Armando.Info

This media organization began in 2010 with a focus on investigative journalism. Ewald Scharfenberg, its director, says that at that time, he led the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) in Venezuela. They were emphasizing programs that sought to promote research journalism in the Caribbean country. When Wikileaks Venezuela was published by La Semana of Bogotá, Alfredo Meza, co-founder of Armando.info—went there, and published some reports.

The extraction and illegal trade of minerals in the Venezuelan Amazon, as well as murky agreements between China and Venezuela for the construction of the Gran Mission Housing Venezuela project, were among the subjects of the first phase of this media outlet's dedication to investigation.

Some international support that did not materialize meant that publication was sporadic until 2014, when they had a greater number of donations from individuals and Open Society Institute. Starting on July 20 of that year, they began publishing investigative journalism each week. Ewald said that since the publication of the Panama Papers in 2016, visits to this digital media organization tripled, generating significant international impact. However, he points out that this was not the first participation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). At the beginning of 2015, the portal made waves with an investigation that revealed Venezuela ranked third among countries with money deposited secretly at the HSBC Bank (14.8 billion dollars).

In 2018 four journalists from Armando.info had to leave the country after revealing potential corruption in a food import program (CLAP), because they did not have judicial and procedural protection.

That same year, Joseph Poliszuk, co-founder of the initiative, received the Knight Journalism International Prize, awarded by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and backed by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which recognizes journalism that has had an impact.

Source: SembraMedia