LONDON — There is an irreconcilable conflict in the way war is reported, highlighted once again by the allied attack on Afghanistan and the anthrax terror in the United States. Two quotations explain this conflict better than any reasoned argument. A government censor, asked in 1943 what he thought the American public should be told […]

LAHORE, Pakistan — UNITED STATES and British forces that launched their assault on Afghanistan this week can expect tough guerrilla resistance from a hard core of Taliban leaders who helped found the movement and continue to lead it. Osama bin Laden and his Arab forces, who have become part of the Taliban’s decision-making process, now […]

The way wars are reported in the western media follows a depressingly predictable pattern: stage one, the crisis; stage two, the demonisation of the enemy’s leader; stage three, the demonisation of the enemy as individuals; and stage four, atrocities. At the moment we are at stages two and three: efforts to show that not only […]

LONDON — As U.S. forces converge on Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden’s satellite phone has not been cut off. But calls to the terrorist leader’s laptop-size satphone – relayed via an Inmarsat satellite 40,000 km over the Indian Ocean – are going unanswered. His number – 00873 682505331 – was disclosed earlier this year in the […]

Methodology Research for this Center report has included examining dozens of books and articles by military officers and civilian Pentagon officials that discuss the relationship between the Defense Department and the press; analyzing thousands of pages of U.S. military documents; reviewing dozens of U.S. and British legal documents; reviewing hundreds of articles by journalists, academics […]

The relentless pursuit of Osama bin Laden changed over 10 years By John Solomon May 2, 2011 About the Author Ahmed Rashid of Pakistan is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Center for Public Integrity. He is the Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia correspondent for the Far Eastern […]

BUENOS AIRES — Imagine you’ve just broken a story about how the president’s cronies, including members of the Supreme Court, made a mint when the government sold off state companies. You feel pretty good, right? But instead of getting a Pulitzer, you are indicted for “insulting” a Supreme Court justice. During the trial against you, […]

MOSCOW — Surprise, surprise. I landed in Washington in the last week of June just in time to learn that Gazprom-Media boss Alfred Kokh was also in town, doing some more image-polishing. My first thought upon hearing this was: “That’s the end of Ekho Moskvy. He’s here to do damage control in view of the […]

MELBOURNE, Australia — Most of the reporting we do, even the in-depth investigative projects, stretches only as far as our borders. But the real world isn’t like that. Corporations and crooks electronically shift billions of dollars around the globe in seconds, drug smuggling is an international business, and issues like global warming, sex slavery, economic […]

More than any time in recent memory, the American people have reasonable doubts about the integrity of the judicial decision-making process. When I was a network television journalist, I had the privilege of meeting or covering some of the most respected courtroom lawyers and judges in America, from Edward Bennett Williams and David Boies to […]

Thank you. It is a great pleasure to be here. Congratulations to Brant Houston of Investigative Reporters and Editors and all of the individuals and organizations in Denmark and Europe responsible for this terrific conference. It is my honor to speak to you about “Globalization and the Challenge to Investigative Reporting.” Somehow I will try […]

With no warning, in the opening paragraph of Richard Cohen’s recent column (“What Price Service?”), there it was, in black in white: “Charles Lewis, drop dead.” Not that I haven’t heard such sentiments before, sometimes in much coarser language. It is an occupational hazard as the head of the Center for Public Integrity. Given the […]

When Brad Koetz was told that his impressive sunflower yield was unfit for human consumption, he was taken aback. His healthy-looking, 250-acre crop of confection sunflowers the kind sold as snack food in your local grocery store suffered from a fungal disease, robbing him of a season of work. Because of this pest, Koetz’s crop […]

MOSCOW — So, it has happened. The so-called “tough plan” developed by the Kremlin’s top secret analytical group has been put into action. As opposed to the “mild” one that was in use before, this one envisions the quick silencing of any dissident voices — of course, with the aim of making Russia a paradise […]

LONDON — With newspaper circulation declining all over the world and TV news in crisis, what does the future hold for journalism? Is there a magic formula to restore the good old days? What is it? I was reading the other day the diaries of William Howard Russell, the great journalist who worked for The […]

Buried in the furor over former President Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich is the role the fugitive commodities trader played in supplying oil to South Africa’s apartheid government, in violation of international sanctions against the racist regime. Ironically, two leading congressional inquisitors into Clinton’s last-minute pardon Jan. 20 — Republicans Representative Dan Burton of Indiana […]