With its effort to play a part in journalistic collaboration, investigation, and an in-depth view into Latin America, this platform -designed a decade ago- has participated in key changes for this line of work in the region.

By: CONNECTAS 

“A suitable proposal at the right time and with the relevant structure.” Paraphrasing, this was the exciting conclusion of a meeting held at Harvard University in 2012 in the framework of the Nieman Scholarship. This meeting was CONNECTAS’ first public presentation. At the time, a panel of experts had reviewed a work plan and an unprecedented model of journalistic organization. Why not try it? That was the challenge that followed.

Since then, and for the last decade, we have worked enthusiastically and tirelessly in pursuit of this platform’s consolidation. We had an initial year to build the pilots of something that sounded exotic back then: the collaborative work and transnational view of journalists bound together by the conviction that their profession is necessary to strengthen democracies. The legal incorporation took place the year that followed, in February 2013. Afterwards, we focused on the initial tasks for the disruptive idea of merging training and journalistic production. 

All of which led to the consolidation of the innovative model of the CONNECTA’S Journalism Hub (Hub de Periodismo de CONNECTAS), gathering the most vibrant and active journalistic community in Latin America and clustering 136 journalists from 19 countries in a vast regional newsroom. This model’s cohesiveness is not driven by individual expectations of gains but on a collective interest for contribution.

We strengthened our Editorial Board and, in parallel, started implementing and solidifying different reference activities, such as: twenty or so workshops on journalistic investigation techniques; the Investigatones –the main event of journalistic collaboration in the region–; nine editions of the Escuela Virtual in Spanish, English, and French; two editions of the Programa Intensivo de Formacion de Editores; and the Finanzas Forenses para Periodistas. Activities that, altogether, have allowed the development of the knowledge of a thousand colleagues in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The aforementioned makes us proud and has given us the foundation for high-quality journalistic content, our raison d’etre. Consequently, we can practice journalism that exposes the abuse of power, which, rid of local lineage, identifies the best journalistic talents to produce, publish, and disseminate stories that are worth telling. A useful journalism that promptly presents and explains topics that are relevant and of public interest, which powerful industries and individuals oftentimes want to hide.

It has been over 760 publications, many of them with transformational impact in their surroundings and numerous recognitions. Stories that track billions of dollars of embezzlement, mismanagement and corruption involving public funds in different countries; conflicts of interest by dignitaries in countries where those matters are not discussed. Revealing contents ranging from serious human rights violations by autocratic governments to abusive commercial cartelization practices affecting prices of basic products, or serious aggressions to the environment resulting from lack of control by the authorities. A work model that allows us to offer in-depth journalism in places in the continent where closed societies criminalize journalism.

Likewise, we have made hundreds of analyses to explain Latin America’s  particularities on a weekly basis. Starting this year, these analyses will also be shared in a podcast. This strategy, along with the Dialogos CONNECTAS and our newsletter in English, will allow us to keep the promise we made to our audience of being a journalistic platform for the Americas.

Big thanks to everyone who has believed in and contributed to this endeavor, making it possible to transform journalism in the region. Most significantly, to all of the journalists whose capacity, courage and work have been featured in the very relevant very significant content we have produced; to the media outlets with which we have driven higher impact of these stories; to members of the editorial, coordination and support teams that make things happen; and to the different sponsors and allies for their trust and support, among which the International Center for Journalists stands out.

New challenges for the profession lie ahead in this convulsed region. The Experience of #CONNECTAS10Años will be the foundation for the years to come. We will keep pioneering innovative ideas and leading transformational processes for more and better journalism in the Americas.