Donate NowCongratulations to our partner, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), who along with McClatchy Newspapers and the Miami Herald won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism for their work on the Panama Papers investigation. The announcement was made by Pulitzer Prizes Administrator Mike Pride at a ceremony at Columbia University on Monday, April 10, 2017.
“This honor is a testament to the enterprise and teamwork of our staff and our partners here in the United States and around the world,” Gerard Ryle, ICIJ’s director, said in an announcment on the ICIJ website. “We’re honored that the Pulitzer Board recognized the groundbreaking revelations and worldwide impact that the Panama Papers collaboration produced.”
The Pulitzer Center provided support for "The Panama Papers: An Introduction," an animated video produced by journalist Carrie Ching and ICIJ that helped launch the project and made the complicated story of illicit offshore shell companies accessible to general audiences. In addition, the Pulitzer Center's education team produced lesson plans about the Panama Papers.
The Panama Papers is a global investigation into the sprawling, secretive industry of offshore that the world’s rich and powerful use to hide assets and skirt rules by setting up front companies in far-flung jurisdictions.
Based on a trove of more than 11 million leaked files, the investigation exposes a cast of characters who use offshore companies to facilitate bribery, arms deals, tax evasion, financial fraud and drug trafficking.