Managing 14 reporters in 10 far-flung countries

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal, Winter 2009 by Kaplan, David E

We also made use of communications through Skype, an online phone service, and other techniques to securely share information.

Handling legal issues

Because ICIJ's work appears worldwide, we can face legal challenges in any number of jurisdictions, some with criminal libel statutes and others equally hostile to a free press. Our bottom line reflects that old adage: The best defense against libel is the truth.

ICIJ stories not only are thoroughly researched and heavily documented but are also subject to several layers of editing, rigorous fact-checking and legal review before publication. We have to ensure that our reporting - in multiple languages and countries - is accurate in every respect. This at times has meant translating key passages as many as three times. The intensive pre-publication review can be surprising to some of our members, but in the end, everyone understands its value.

Enforcing professional standards

In dealing with a network that spans 50 countries, there can be differences in standards of how sources and undercover work are used, particularly in relatively closed societies. Some reporters are quick to go undercover; others are accustomed to paying for information.

ICIJ's rules are quite explicit in both instances: We do not pay our sources, and undercover work is considered only after other reporting avenues have been exhausted.

Rolling out the investigation

Between October and December, the ICIJ team published a series of nine stories. On the center's Web site, we presented a multimedia project with undercover footage; audio and video interviews with experts, smugglers and undercover agents; maps and charts; and links to resources.

Our lead story, "Made To Be Smuggled: Russian Contraband Cigarettes 'Flooding' EU," exposed how a renegade network of Russian and East European factories was pouring at least $1 billion worth of contraband Jin Ling brand cigarettes into Europe annually, becoming within two years one of the largest smuggling operations on the continent. Jin Ling, the investigation found, was the world's first cigarette designed and manufactured solely for smuggling. ICIJ reporters located the company's headquarters in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, took undercover video inside the plant and revealed how the firm's billions of cigarettes are smuggled across the continent.

ICIJ's October series also reported on China's massive cigarette counterfeiting, including the story of a couple whose network helped move a billion counterfeit cigarettes from China into the United States, as well as the tale of an El Raso quadriplegic who masterminded one of the nation's largest tobacco smuggling rings. And although tobacco companies claim to have stopped trafficking, our series showed how top U.K. cigarette maker Gallaher engaged in a worldwide smuggling and dumping strategy. In December, the team followed up with new stories on out-of-control Internet sales and how Big Tobacco has fueled a billion-dollar black market in New York through Indian reservations.