Annual Report · 2025
Reporting without borders
Programmes, investigations and grants across a record year — including the launch of the cross-border Shadow Fleet collaboration.
About the IAOIJ
A global newsroom without borders
For more than a decade, the International Association of Investigative Journalism has connected reporters across languages, jurisdictions and time zones to investigate the abuses of power that no single newsroom can uncover alone — and to protect the journalists who do it.
Why we exist
Power crosses borders. The journalism that holds it to account must cross them too.
The stories that matter most — grand corruption, organised crime, illicit finance, environmental destruction, arms trafficking and human-rights abuse — almost never stop at a national frontier. They move through shell companies in one jurisdiction, banks in another and courts in a third, exploiting the gaps between them. A reporter working alone, in one country, in one language, can rarely see the whole picture.
The IAOIJ exists to close that gap. We are a member-owned, non-profit association, founded in 2011 and headquartered in Geneva, that gives investigative journalists the infrastructure to work together across borders: a place to pool documents and data, to verify each other's findings, and to publish the same story simultaneously in dozens of countries so that no government or company can bury it in a single market.
We also defend the people who do this work. Investigative journalists are sued, surveilled, smeared, detained and — too often — attacked. Through our pre-publication legal desk, emergency legal fund, digital-security programme and rapid-response network, we stand behind members when the reporting puts them at risk.
And we share what we build. Training, datasets, tools, contacts and hard-won methods are pooled across the network, so that a discovery made in Manila can strengthen an investigation in Nairobi, Bogotá or Sarajevo the same week.
The IAOIJ at a glance
2,600+Member journalists
94Countries
320+Cross-border projects
180+Partner newsrooms
40+Languages
6,500+Reporters trained
$4.2m+In reporting grants
210Grants awarded
Founded 2011 · Secretariat in Geneva · Regional hubs in Nairobi, Bogotá, Manila, Sarajevo, Beirut & Washington D.C.
What we stand for
Six principles guide everything we publish
They are written into our statutes and our code of ethics, and every member commits to them on joining.
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Independence
We answer to the public interest and to the evidence — never to governments, advertisers, donors or political parties. A strict firewall separates our funding from our reporting.
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Public interest
We investigate the abuse of power because people have a right to know how they are governed, taxed, policed and sold to. That test decides what we pursue.
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Source protection
We protect our sources absolutely. Encrypted intake, careful data handling and legal safeguards mean whistle-blowers can come to us without fear of exposure.
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Collaboration
We share rather than scoop. Pooling documents, skills and by-lines across newsrooms produces bigger, better-verified stories than any outlet could alone.
✓
Rigour & accuracy
Every claim is documented, every subject offered the right of reply, and sensitive stories pass through independent legal and fact-checking review before publication.
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Safety
The work is dangerous. We treat the physical, legal and digital safety of members and their sources as a precondition for the reporting, not an afterthought.
How we work
A shared method for reporting that stands up
Most IAOIJ investigations follow the same collaborative model — refined across more than 320 cross-border projects.
01
Cross-border desks
A lead desk convenes reporters in every country a story touches, agrees a shared question and a timeline, and coordinates the reporting so findings reinforce one another.
02
Pooled documents & data
Leaked records, corporate registries and datasets are uploaded to a secure shared platform where our data team cleans, links and searches them for the whole team.
03
Pre-publication legal review
Before anything runs, our legal desk and fact-checkers pressure-test every allegation, confirm the right of reply has been offered, and flag jurisdiction-specific risk.
04
Simultaneous publication
Partner newsrooms publish the same day, in 40-plus languages, so the story reaches every affected public at once and cannot be suppressed in a single market.
Our story
Fifteen years of following the story
The IAOIJ began as an informal circle of reporters swapping documents over encrypted email. It has grown into one of the world's largest networks of investigative journalists — but the founding idea has not changed: that the truth is easier to find, and harder to bury, when reporters work together.
Each milestone below marks a moment when the Association added a new way to support members or broke a story that changed the record.
- 2011
The Association is founded
Forty investigative reporters from eighteen countries sign the founding charter, committing to share documents and defend one another's work across borders.
- 2013
First cross-border project
Nine newsrooms publish simultaneously on a regional bribery scheme — the template for the collaborative model the IAOIJ still uses today.
- 2015
Geneva Secretariat established
A permanent, professional Secretariat opens at the Maison de la Presse in Geneva, giving the network staff, legal capacity and a stable home.
- 2017
Emergency legal fund launched
A dedicated fund begins covering legal defence for members facing lawsuits, SLAPP suits and intimidation designed to kill their reporting.
- 2019
Digital-security programme
Hands-on training, secure tooling and a 24/7 rapid-response line are rolled out to every member to protect sources and reporters at risk.
- 2021
Tenth anniversary — 2,000 members
The network passes 2,000 verified members across more than 80 countries and marks a decade of collaborative investigations.
- 2023
The Data Desk opens
A specialist team is created to obtain, clean and link the corporate registries, leaks and datasets that underpin the network's biggest stories.
- 2026
The Shadow Fleet published
The Association's largest collaboration to date — 38 newsrooms in 34 countries — exposes the hidden armada moving sanctioned oil.
How we are governed
Owned by our members, run in the open
The IAOIJ is a non-profit association under Swiss law, accountable to the journalists who make it up. Authority flows in a single, transparent line — from the members, to the Board they elect, to the Secretariat that carries out the work.
The General Assembly of all members is our highest authority. It meets once a year to set strategy, approve the budget and accounts, amend the statutes and elect the Board. The Board — currently chaired by Ingrid Hansen — is unpaid, independent and drawn from members around the world; it sets direction, safeguards our independence and appoints the Executive Director. The Secretariat, led by Executive Director Amara Okoro from Geneva and the regional hubs, delivers the programmes day to day.
A firewall separates governance and funding from editorial decisions: neither the Board nor any donor directs what members investigate or publish.
Lines of accountability
- General Assembly — all members; meets annually; elects the Board and approves the statutes, budget and accounts.
- Board of Directors — elected, unpaid; sets strategy, oversees the Secretariat and appoints the Executive Director.
- Secretariat — professional staff in Geneva and six regional hubs; delivers the Association's programmes.
- Committees — independent Ethics, Safety and Editorial Standards bodies advise on the hardest calls.
Transparency
Annual reports & finances
Our independence rests on being open about where our money comes from and where it goes. Each year we publish a full activity report and audited financial statements.
Annual Report · 2024
The network at scale
How the Association grew past 2,400 members and expanded its safety and digital-security programmes to every region.
Annual Report · 2023
Building the Data Desk
A year defined by investment in data journalism, corporate-registry access and the shared platform underpinning our investigations.
Finances · 2025
Audited financial statements
Independently audited accounts detailing income by source, programme spending and reserves for the 2025 financial year.
Where our funding comes from
The IAOIJ is funded by three independent streams: member dues, philanthropic grants from foundations that support press freedom, and individual donations from the public. No single funder accounts for a controlling share of our budget.
To protect our editorial independence, every grant is accepted on the condition that the funder has no say in what we investigate, what we publish or when. This firewall is written into our statutes and audited each year. Read more about how to support the work or become a member.
Become part of the network.
Join 2,600 investigative journalists in 94 countries, partner your newsroom, or simply follow the reporting that holds power to account.