Since 2020, we have worked with covert researchers at Justice for Myanmar to name and shame the global companies accused of boosting the business interests of Myanmar’s military. We jointly produced a number of stories, edited and fact checked reports and pitched and helped steer stories to international media.

When the coup broke in February 2021, JfM requested our urgent assistance to help research news stories and to place them in the global media.

It was imperative to produce a regular flow of stories while global media attention was on Myanmar. Within 24 hours of the coup, we had drafted in our regular freelancer, Diarmid O’Sullivan, formerly a senior investigator at Global Witness who has immense experience reporting on the extractive industry. Diarmid worked closely with JfM on a number of stories overseen and edited by Nick Mathiason who also produced his own reporting. Collaborative stories with JfM were published by international media.

This investigation shows how a small, focused, harmonious, expert team can achieve significant impact in a crisis. This kind of journalistic response to authoritarian power-grabs is an interesting case study and could be a template for activists and journalists in other countries going through similar issues.

In the latter part of 2021, Finance Uncovered started publishing stories through the respected independent news organisation, Myanmar Now. We had nominated Myanmar Now for the One World Media special award, which it won in June 2021.