2025-10-08 15:00:37
In most of the conferences I attend around the world, a question that often comes up is: “Do you know Kunda?” My answer is always the same: “Of course.”
Kunda Dixit is one of Nepal’s most influential journalistic voices — a reporter, editor, author, and mentor who has not only chronicled events himself but also nurtured and guided journalists in Nepal and beyond.
A graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he began his career at BBC Radio at the United Nations in New York, and went on to serve as Asia-Pacific Regional Editor of Inter Press Service, a news agency.
Returning home, Dixit established Panos South Asia and authored several books, including “A People War” — which chronicled Nepal’s conflict — and “Dateline Earth: Journalism As If the Planet Mattered.” Today, he is the publisher of the Nepali Times and also serves as chair of the Centre for Investigative Journalism – Nepal (CIJ-N).
In 2016, GIJN organized the second Uncovering Asia Conference in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, and one of the key people behind it was Dixit. But just before the conference took place — in a complex turn of events — he went into self-imposed exile because of the fear of being arrested. In this interview, he describes that chain of events as one of the worst times of his journalism career.
Even today, investigative reporting in Nepal can pose challenges, from the problems tied to state and corporate control of parts of the press, “as well as threats of physical harm when a reporter gets close to a story, especially at the local level,” Dixit shares.
According to Reporters Without Border (RSF), press freedom in the country has also taken a downward turn: dropping from 74th in the world in 2024 to 90th position this year.
Journalists were also caught up in recent anti-corruption and anti-government protests that swept through Nepal, eventually leading to the fall of the government. According to RSF, the headquarters of over a dozen media outlets and journalists’ organizations were attacked during the protests, while elsewhere, reporters were injured by rubber bullets fired by the police.
With a new, interim government now in place, Célia Mercier, head of the RSF’s South Asia Desk warned that “in times of crisis and instability, it is more essential than ever to protect the right to inform and to be informed.”
When news started to circulate that the protests had reached Parliament, Dixit was actually doing scholarship interviews across town. He found his way home just before the curfew, and got in touch with one of his editors to coordinate coverage.
“We were trying to make sense of it all and figuring out what would happen next,” he says.
GIJN: Of all the investigations you’ve worked on, which has been your favorite and why?
Kunda Dixit: At Nepali Times, the most exciting investigation we published was when two of our reporters went undercover in a sting operation to expose an international adoption racket in Kathmandu. It carried some risk, but… it was good to see that the story had an impact.
GIJN: What are the biggest challenges in terms of investigative reporting in your country or region?
KD: The biggest challenge and threat is from a vengeful state that hits back at journalists with SLAPPs and made-up charges and jails them for defamation or charges of financial irregularities. Reporters in the districts are more at risk since they are closer to the story. Local perpetrators of illegal natural resources extraction have been known to kill journalists.
GIJN: What’s been the greatest challenge that you’ve faced in your time as an investigative journalist?
KD: The worst time must have been in 2016 when our publication was targeted by the head of Nepal’s anti-corruption bureau. He retaliated [to our reporting on his appointment and opposition to it] by framing us on made-up charges. Some of us were imprisoned, had to go into hiding, and I myself had to leave the country for six months while we were preparing for the GIJN conference in Kathmandu.
GIJN: What is your best tip for interviewing?
KD: Ice breakers. Start with softballs. Reassure the whistleblower that they will be safe and will not face repercussions. Convince them that it is for the greater public good, and you have no other vested interest in the story.
GIJN: What is a favorite reporting tool, database, or app that you use in your investigations?
KD: No apps. No devices. Just a lot of hard, relentless legwork, chasing the paper — or digital — trail.
GIJN: What’s the best advice you’ve gotten thus far in your career and what words of advice would you give an aspiring investigative journalist?
KD: Patience. Investigative stories do not happen overnight; be flexible because the story and protagonists may change as the investigation follows its course. Do not harm. Be careful not to hurt the reputation of innocent people. Be aware of the motives that [anonymous sources] like Deep Throat may have to leak information to you.
GIJN: Who is a journalist you admire, and why?
KD: When I was in Manila in the 1990s, it was the work of the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) that impressed me the most. The women-led team was the best example of journalism playing the adversarial role to strengthen hard-earned democracy. When I returned to Kathmandu in 1997, we patterned the CIJ-N after PCIJ, and both our organizations became the first Asian members of GIJN.
GIJN: What is the greatest mistake you’ve made and what lessons did you learn?
KD: We make mistakes. We once got a video about a Nepali worker being beaten up and abused by his boss in Malaysia. We published the story after due diligence, but obviously it was not enough. We double-checked, but the video turned out to be a fist fight between two fellow security guards. Lesson: triple-check everything — especially in the age of deepfakes.
GIJN: How do you avoid burnout in your line of work?
KD: It is easy to get disheartened when an exposé that took a lot of time and effort seemingly does not have impact. But I have learnt that impact is often subliminal — public awareness cannot be quantified accurately, but in small ways can change the source of a country’s history. Believe in the power of one.
GIJN: What about investigative journalism do you find frustrating, or do you hope will change in the future?
KD: The most frustrating thing now is that media companies are in crisis and do not have the resources to assign reporters to investigate wrongdoing. The attention span of readers and users has also dropped drastically. The challenge is to find ways to hold their attention with innovative packaging for reader-based revenue. And we have to somehow ensure that the business model of media does not collapse, or find alternative ways to fund investigative reporting through fellowships.
Rajneesh Bhandari is the founder and chief editor at the Nepal Investigative Multimedia Journalism Network (NIMJN). He was a Fulbright Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow in investigative reporting at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University, and oversees training, the innovation lab and collaborative investigative multimedia reporting projects at NIMJN. His work has been published in the New York Times, National Geographic, Aljazeera English, among other places.
Nyuk was born in 2000 in South Korea. He is currently studying at the Department of Applied Art Education at Hanyang University in Seoul, South Korea, where he also works as an illustrator. Since an exhibition at Hidden Place in 2021, he has participated in various illustration exhibitions. He is mainly interested in hand drawing, which represents the value of his art world.
2025-10-08 08:20:58
Join WAN-IFRA for the 77th World News Media Congress, taking place in Marseille, France.
2025-10-07 15:00:37
Illicit financial flows routinely cross borders today and also have a significant impact in Asia. Investigative journalists in the region have uncovered stories that expose authoritarian kleptocrats, a new gambling epicenter, and vast networks to hide stolen funds, among other acts of financial wrongdoing.
This reporting that has uncovered corruption and held power to account, has often been done despite a current challenging press freedom environment. In many countries, the press must work around governments that maintain a strong grip on local media ownership, interfering in editorial decisions, while foreign outlets are often blacklisted for daring to expose wrongdoing.
Despite these challenges, complex investigative projects continue to shed light on money laundering and official graft throughout Asia, often across borders and under severe information and security constraints. Numerous trends are appearing across the continent, from the rise of authoritarian kleptocrats intent on raiding their own state coffers to organized criminals creating a new gambling epicenter in Southeast Asia tailor-made for washing money. Overall, Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) found that “governments across Asia Pacific are still failing to deliver on anti-corruption pledges. After years of stagnation, the 2024 average score for the region has dropped by one point to 44.”
GIJN spoke to some of the journalists conducting and supporting investigative projects in Asia about their experiences and challenges, as well as the value of cross-border collaboration.
Kyrgyzstan was once the most democratic of Central Asia’s republics, with genuine elections, a vigorous civil society, and a vibrant media scene. But under a populist and increasingly autocratic president, multiple independent media outlets have come under intense pressure (including two main investigative outlets in the country and GIJN members, Kloop and Temirov Live) or been forced to shut down (like the broadcaster April TV). Many journalists have been jailed or forced into exile. Those brave few who remain free have partnered with international media outlets to continue investigating illicit money and graft in their country.
Image: Screenshot, OCCRP
One of these collaborative investigations, All the President’s Men, explored how the current president has significantly reduced transparency of public expenditures while launching a bold new series of state projects meant to demonstrate his government’s power. Temirov Live, Kloop, and OCCRP examined 11 major state construction initiatives, including an airport, a presidential residence, and a railway, and identified five companies that seem to have received contracts for these projects. All five companies are interconnected, and their owners or directors have links to the president or one of his government’s key officials, the head of the Presidential Administrative Directorate. The estimated cost of just six of these projects totals more than US$137 million in public funds.
Although obtaining official procurement data is no longer possible, the journalists reviewed available incorporation papers and land records. They also analyzed social media posts by some of the company owners or managers, uncovering many links between them and the directorate’s head. Additionally, the journalists tracked down an insider familiar with the inner workings of that agency. The insider, who spoke anonymously for fear of reprisals, provided internal details on how some of these projects were managed. (Neither the Kyrgyz president nor the head of his directorate responded to detailed questions from the reporting team about the story.)
Bolot Temirov, who founded his investigative YouTube channel Temirov Live in 2020, states that journalists across Asia need to be creative in the face of intensifying repression and eroding transparency, especially in countries where press freedom is rapidly eroding, like in Kyrgyzstan. Temirov, notably, was stripped of his Kyrgyz citizenship and forced into exile in 2022 as part of the current government’s attempt to silence him and retaliate against his investigative work.
“A huge layer of government procurement carried out by state-owned enterprises has been concealed, while there is widespread persecution of investigative journalists,” Temirov explains. “Under such circumstances, uncovering and verifying information becomes increasingly difficult, especially when many journalists are forced into exile. The importance of sources and insiders increases, as does the value of social media analysis and direct requests to government agencies.”
This is not OCCRP’s first collaboration with Kyrgyz investigative journalists. In 2019, OCCRP, Kloop, and RFE/RL Kyrgyz Service jointly investigated the origins of the wealth belonging to a businessman with numerous assets in Kyrgyzstan and worldwide. The exposé uncovered widespread corruption in Kyrgyzstan’s customs service and sparked protests and widespread outrage across the country.
OCCRP, RFE/RL Uzbek Service, Kloop, and Kazakhstan’s Vlast further investigated how the same businessman and his family have extended their influence and investments beyond Kyrgyzstan across Central Asia. The resulting project, The Shadow Investor, uncovered how these investments have been welcomed by Uzbek and Kyrgyz authorities, transforming Tashkent’s skyline and driving Bishkek’s urban renewal.
“OCCRP is a massive network that provides Kyrgyz journalists with fantastic resources and training,” Temirov says. “Publishing investigations with OCCRP allows us to redistribute the risks and amplify the message, ensuring international audiences learn about corruption in Kyrgyzstan.”
What started as a routine RFE/RL Kazakh Service report on health and environmental conditions in Berezovka, a village in northwestern Kazakhstan, evolved into a sprawling investigation that brought together ICIJ and 26 international and regional media outlets. The resulting Caspian Cabals project examined how the 939-mile Caspian pipeline, which runs from Kazakhstan’s vast crude oil reserves through Russia to the Black Sea, has produced environmental devastation and allegations of financial corruption.
Across two years, this transnational reporting team interviewed hundreds of sources, including oil industry insiders and former executives. They examined troves of leaked internal corporate records, confidential emails, contracts, audits, land records, and court and regulatory filings. The investigation revealed how, in their pursuit of profits, Western companies that co-own the pipeline and operate the three Kazakh oil fields supplying it approved contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses controlled by Russian elites and to a firm partly owned by the billionaire son-in-law of a former Kazakhstan president.
“Corrupt officials and their associates have become adept at concealing their assets, taking advantage of both legal loopholes and restrictive practices,” says Vyacheslav Abramov of Vlast, an online publication that worked on the project. Since co-founding Vlast in 2012, Abramov has turned it into Kazakhstan’s leading investigative outlet and a frequent Central Asian partner for international investigative networks.
“Kazakhstan’s land registry is a striking example of such restrictions,” Abramov explains. “Journalists can access ownership data if the land is registered to legal entities, but records for private individuals remain closed under the pretext of protecting privacy. In reality, this prevents reporters from identifying who controls large swaths of land and tracing ownership patterns.”
The current Kazakh president promised to dismantle the authoritarian system of his predecessor and mentor, Nursultan Nazarbayev, but has quickly turned to limiting press freedom and access to information. Suppression of records, such as officials’ asset declarations, presents steep challenges for investigative work in Kazakhstan and makes access to and analysis of leaked internal documents all the more important.
One such leak, this time correspondence between the Swiss regulator FINMA and private bank Reyl Intesa Sanpaolo, shed light on the latter courting questionable clients linked to autocratic regimes. Reyl’s client list includes the daughter of Kazakhstan’s former president, who amassed vast wealth for himself and his family during his two decades in power, and the son-in-law of Uzbekistan’s longtime strongman ruler. The investigation, spearheaded by OCCRP, shed light on how Central Asia’s government-connected elites funnel their countries’ resources into foreign banks. For its part, Reyl refused to comment on specific cases for OCCRP’s story, but said it was “cooperating fully with the supervisory authorities and places the highest priority on ensuring compliance with all applicable regulations.”
“Collaborations with international investigative networks play a crucial role in strengthening independent and investigative reporting in Kazakhstan,” says Manas Kaiyrtaiuly, an RFE/RL Kazakh Service journalist who contributed to The Caspian Cabals and worked with C4ADS, a nonprofit with a mission to defeat global illicit networks and corruption. He urged foreign news partners to engage Kazakh journalists from the outset when undertaking international investigations in that country.
“Earlier involvement gives us more access to new technical skills, better facilitates joint publication and distribution of stories, and ensures that these investigations include perspectives from within Kazakhstan,” Kaiyrtaiuly explains.
Since a student-led uprising led to the August 2024 ouster of the Awami League, Bangladesh’s longtime ruling regime, the new political environment has created an opportunity for the country’s investigative media outlets to examine how influential government figures exploited their positions to loot official coffers and the banking system. A December 2024 white paper estimated that US$16 billion, on average, was illicitly siphoned off from Bangladesh every year during the previous government. The methods of plunder resembled those employed by Central Asian autocrats — significant tax exemptions, inflated state contracts and kickbacks, and dubious land purchases benefitting companies and individuals with ties to the regime.
Examination of where all this public money went has revealed the loopholes autocratic regimes and corrupt officials can exploit to plunder their own nation.
Using Dubai Land Department’s records and C4ADS datasets — and building on OCCRP’s 2024 Dubai Unlocked investigation — Bangladesh’s The Daily Star found that at least 461 Bangladeshis own 929 properties in Dubai worth over US$400 million. Among the identified owners of this real estate were Bangladesh’s ex-land minister, several Awami League members of parliament, and a few of the country’s business tycoons. Many of these individuals currently face allegations of corruption, graft, financial misconduct against their companies, or accusations of unpaid loans worth millions of dollars in Bangladesh.
Further investigations into the ex-land minister by Al Jazeera, which recently won a DIG Award, and the Guardian uncovered that the official — whose official government salary was only US$13,000 a year — amassed a portfolio of 360 properties in the United Kingdom worth over US$320 million, without declaring any of it to the tax authorities in Bangladesh. The findings, widely covered by the Bangladeshi press, helped the government put pressure on the UK to freeze the assets associated with the previous regime and repatriate the stolen public funds back to Bangladesh. (The ex-land minister told Al Jazeera that the overseas properties were purchased with funds from his legitimate businesses outside the country.)
Image: Screenshot, Al Jazeera Investigative Unit
“Bangladeshi journalists want and need more help from the international investigative community,” says Fakhrul Islam Harun, an investigative reporter with Bangladesh’s Prothom Alo.
Harun’s point is key for reporters inside — and outside of — Asia. As investigations like All the President’s Men, The Minister’s Millions, and Caspian Cabals have clearly demonstrated, collaborating to uncover financial corruption begets bigger and better stories, which, in turn, drives greater impact and public accountability. Despite an autocrat’s best efforts, when investigative journalists work together they can find a way to follow the money.
Sher Khashimov is a freelance journalist and researcher from Tajikistan. He covers press freedom, digital politics, labor migration, and regional conflicts in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. His work has been published in Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy, New Lines Magazine, Coda Story, Meduza, and many other outlets.
Nyuk was born in 2000 in South Korea. He is currently studying at the Department of Applied Art Education at Hanyang University in Seoul, South Korea, where he also works as an illustrator. Since the exhibition at Hidden Place in 2021, he has participated in various illustration exhibitions. He is mainly interested in hand drawing, which represents the value of his art world.
2025-10-06 20:38:55
Since 2004, Internews’ Earth Journalism Network has been working to support journalists to cover the environment more effectively, prioritizing those from low- and middle-income countries. Using a model that combines capacity and network building, EJN now has more than 34,000 members worldwide and has trained more than 17,700 journalists and supported the production of more than 16,500 media stories on a wide range of environmental topics.
To enable more reporting on ocean issues globally, we launched the Ocean Media Initiative, which has supported journalists, newsrooms and other media organizations around the world to report on ocean issues such as pollution, fisheries, biodiversity, extractive industries and conservation targets. Beginning in late 2025, EJN is embarking on a two-year project to support journalists globally—with a special focus on Ghana, Philippines and Mexico—to report on the 30×30 marine conservation target, which aims to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030.
With less than five years to go to achieve this target, just 2.7% of the ocean is currently highly or fully protected. Adopted as part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022, this target will be met by the creation—and effective management—of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) within country boundaries and in the high seas, and Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs). Over 190 countries agreed on the target, with the understanding that if 30% of the ocean is allowed to recover and build resilience, this would in turn support the marine ecosystem to adapt to the compound strains of extractive human activity and climate change.
As part of this work, EJN is seeking a part-time (50%) Ghana Country Coordinator to lead our on-ground and virtual activities in Ghana, as well as provide strategic planning and operational support to the two-year project. This position will report to the Program Officer in Internews’ US office and collaborate with colleagues globally.
There is a possibility for future or increased work opportunities as Internews/EJN plans to expand its activities in Ghana and West Africa, but that is not guaranteed.
2025-10-06 20:36:25
The Psychosocial Trainer, under the supervision of the Regional Manager in MENA, will be hired to prepare and deliver regionally contextualized safety training and workshops to journalists and other media practitioners on an as-needed basis, serving two programs and IREX other needs, as assigned.
2025-10-06 20:30:27
The University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications invites applications for the Knight Chair in Journalism and Technology. We are seeking journalism professionals with extensive experience working at the intersection of technology, innovation and the future of journalism. This is an opportunity to do groundbreaking work developing actionable ideas to help journalism survive and thrive in the next technological age. This is a 9-month position that is tenurable upon hire.
The Knight Chair will be a leader both for the College and in the national discussion about journalism technology, especially emerging issues regarding AI, social media, mis/disinformation and the role of journalism in a democracy. The Chair will be an advocate for exploring the technological advances that will benefit our students and the industry at large. A successful candidate will have experience in one or more of these areas: interactive journalism, artificial intelligence and other technology as reporting and/or engagement tools, user experience, content design or a similar related field.
