The Panama Papers effect…
Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Ted Sullivan looks at how the biggest news leak in history could become the benchmark for investigative journalism.
From any perspective, the publication of the Panama papers — the revelations that shed new light on the secret tax arrangements of the rich, and powerful — represents a new global benchmark for investigative journalism.
The impact of the biggest news leak in history has been felt around the world. The Prime Minister of Iceland was forced to resign after the papers revealed that he and two members of his cabinet controlled two shell companies mentioned in the papers. French President Francois Holland has called for the eradication of tax havens everywhere, and governments from Australia to Austria, India to Mexico have launched investigations into banks and individuals mentioned in the documents.
In Britain, the public has been treated to the rare spectacle of senior politicians hurriedly publishing their income tax returns while praising journalists for forcing them to do so.
After a week of not answering questions about his tax affairs, Prime Minister David Cameron finally confessed to receiving income from Blairmore, an offshore trust set up by his late father. Call Me Dave had to admit it was a fair cop as he told the Commons:
“Let me also congratulate the journalists that broke the Panama Papers.”
The Financial Conduct Authority and the Solicitors Regulation authority have demanded to know what exposure leading institutions have to the legal firm at the centre of the leak, Mossack Fonseca. And lest anyone think our government is not willing to put our money where its mouth is, £10 million has been committed to a multi-agency taskforce . HMRC, the National Crime Agency and Serious Fraud Office, as well as the FCA will take part in this investigation which will report both to the Treasury and the Home Office.
There is an echoing call in the media to follow the Scandinavian example of publishing everyone’s tax return.
The Panama Papers were released in early April in a co-ordinated global effort organised by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists based in Washington. These documents were acquired (shall we stay stolen in the public interest?) more than a year ago from Mossack Fonseca in Panama. The German newspaper, Suedeutsche Zeitung was the first news organisation approached about the cache of documents, but they decided the best approach would be to share the data with colleagues around the world through the ICIJ.
Everything about this publication is on an unprecedented scale. A mind blowing 2.6 terabytes of data are included — more than 11 million documents consisting of emails, photographs, PDF documents, spreadsheets and entries from company databases. Publication may well go on for years.
The ICIJ has decided to make this data available and searchable by the public on their website. According to Gerard Ryle of the ICIJ: “We need the wisdom of the crowd…we are extending an invitation to the world to take part in our investigation…it may be that the best stories are still out there.”
What is perhaps most astonishing, given the often tetchy competitiveness and independence of mind that characterises the news business, is that somehow almost 400 journalists in 70 countries kept the leak secret for a year while they investigated the data, and then 100 global news outlets managed to publish the story on the same day. In the future every significant journalistic investigation will be judged against how the Panama papers have been handled.
Certainly this news event is the most spectacular example in modern times of government by news leak, a concept first articulated by the Canadian communications guru and academic Marshall McLuhan. He wrote about it in his groundbreaking book Understanding Media, published more than 50 years ago, long before anyone had heard of data dumps, the internet, or social media.
“…the press page yields the inside story of the community in action and interaction. It is for this reason that the press seems to be performing its function most when revealing the seamy side. Real news is bad news — bad news about somebody or bad news for somebody.”
McLuhan likened press revelations to a ‘public confessional’, acknowledging and evidencing the commission of a significant sin.
“With the speed-up of printing and news-gathering, this mosaic form[represented by the press] has become a dominant aspect of human association… for that reason, the press is inseparable from the democratic process.”
To the extent that tax avoidance becomes recognised as a sin around the world — and governments act decisively to atone for it and prevent it — this massive press leak will have done its job.
If the process is successful, we may look back on April 2016 as the dawn of the Tax Justice Spring around the world. A false dawn, however, may push the world into more poverty, more repression and more violence.
So, has this changed the journalism landscape forever? Share your thoughts with us.
