In the days leading up to his killing, the Colombian journalist Rafael Moreno made contact with us at Forbidden Stories. The threats he was receiving were becoming more and more disquieting. This is why Moreno had decided to share the information he was working on with us: so that in case anything happened to him, we could pursue his work.
At 7.10pm on 16 October 2022, Moreno was shot dead in the city of Montelíbano, in the north of Colombia – a dangerous region dominated by the Gulf Clan, one of the most powerful drug cartels in the world.
Immediately after his death, we went to Bogotá. We met dozens of Colombian, Latin American and international journalists. And on 23 October, 30 journalists decided to unite forces to pursue Moreno’s unfinished work.
Six months later, coordinated by Forbidden Stories, journalists from CLIP, Question Publica, El Espectador, France 24 and other partners are releasing the “Rafael Project”. This collaborative and international investigation is reporting significant information pertaining to environmental and health damage by mining companies in Córdoba, the region of Colombia Moreno is from. It is also unmasking a suspected massive system of favoritism and potential embezzlement of public funds that Moreno had begun to look into.
Like Moreno, dozens of journalists under threat around the world are protecting their sensitive information and investigations through the SafeBox Network. This new network is quickly growing. Some of these journalists – like Alfredo Guachiré in Paraguay, Paola Ugaz in Peru and Haruna Mohammed Salisu in Nigeria – have made the choice to make it publicly known that they’ve joined this network. They are doing this for their own security, so that people who might wish to silence them know their stories will be revealed, one way or another, on a global scale.
Days before World Press Freedom day, it is important to remember that journalism, and the right for every citizen to be informed, is critical to global democracy. Pursuing the work of assassinated journalists is not just a fraternal responsibility, but also a democratic one, ensuring that public interest information – whether it’s about environmental crimes, corruption or human rights violations – is not snuffed out. This is especially true in a time when journalists are under greater and greater threat.
To Moreno’s killers: you were wrong. This week, 32 media outlets around the world are publishing Moreno’s investigations. Killing the journalist won’t kill the story.
Laurent Richard is a journalist and the director of the Forbidden Stories consortium
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