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Battle for environmental data won at Romanian court

A judge decided to reject Romania's Environment Ministry's information blockade and instructed the institution to release its SUMAL logging permits data to my team (Freedom House România, Brandon Roberts, Claudiu Postelnicu, Razvan Chiruta / PRESShub)!

This follows a long Freedom of Information battle for environmental data.

The Ministry may yet appeal. I expect they will.

Link to the Court's decision: https://tinyurl.com/loggingdatacourtcase

Romania is under a perpetually-extended EU infringement on illiegal logging and loss of biodiversity - actually 4 infringements focused on environment mention forests (there are more, btw)!

One of these top-level infringements also references Romania's unwillingness to release environmental data. The extraordinarily difficult task for investigators to obtain official data from Romania's public institutions has laso been recognised internationally. Our efforts, in particular, have been featured in a documentary by Channel 4 | Underreported World, entitled "Romania's Timber Mafia" - https://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-world/on-demand/76658-004. I have personally gone through a bullying case at the Environment Ministry's Forests' team last year, when I was documenting logging transparency in Romania, which has also been featured by the latest U.S. State Department's Human Rights Report - https://t.co/FSJyADY5y8 (page 13).

Thank you to our #IJ4EU cross-border investigative reporting grant family for their support so far, as well as for standing by - financially and morally - in case of an appeal: #LordsOfTimber project International Press Institute (IPI) European Journalism Centre (EJC). #infringements #courtcases #environmentaldata #transparency #FOI #investigativejournalism #crossborderreporting

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Romania now has a DATA JOURNALISM HUB - join us! http://tinyurl.com/DDJhubRO

How many of us start every year by setting an ambition, making a wish, drafting a plan, deciding on dream, either of which - or all - to be worked into fruiting in the year ahead? When Freedom House Romania accepted my challange to ignite a Data Journalism Community in Romania, it became the fastest project the organisation ever pulled together. Almost like out of a hat! Hats off to Director Cristina Guseth!

In roughly just a couple of months, Freedom House Romania:

organised a Data Journalism & Storytelling workshop, where Robert Gebeloff (New York Times reporter specializing in data analysis | Columbia University Adjunct), storyteller extraordinaire (and a personal editorial crush) Ruxandra Hurezean, and yours truly banded together to train a group of engaged journalists.

set up a Data Journalism Hub on WhatsApp, for DDJ | data driven journalism in/on/about Romania - FIND US HERE https://chat.whatsapp.com/IfvWQiwRMQyJQ3IGRHyi1J.

and won a grant for 7 data-driven environmental investigations - calling all interested freelancers, by the way! We pay reporters who can help us investigate!

If you're interested in learning DDJ skills, pitching to us, hiring us to train your newsroom, partnering up for a DDJ project that concernes Romania, suggesting a story idea for a DDJ project, organising a hackathon with us, or contribution to our community in a constructive way, do not hesitate to use the link below. You can also reach me at crina.boros@freedomhouse.ro. See you soon!

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Bullied over a Freedom of Information request for environmental data

As data reporter, I'm used to working with databases, not being the subject of one.

But following an aggressive episode to persuade me to give up on an FOI request pursuing government transparency sent to the Romanian Environment Ministry, I ended up in a database.

In particular, a map of media freedom abuses, which I warmly recommend to any journalist who has ever faced harassment, threats, humiliation or abuse of any kind in pursuit of transparency.

Media Freedom Map features the particulars of this case, currently under investigation at the Romanian Ministry of Environment - https://lnkd.in/ek9ikRH6.

The International Press Institute has expressed “concern over major obstruction facing journalists in accessing public data on illegal logging and deforestation”.

Difficult access to environmental data is part of EU’s logging infringement against Romania, currently unfolding.

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A matter of facts, rebels and leaked documents: Competing Romania illegal logging fact-finding missions advance amid rumours EU infringement could be dropped

Article supported by an IJ4EU grant for independent reporting

by Crina-Gabriela Boroş

(Photo: Clearcut in Natura 2000 site from where FSC-certified wood is being exploited in Fagaras mountains, Romania, May 16 2023. Clearcuts are illegal in Natura 2000 sites. Copyrighted - all rights reserved.)

‘These guys are approving logging without any idea whether that logging would damage a key habitat or a species!’

This is the reason environmental activists quote when asked why they’re winning court cases against public authorities permitting logging in Natura 2000 sites in Romania. Yet, despite EU infringements and complaints, saws are louder than birds in protected forests. In a pre-European Parliamentary election year, are current facts sufficient for the EU to take Romania to the European Court of Justice?

Just days ago, a European Parliament Petition (PETI) delegation visited Romania following an illegal logging complaint, as well as a list of other habitat destruction complaints that have forest destruction as common denominator. Delegates chose a press-proofed route to witness that “everything was well and under control” in Romania’s forests, as Environment Minister Barna Tánczos would tell them in his welcoming speech.

Stopped from witnessing what PETI does, we accompanied rebel MEPs and environmental activists to allegedly protected sites to observe “unfolding crime” and reveal a catalogue of forest management irregularities.

LORDS OF TIMBER is a project supported by an IJ4EU grant for independent reporting, managed by the European Journalism Centre and the International Press Institute. This is one article in a series exposing aspects tied to EU’s “famous” “environmental” infringement.

Notorious

“Romania faces several challenges with respect to the implementation of the nature protection Directives”, an EU Environment Commission (DG ENVI) official said just a few weeks ago, “but this is the famous one!”. She means the illegal logging matter raised by the Commission.

EU’s infringements database is, in fact, chokablok with environmental charges against Romania, like pus leaking from a wound that won’t heal.

Read the article in full on PRESSHub - https://presshub.ro/a-matter-of-facts-rebels-and-leaked-documents-competing-romania-illegal-logging-fact-finding-missions-advance-amid-rumours-ue-infrigment-could-be-dropped-273480/

LORDS OF TIMBER is a project supported by an IJ4EU grant for independent reporting, managed by the European Journalism Centre and the International Press Institute. This is one article in a series exposing aspects tied to EU’s “famous” “environmental” infringement.

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EXCLUSIVE: Romanian Environment Ministry releases closed-doors meeting recording, revealing forest and biodiversity loss admission in talk with European Parliament delegates

Article supported by an IJ4EU grant for independent reporting

by Crina-Gabriela Boroş

(Photo: Truck transporting freshly-cut wood from a private forest (according to Romsilva employees present), driving through Romsilva’s Ocolul Domneşti on a rainy day in South Făgăraş mountains, 17 May 2023. Copyrighted - all rights reserved.)

Pressed by us and in a move to refute European Parliament’s petition delegation’s allegation of closed-door policy during a joint meeting in Bucharest, the Romanian Ministry of Environment released the event’s audio recording – probing illegal logging and environment destruction complaints – to Freedom House Romania / PressHub.

On Tuesday May 6, PREShub published the PETI delegation’s reaction to our revelation that media access to key moments of their fact-finding visit to Romania was tightly controlled and severely restricted.

The delegation held discussions with the Ministry of Environment and visited the country, following complaints regarding systemic illegal logging, as well as a list of referrals regarding the destruction of protected habitats.

The PRESShub’s feature contains a quote from the Ministry of Environment’s chief spokesperson, who told us that it was the PETI delegates who did not allow media representatives to attend the technical meeting with the Minister on a critical issue of major public interest.

But PETI delegation lead Yana Toom wrote to PRESShub to “clarify that shortly before the meeting at the Ministry the leader of the delegation asked the participants if they agreed to the participation of journalists in the meeting and that the Minister of Environment objected”.

Romania’s Ministry of the Environment responds to PETI

PRESShub requested a clarification from the Ministry of the Environment, regarding the latter statement from PETI’s response. Afterall, Environment, Waters and Forests Minister’s spokesperson Mihai Drăgan did initially tell us that „the only reason why the press did not have access to the meeting is that this was at the request of PETI delegates. The nature of this meeting is not public”.

A Ministry of Environment’s representative specified that such a discussion between the two sides, about media access, did not take place!

„Following preliminary discussions for the organisation of the meeting on May 15, as well as the PETI Commission’s usual practices for similar actions, MMAP proposed media access for image opportunities at the beginning of the meeting, as well as the support of statements by the participants at the end”, the communique sais.

“The EP representatives had no objections to the proposed format, also stating that, due to the limited time, there will be no press statements from the delegation leadership.”

“Regarding the information according to which there would have been a discussion before the actual meeting, in which the head of the EP delegation would have requested the consent for the participation of journalists and the minister would have opposed it, we specify that the information is totally erroneous, such a discussion did not exist, neither at the beginning of the meeting, nor after it”, an Environment Ministry’s spokesperson said.

As such, “in the spirit of transparency”, the Romanian Environment Ministry is granting access to the full recording of the talks, released exclusively to PRESShub.

Listen to the recording on SoundCloud - https://tinyurl.com/4s4yjmkc. 

(Original article published on PRESSHub - https://presshub.ro/exclusive-romanian-environment-ministry-releases-closed-doors-meeting-recording-revealing-forest-and-biodiversity-loss-admission-in-talk-with-european-parliament-delegates-274472/)

LORDS OF TIMBER is a project supported by an IJ4EU grant for independent reporting, managed by the European Journalism Centre and the International Press Institute. This is one article in a series exposing aspects tied to EU’s “famous” “environmental” infringement.

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EXCLUSIVE: Censorship, manipulations and lies. „The Secretary of State is discrediting himself!”

Article supported by an IJ4EU grant for independent reporting

by Crina-Gabriela Boroş

(Photo: Then Environment minister Tzancos Barna, Scretary of State Sorin Ionut Banciu and their team in a closed-doors “techncal meeting” with a European Parliament PETI delegation in Bucharest, Romania, May 15 2023)

Just days ago, a European Parliament Petition (PETI) delegation visited Romania, following an illegal logging complaint.

Something bewildering occured: the PETI delegation expressly requested that journalists be kept at arm’s length, as the meeting was not, allegedly, in the public interest.

Delegates chose  a carefully-drafted and press-proofed route to witness that “everything was under control” in Romania’s forests, as Environment Minister Barna Tánczos would tell them.

After PETI’s “technical meeting” behind closed doors with minister Tánczos and his team, we caught up with State Secretary Ionuț-Sorin Banciu for an exclusive briefing – since he was allowed to sit in the meeting

Full article on PressHub https://presshub.ro/exclusive-censorship-manipulations-and-lies-the-secretary-of-state-is-discrediting-himself-273067/

LORDS OF TIMBER is a project supported by an IJ4EU grant for independent reporting, managed by the European Journalism Centre and the International Press Institute. This is one article in a series exposing aspects tied to EU’s “famous” “environmental” infringement.

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CAR | DDJ masters curriculum for reporters in the Balkans & Turkey

Privileged to have worked on a meaningful #datajournalism educational project, alongside the wonderful and inspiring Sheila Coronel, for the Centre for Media, Data and Society at the Central European University and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network - we set out to create a #curriculum targeting mainly journalists from the #Balkans and Turkey, based on the best practices worldwide, but shaped in a way that allows any university to adopt and implement it. This project is funded by EuropeAid/European Commission through its Regional Training and Support Program to Improve Quality and Professionalism in Journalism. Here’s the link to the landing page, where you can also download the curriculum freely: https://cmds.ceu.edu/article/2021-11-12/cmds-develops-model-curriculum-masters-degree-investigative-journalism-western  

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COLLECTIVE - Live youtube panel discussion

My first ever live Youtube panel discussion introduced me to Romanian film director Alexandru Nanau, journalist Catalin Tolontan and director of English Pen Daniel Gorman in a conversation about the aftermath of the Collective tragedy investigation, as well as what film can do for journalism.

Here’s a link to the documentary’s trailer - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10706602/

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The Data Journalism Handbook: Towards a critical data practice

This year saw the release of “The Data Journalism Handbook - Towards A Critical Data Practice”, edited by Liliana Bounegru and Jonathan Grey. I was honoured to be among its contributors.

With 54 chapters from 74 leading researchers and practitioners of data journalism, the book gives a “behind the scenes” look at the social lives of datasets, data infrastructures, and data stories in newsrooms, media organizations, startups, civil society organizations and beyond. The book includes chapters by leading researchers around the world and from practitioners at organisations including Al Jazeera, BBC, BuzzFeed News, Der Spiegel, eldiario.es, The Engine Room, Global Witness, Google News Lab, Guardian, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), La Nacion, NOS, OjoPúblico, Rappler, United Nations Development Programme and the Washington Post.

You can find the book here, including an open access version: http://bit.ly/data-journalism-handbook-2

More information about the book can be found in this blog post as well as on this Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/bb_liliana/status/1374321675307732994

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The Inoculation podcast

As part of Journalism Fund’s mentorship programme, I had the pleasure to support a two-reporter cross-border team that have started to investigate patterns in anti-vaxxer movements discourse across several EU member states. Daiva Repeckaite and Eva von Schaper have not only published widely, but also created The Inoculation podcast. If you’ve got any tip-off, please leak generously!

I’m very glad to have been asked to work together again.

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REACTION: App developers sue Facebook over ‘anti-competitive conduct’

The lawsuit is based on thousands of pages leaked internal Facebook documents obtained and published by Computer Weekly and NBC last year. A project towards which I contributed, spearheaded by William Goodwin and Duncan Campbell - https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252476947/App-developers-sue-Facebook-over-anti-competitive-conduct

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The Roma in Belfast

We probe claims leaders of Belfast's Roma community have been exploiting their own people.

Reporting for BBC one / Spotlight in 2018, with Peter Coulter and Guy Grandjean. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bt8n6z

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Facebook undermined rivals in bid to dominate global messaging

Published by Computer Weekly, 26 November 2019, by Crina Boros and Bill Goodwin

Facebook used buyouts and bullying tactics towards competitors to grow its business empire, documents leaked to Computer Weekly reveal.

At 1.28am on 10 January 2013, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg was working into the night.

“I think we should block WeChat, Kakao and Line Ads [from Facebook],” he wrote in an email to his team. “Those companies are trying to build social networks and replace us.”

His decision followed tormented discussions among Facebook’s team about the threat posed by rival messaging services.

Zuckerberg must have read his vice-president of international growth Javier Olivan’s anxious message several times: “We will look like complete idiots if we lose our business to these messenger services and help them along for a couple of $$.”

Read my latest report on FacebookLeaks in full in Computer Weekly - https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252474399/Facebook-undermined-rivals-in-bid-to-dominate-global-messaging

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Businesses’ contingency plan for hard Brexit - the carbon trading case

Published in The Canary, July 18 2019, by Crina Boros, Adriana Homolova / Pointer KRO-NCRV

Fear of hard #Brexit continues to affect the £1bn+ British #carbon trading market, with stakeholders migrating carbon credit to EU-27. Read the story in full here: https://www.thecanary.co/investigation/2019/07/18/carbon-trading-companies-use-loophole-to-dodge-hard-brexit-fallout/

#hardbrexit #carbontrading #businesses #carboncredit

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Revealed: Businesses hedge carbon credits offshore as no-deal Brexit looms

Published in De Smog, July 16 2019, with additional  reporting from Adriana Homolova / Pointer 

At least 35 British companies have filed for EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) accounts in the Netherlands in recent months. Without these accounts, companies may face having millions of pounds’ worth of tradable carbon credits locked in the UK in the case of a no-deal Brexit, preventing businesses from selling their permits.

Read the news in full here: https://www.desmog.co.uk/2019/07/15/revealed-uk-companies-opening-overseas-carbon-credit-accounts-preparation-no-deal-brexit  

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The Last Resources - ZAM

Many African women who live at or below the poverty line are forced to sell their bodies in order to make ends meet. The women do not notice anything of the many poverty relief programs that exist on paper in their countries. 

https://www.zammagazine.com/perspectives/blog/847-report-the-last-resource-risking-death-to-feed-our-kids

I had an outsider’s role, consulting for this project.

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Why 5G may not (yet) be safe to rollout

My last piece for Investigate Europe, with & via Computer Weekly: https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Mobile-phones-and-health-is-5G-being-rolled-out-too-fast