsibilities.

Our work has been honored repeatedly at gatherings to bestow the world’s most prestigious journalism awards, including the Pulitzer Prizes. In 2021, ICIJ was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for reporting that made it harder for arms dealers and people smugglers to launder their profits.