Covering Corruption

Brant Houston

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting, College of Media, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA

Brant Houston holds the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois. Houston teaches investigative and advanced reporting in the Department of Journalism in the College of Media at Illinois.

Houston became the chair after serving for more than a decade as the executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), a 4,000-member organization, and as a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Before joining IRE, he was an award-winning investigative reporter at daily newspapers for 17 years.

Houston also is the author of three editions of the textbook, "Computer-Assisted Reporting: A Practical Guide," and co-author of the fourth edition and fifth edition of "The Investigative Reporter’s Handbook."  Currently he is working on projects involving nonprofit journalism, ethnic media newsrooms, and new technologies for news-gathering.

David Kaplan

Global Center for Investigative Journalism, USA

Kaplan is an investigative journalist and media consultant based in Washington, D.C. From 2008 to 2011 he served as director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, an award-winning network of 100 reporters in 50 countries. During this time he oversaw widely acclaimed investigations into the tobacco, asbestos, fishing, and energy industries, working with the BBC and other leading media organizations worldwide. Until 2007 he worked as chief investigative correspondent for the Washington-based U.S. News & World Report, then a two-million circulation newsweekly, where he wrote the magazine’s popular Bad Guys blog. Kaplan’s stories at U.S. News attracted worldwide attention and included exposés of racketeering by North Korean diplomats, Saudi funding of terrorist organizations, and the looting of Russia.

He is a four-time winner of the coveted Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, including three medals, IRE’s highest honor. His work has also been honored four times by the Overseas Press Club, as well as by the American Bar Association, Association of Health Care Journalists, and World Affairs Council. He serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Organized Crime and he is editor at large for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. A former Fulbright scholar in Japan, he is co-author of the book YAKUZA. Published in 11 languages, the work is widely considered the standard reference on the Japanese mafia.

Sheila Coronel

Professor of Professional Practice in Investigative Journalism, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, USA

Sheila Coronel began her reporting career in 1982, when she joined the staff of Philippine Panorama. She reported on human rights abuses, the growing democratic movement, and the election of Corazon Aquino as president. She later joined the staff of The Manila Times as a political reporter, and also wrote special reports for The Manila Chronicle. As a stringer for The New York Times and the Guardian (London), she covered seven attempted coups d'etat against the Aquino government.

In 1989, Sheila and her colleagues founded the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) to promote investigative reporting. The PCIJ trains journalists in investigative skills, and has provided an environment for in-depth, groundbreaking reporting.

She is the author and editor of more than a dozen books, including "Coups, Cults & Cannibals", "The Rulemakers: How the wealthy and well-born dominate Congress", and "Pork and other Perks: Corruption and Governance in the Philippines."  She has received numerous awards and widespread recognition of her work.

Lisa Gibbs

Board Member, Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW); Senior Writer, Money Magazine, New York, USA

Before joining Money magazine in 2009, Lisa Gibbs was the Executive Business Editor of the Miami Herald. Gibbs is on the board of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) and co-chairs the organisation's international committee, which is working on projects to promote business journalism excellence outside the United States.