5 takeaways from the Panama Papers speech by Marina Walker Guevara

Marina Walker Guevara presenting the Burleigh Media Ethics Lecture.

Marina Walker Guevara, part of the Panama Papers team that won the ASNE/O’Brien Fellowship Award for Impact in Public Service Journalism, packed a lot into the Burleigh Media Ethics Lecture at Marquette in front of 200-plus attendees on Tuesday.

Here are five takeaways from the inspirational speech by the deputy director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists:

1. Investigative journalists can no longer be lone wolves. In the past, investigative journalists would research a project, attain individual achievement for the results and aim for a national impact. But if investigative journalists begin working together like ICIJ did for “The Panama Papers,” journalists can achieve a global impact through collaboration and shared ownership. “We all win, not just one person,” said Walker Guevara. “And of course, the story wins too.”
2. One of the biggest problems with the secretive world exposed by “The Panama Papers” is that most of the tax-avoidance structures are entirely legal. Walker Guevara said that President Obama made this clear following the publication of “The Panama Papers.” When the rich and powerful win, we all lose, she said. Even though many articles on “The Panama Papers” said that the practices of the offshore world are “entirely legal,” they’re also “profoundly immoral,” Walker Guevara said.
3. “The story should always be the star of the show.” Walker Guevara said that their team often ran into ethical questions, including whether it was appropriate to break the embargo when certain stories the team was working on were in the news. They decided to wait, and the team of more than 110 media organizations began publishing in April of 2016. They also decided not to give the documents to governments, but rather, created a database with the basic company information.
4. Make sure your story is bulletproof. The ICIJ hired independent fact-checkers to ensure that their claims were accurate. They also reached out to every person mentioned in the stories to provide them with a “right of reply.” In many instances, Walker Guevara said that the replies “only made the story better” because the responses revealed new information and confirmed their claims.
5. Focus on stories of public interest. Walker Guevara said her team members constantly asked themselves: “Is this of global concern? Are we likely to get results from publishing this?” ICIJ and the other media organizations involved in “The Panama Papers” aimed to publish stories that could assist the victims of these activities.

Here is a Twitter moment from the event, compiled from the ICIJ: