by JANIS JOPLIN MOISES and MATTHEW DAVE A. JUCOM
JOURNALISM DEPARTMENT Asst. Prof. Karol Ilagan is among the 13 fellow investigative journalists for this year’s Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Initiative Network (RIN) to “investigate pressing issues driving deforestation” in the tropical region, announced Saturday.
In this fellowship program, Ilagan has to spend a year investigating the issues of corruption causing the destruction of rainforests, and climate change in the Amazon, Congo, and Southeast Asian region.
Together with 11 more fellows from 10 different countries, they are expected to create individual investigative reports on these issues, the Pulitzer Center said.
“The Pulitzer Center’s RIN seeks to create an ecosystem of collaboration among journalists to follow the money and the many illegal practices and legal loopholes that enable industrial-scale deforestation,” they said.
RIN was launched in 2020 as a sister initiative of Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Journalism Fund and was funded by the Norweigan International Climate and Forest Initiative.
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is an award-winning and independent news media organization that was established in 2006, which aims to shed light on global issues that have been overlooked.
Ilagan also manages the editorial desk at the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalists (PCIJ) and has worked on reports that center on underreported issues in the country such as environmental issues, irregularities and conflicts of interest in government contracts, election spending reports of public officials, according to PCIJ.
She will be working with representatives from various media organizations such as Tempo Magazine, The New York Times, El País, InfoCongo, Bloomberg, The Intercept Brasil, and NBC News. F
