February 15, 2012
Three recent graduates of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism have hit the ground running at Reuters. In the last four days, they’ve published special reports on Iranian shipping, the closure of U.S. post offices and the growing business of selling citizenship.
Cezary Podkul '11 worked four months on “Towns go dark with post office closings,” which found that many of the 3,800 post offices that are going to be closed because of budget cuts are in rural towns that do not have access to broadband Internet and where UPS and FedEx apply surcharges. The Postal Service said it did not consider Internet accessibility when it decided which offices to shut down. The closures will save some $300 million a year, less than 0.5 percent of the agency’s $70-billion budget.
The report came with an interactive map that showed the places where the post offices would be closed, with information like the population of the town, its Internet access and the reason for the closure.
The local post office in Markham, Va., is seen Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011. With its economic health in decline and future uncertain, the U.S. Postal Service is considering closing hundreds of post offices nationwide, many of them in rural areas. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Himanshu Ojha '11 analyzed shipping records to show how the Iranian shipping company IRISL has been evading sanctions by reflagging its ships and changing its owners. As he reported in a story co-written with Rachel Armstrong and Stephen Grey, “Data from IHS Fairplay, a ship-tracking group that uses ship registration documents from various sources, and Reuters Freight Fundamentals Database, which compiles location data from every ship’s Automatic Identification System, show that despite the sanctions, 130 of the 144 banned ships in IRISL’s fleet continue to call at many of the world’s major ports hidden behind a web of shell companies and diverse ownership.”
The data showed that in the 40 months since sanctions began there have been at least 878 changes in the IRISL ships, including 157 name changes, 94 changes of flag, 122 changes of operator, and 127 changes of registered ownership.
On Sunday, Atossa Abrahamian '11 published a special report, “Passports … for a Price,” that describes the booming business of selling citizenship. The report exposes a class of people who are beginning to offshore not just their money but themselves, spending large sums for second passports. These new passports allow their owners to avoid paying taxes, travel more freely and reduce their legal liabilities.
In 2006, Columbia Journalism School expanded and consolidated its investigative offerings by establishing the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism. Through the center, run by Prof. Sheila Coronel, the J-School offers an exclusive track for students who want to specialize in investigative journalism. Stabile students spend the year focused on investigative reporting, and they complete an investigative report as their master’s project.
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