THE PHOSPHATE PARADOX
TAG: TUNISIA, WATER, MINING JOURNALISM FUND, CLIMATE
(co-author Arianna Poletti, Sofian Philip Naceur - June 2023-June 2024)
How the EU growing fertilizers market is drying up Southern Tunisia
The European Commission recently included phosphate in its list of critical raw materials - essential to the future production of goods and services in the EU. In search for alternatives to Russia, another major phosphates exporter, the EU started looking southwards. While Morocco continues to dominate the global market Tunisia sits on the 4th biggest global reserve of phosphate rocks.
But phosphate extraction comes at a high price. In the Gafsa basin, where Tunisian phosphates come from, local communities are impacted by water scarcity and pollution. Mining in Gafsa started at the end of the 19th century, under French colonialism. A century later, the exploitation and depletion of a land that would otherwise be one of the richest in Tunisia, continues in ways that are different only on the surface.
A year-long investigation supported by the JournalismFund Europe
Featured by: Mediapart, Socialter, Foreign Policy, IrpiMedia, Taz
THE TOXIC SIDE OF PALM OIL
TAG: INDONESIA, PHOTOGRAPHY, JOURNALISMFUND, CLIMATE, AGRICULTURE
(co-author Adi Renaldi- Local Producers: Budi Baskoro - July 2023-June 2024)
How EU-banned pesticides are dumped in Indonesia, disrupting Borneo ecosystem, and communities’ livelihood.
Paraquat is a highly toxic weed killer produced by the Swiss (now Chinese-owned) company Syngenta. Despite being banned in Europe since 2007, paraquat is still manufactured in the UK and exported predominantly to the Global South.
In 2019 Indonesia was the third global importer of paraquat from Europe. In Seruyan, Central Kalimantan, paraquat is affecting not only the health of the workers - mostly women hired as daily laborers to spray the pesticide - but also the community’s livelihood, polluting the water and disrupting the ecosystem.
With the Indonesian government trying to silence dissent on such a key sector, and the EU refusing to take actions on banned pesticides export, local communities' health and future are at stake - as the long-term consequences of pesticide might hamper any attempt to switch to more sustainable cultivation.
An investigation supported by the JournalismFund Europe
Featured by: Asia Democracy Chronicles - part 1, Asia Democracy Chronicles - part 2, Geographical, IrpiMedia, Project Multatuli
IRAQ, THE PRICE OF OIL
TAG: IRAQ, OIL JOURNALISM FUND, CLIMATE, WATER
(co-author Sara Manisera - Local Producers: Essam el Sudani, I.L.)
Pollution, water depletion, and greenwashing: International Oil companies and the ecocide in Iraq
Iraq has been named the fifth-most vulnerable country to climate breakdown. At the same time, it is also one of the main exporters worldwide of crude oil. As a result of the war in Ukraine, Europe started importing even more crude from Iraq.
With the production scaling up, an increasing amount of water is being taken from the already depleted rivers in Basra (that accounts for two thirds of Iraq oil total exports) and used in injections to extract oil. An environmental and health disaster is looming over the country if oil companies fail to be held accountable.
A year-long investigation supported by the JournalismFund Europe
Featured by: IrpiMedia, The Guardian, The Guardian - portfolio, Radio Tre, Alternatives Economiques, Aftenposten. Geographical, OneWater
Awards:
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European Press Prize 2024 - Investigative Reporting Award, Winner
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Premio Bonfanti 2024
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Kolga Tblisi Photo 2024 - Reportage Shortlist
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UNESCO-OneWater "Water for Peace and Prosperity" Photo contest 2024 - Shortlist
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World Water Day Photo Contest 2024 - Storytelling 2nd Place
Interviews and Conferences:
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IMED International Journalism Forum, Athens, September 2024
EUROPEAN SEAS IN DANGER
TAG: ITALY, INVESTIGATION, SEA, ISLANDS, JOURNALISMFUND
(co-author FADA Collective, The Ferrett, IrpiMedia, Placemarks - 2022-2024)
A series of two local cross-border collaborative investigations supported by the JournalismFund Europe
The first series, in 2023, explored whether islands's depopulation in Europe can be reversed.
The full series is here.
In Italy for IrpiMedia:
The second series in 2024 investigated the severe threats faced by Europe’s marine environment.
The full series is here.
In Italy for IrpiMedia:
TRAPPED BY THE DEBT
Photo credit: Marco Valle
TAG: INDIA, MIGRATION, LABOR EXPLOITATION, JOURNALISM FUND
(co-author Ankita Anand - Photo Marco Valle - October 2021-October 2022)
How, through debt, a network of intermediaries linking India to the Pontine countryside keeps thousands of Indian workers under blackmail, exploited in one of the largest fruit and vegetable districts in Europe.
When Jobandeep took his life in mid-2020, Italian media drew their attention once again on a community of 20,000 Sikhs working in unbearable conditions in the fields of Latina, one hour South from Rome. But what media labeled as yet another case of a migrant exploited, was in fact a victim of trafficking, trapped by a criminal network of travel agents, middlemen, complicit community leaders and corrupted officials operating between Punjab (India) and Italy.
In the village where Joban grew up, half of the young people want to leave. The other half has already left. They are part of a new trend of young people from lower classes who would risk everything to travel abroad. But behind the dream of a better life abroad, there is a whole hidden truth.
A year-long project supported by the Journalism Fund
Featured by: IrpiMedia, Millenium FQ, FiftyTwo, De Volkskrant, Der Spiegel
Awards: ILO Global media competition 2022, Ivan Bonfanti Award 2023,
SYRIA WATER CRISIS
TAG: SYRIA, WATER, ENVIRONMENT, GUARDIAN, SPIEGEL, TNH
(co-author Bart von Laffert - September 2021)
How drought, Turkish dams and the occupation of a water station are leading to a major water crisis in Syria
Turkish occupation of Alouk water station in 2019, an unprecedented reduction of Euphrates river’s in- flow from Turkey to Syria as a result of Ataturk dam in Turkey, and an extremely scarce rainfall season, converged, affecting over 5.5 million people, who struggle to have their water needs met. Civilians, especially the poorest and the more vulnerable, are left to pay the price of this converging crisis.
Featured by: The Guardian, Aftenposten, The New Humanitarian, WOZ, Spiegel, NEWS, DW, Water Science Policy
KRI REPORTING
TAG: FIELD REPORTING, IRAQ, ENVIRONMENT, DRONES, AMNESTY, PROFIL, DUMMY
A Series of reporting from Northern Iraq in March and April 2021, together with Bart von Laffert
"No friends in the mountains"
Civilians under fire in Iraqi Kurdistan, as Turkey fights PKK with drones - Text by Bart von Laffert
Featured by: Amnesty Germany, Millenium FQ, Profil, Taz, SWR2
33 years ago, in 1988, 5,000 people died in the chemical attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja carried out by Saddam’s army. The massacre is still not recognised as a genocide at an international level, while German and EU companies were also involved in providing Iraq with gas and products who made the attack possibile. Now, a group of survivors has decided to take them to court, after over a decade collecting evidence.
Featured by: Dummy, SWR2
A crisis in the making as Iran cuts off KRI main rivers
Featured by: Republik, Freitag, DW
THE (UN)JST TRANSITION
TAG: BULGARIA, MULTIMEDIA, INVESTIGATION
(Co-author Eleonora Vio - July 2020-July2021)
The farewell from coal has long begun, as Europe set an urgent goal: climate neutrality by 2050.
Coal phase-out will affect regions that are already among the poorest in Europe. To support them, the Commission created the Just Transition Fund (JTF): “The transformation - said the president Ursula von der Leyen - will only work if it is just, and if it works for all”. In Bulgaria (where coal provides for 40% of the energy-mix) it might be already too late.
Published stories:
IRPI - Il green deal bulgaro tra oligarchi, frodi e operai sfruttati
RSI - L'altra faccia della transizione"
OCCRP - Bulgarian Coal Magnate’s Plants May Have Saved Around 30M Euros by Under-Declaring Emissions
IRPI MEDIA - Bulgaria: emissioni truccate, risparmi milionari per il magnate dell’energia
BIVOL.BG - EЛЕКТРОЦЕНТРАЛИ НА БЪЛГАРСКИ ВЪГЛИЩЕН МАГНАТ ПЕСТЯТ €30 МЛН. ОТ НЕДЕКЛАРИРАНИ ЕМИСИИ СО2
Impact: Bulgaria: EPPO probes into multi-million euro fraud regarding greenhouse gas emissions
THE FRONTEX FILES - IJ4EU
TAG: IJ4EU, CROSS BORDER INVESTIGATION, MIGRATION, UE, FRONTEX, ZDF
Frontex, the EU border agency, has met repeatedly with unregistered arms lobbyists to hear sales pitches about high-tech border surveillance kit including drones, planes and even blimps. It has then lied about those meetings.
Those are the findings of a team of four investigative journalists (Vera Deleja-Hotko, Ann Esswein, Bartholomäus von Laffert, and Daniela Sala) and two researchers (Luisa Izuzquiza, and Phevos Simeonidis) from five countries, working with German right-to-know watchdog FragDenStaat, after months of probing allegations of human rights violations by the EU’s fastest-growing agency.
(September 2020 - March 2021)
A collective multimedia project supported by IJ4EU - Investigative Journalism for Europe.
Published stories:
REPUBLIK - Über der Grenze
ZDF Magazin Royale - "The Frontex Files"
ZDF - "The secrete dates of Frontex and the arms industry" (ENG subtitles)
OPEN MIGRATION - "A bordo di Moonbird l’aereo civile che sorvola il Mediterraneo"
RSI - "In volo su Mare Nostrum"
MILLENNIUM - "Migranti in Mare: con droni e aerei Frontex nessun obbligo di soccorso"
SYRIAN WOMEN SOLD IN TRAFFICKING
TAG: LEBANON, SEX-TRAFFICKING, WOMEN, MULTIMEDIA, AL-JAZEERA
The Syrian women and girls sold into sexual slavery in Lebanon.
Syria's refugee crisis has shone a light on sex trafficking in Lebanon, where victims are often treated as criminals.
(February 2020)
A feature story for Al-Jazeera English - supported by the Migration Media Award
LE DONNE DI GAZA
TAG: GAZA, GENDER ISSUE, MIDDLE EAST, VIDEO, RSI
A series of video for RSI - Radiotelevisione Svizzera, featuring impressive women from Gaza Strip
(February 2019 - co-author Eleonora Vio)
Unica donna neurochirurgo della Striscia di Gaza, è madre di quattro figli, da vent'anni lavora all'Al-Shifa Hospital ed ha un sogno.
Ingegnera, fondatrice di Sketch Engineering - una start-up energetica - ha deciso di non lasciare la Striscia di Gaza e riaccendere la speranza
Insegnante di matematica nella Striscia di Gaza è stata nominata tra i cinquanta insegnanti finalisti del "Global Teacher Prize"
ILO MIGRATION FELLOWSHIP
TAG: FELLOWSHIP, LABOR EXPLOITATION, MIGRATION, MIDDLE EAST, ARTICLE, MULTIMEDIA, RSI, AL MONITOR, OPEN MIGRATION
My series of article and multimedia pieces about labour exploitation in Jordan and Lebanon (April-October 2018).
In 2011 Lebanon approved a new law to counter human trafficking. But the Syrian crisis changed everything: women refugees are more vulnerable than ever. Yet, the victim of trafficking currently identified are few dozens a year. An analysis of the gaps in the system (Text, May2019).
They are around 250,000 in the whole country: Trapped under the "kafala" system, they forced to work in semi-slavery condition. (Text, April 2019).
Syrian women face heat, harassment while picking Jordan’s crops - Featured on AL MONITOR (ENG)
Many women who fled war in Syria have found themselves working to survive with their entire families in Jordan's fields. (Text, August 2018)
Reportage from the Jordanian fields, among exploited Syrian women - Featured on OPEN MIGRATION (ITA)
Many women who fled war in Syria have found themselves working to survive with their entire families in Jordan's fields. (Text, October 2018)
Safaa, the unexpected plumber - Featured on RSI (ITA)
Challenging stereotypes, preserving a key natural resource and providing women refugee a life changing work opportunity: this is what a Jordanian woman (with Syrian origin) is doing. A Syrian born in Jordan, Safaa is among the first women plumber in the country. (Video, November 2018)
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The EJN/ILO six-month fellowship programme for journalists and media practitioners aims to support quality reporting on labour migration in the Middle East. The fellowships is part of the ILO’s Regional Fair Migration Project in the Middle East (FAIRWAY) which works to promote fair migration (including fair recruitment) and eliminate forced labour and trafficking for labour exploitation. Meet the 2018 fellows.
MATTI PER SEMPRE
TAG: MENTAL HEALTH, WEB-DOC, MULTIMEDIA, PREMIO MORRIONE, RAI, INTERNAZIONALE
A web-doc that investigates how mental health care changed, 40 years after asylums for mentally ill in Italy were closed.
(co-author Gabriella Lanza)
Finalist "Premio Morrione" Investigative Journalism Award - 2017
Featured on Internazionale, Mind - Le Scienze, RaiNews 24, Redattore Sociale, Radio 3, Radio Radicale, SuperAbile and Articolo 21
SIKHS, EXPLOITED IN ITALY
(Photo credit: Marco Valle)
TAG: LABOR EXPLOITATION, MIGRATION, RIGHTS, ARTICLE, THE GUARDIAN
"An employer? No, we have a master": the Sikhs secretly exploited in Italy.
After years of arduous, badly paid work in the fields of southern Italy, Singh reported his employer to the police. But in a country where justice moves at a glacial pace, abused migrant workers have scant incentive to come forward.
(Photo by Marco Valle)
Featured on The Guardian (ENGLISH) and Open Migration
FINAL REFUSAL
TAG: ASYLUM, MIGRATION, CROSS BORDER JOURNALISM, DATA JOURNALISM, ARTICLE, OPEN MIGRATION
A Growing population of invisible - There is a growing number of asylum seekers in Europe who have been refused asylum. Deportations and voluntary returns are not keeping pace, so where do these people go?
(Supported by Agorà Project Grant- Hostwriter)
Featured on Open Migration (ITALIAN) and Agorà (ENGLISH)
I AM NOT A SLAVE
TAG: LABOR EXPLOITATION, MIGRATION, RIGHTS, ARTICLE, NEWS DEEPLY
A Multimedia reportage about African migrants fighting labour exploitation in Caserta, Italy.
(co-author Gaetano Veninata)
Despite living in an area - between Castel Volturno and Caserta - where the presence of camorra is deeply-rooted, back in 2009 Osman and Mamadou decided to file a lawsuit against their employers. Today they assist undocumented migrants who decide to report their employer.
An estimated population of 10,000 undocumented migrants - mainly from Western African countries - live in the Castel Volturno area. The average wage is around 20 euros for 12 working hours a day. They are mainly employed in the construction industry or in the fields.
Featured on Refugees Deeply (ENGLISH), Vita Magazine (ITALIAN) and on Atavist (ITALIAN)
ROLLING ARGENTINA
TAG: DISABILITY, TRAVEL, VIDEO-DOC, RAINEWS
A 10 minutes video documentary about Federico's travel to Argentina - on his wheel-chair.
Federico Villa is on wheel-chair since he was 20, due to ataxia, a neuro-degenerative disease. But this never stop him from travelling. We follow him in Argentina where he meets people who has the same disease he has.
Featured on RaiNew24 (ITALIAN)
DREAMING A COMMUNITY
TAG: DISABILITY, BOLIVIA, ARTICLE, PHOTOGRAPHY, AVVENIRE
A photography and written reportage from Cochabamba, Bolivia.
(co-author Gaetano Veninata)
It all started 20 years ago as a temporary house for children living in the streets. Then the families came. In the outskirt of Cochabamba - one of the poorest city in the country - Aristide Gazzotti, a lay missionary from central Italy, is trying to build a community. Casa de los Niños is today a small city in the city, home to a hundred family with addiction and domestic violence problems.
LIFE ON HOLD
A multimedia reportage from Athens and Lesvos.
In June 2016, thousands of migrants were stuck in Greece with almost no rights and no documents as a result of the EU-Turkey deal and the closure of the Balkan route to Germany.
Featured on Vita Magazine (ITALIAN) - Menac (ENGLISH) - Atavist (ENGLISH and ITALIAN)
ROLLING VIETNAM
www.rollingvietnam.org - A web-doc about travel and disability
More than 2,000 kilometers by trains and buses. On a wheel-chair. Federico Villa’s travel across Vietnam, to discover how disability can be turned into a resource. Piccoli Diavoli 3 Ruote ONLUS and AISA ONLUS, thanks to donors and sponsors, present “Rolling Vietnam”, a project by Federico Villa and Daniela Sala. A special thank to our crowdfunding supporters and to Franca Peracchione, Graziella Ongaro, Ester De Giulia e Poline O’Connor for English translation.
Discover our webdoc: The travel - The interviews - backstage
(Text, photographs and videos by Daniela Sala)
Also featured on Il Corriere della Sera
DUYUF, GUESTS
A 20 minutes video doc about Syrian refugees in Jordan.
In May 2015 Jordan was home to around 800,000 Syrian refugees, living mainly in Zaatari camp and in the capital city Amman. With no permission to work and without any official recognition as refugees their future is mostly uncertain.
Featured on FaiNotizia - Radio Radicale (ITALIAN)
PROMISED SWEDEN
A 20 minutes video documentary about asylum seekers reception system in Sweden.
In November 2014 Sweden's asylum request rate was among the highest in Europe, despite Dublin regulation. A reportage on how the Swedish system managed - or tried - to cope with the situation.
Featured on FaiNotizia - Radio Radicale (ITALIAN and ENGLISH)
CLASSROM
A short documentary about a school for Roma children only.
Sfantu Gheorghe is a small town in Northern Romania, in the Transylvania Region.
Here, Roma community is estimated to be around 5,000 to 6,000 individuals. According to official statistics though, people who defined themselves Roma are only 200.
Around 2,000 Roma live in a ghetto in the outskirts of the city with almost no facilities. And the municipality decided to build a wall to physically separate the area from the rest of the town.
Featured on FaiNotizia - Radio Radicale (ITALIAN)
PRISONERS OF EUROPE
Syrian refugees stuck in Bulgaria - A multimedia reportage
In autumn 2013 Bulgaria suddenly became the new and cheapest access point to eastern Europe for people fleeing the war in Syria. “We did not choose Bulgaria. We do not mean to stay here: it is just the cheapest gateway to European Union”. Yasser is 24 years old, he is from Quneitera in southern Syria, and when we first met in March 2014 he was accommodated in Bulgaria’s Harmanli refugee camp 35 kilometres from the Turkish border.
Featured on Medium - Radio Radicale - Focus on Syria