Ciper Chile

The main task of the Center for Journalistic Research (CIPER) is to carry out rigorous investigative journalism, which monitors power and provides citizens with information of public interest that contributes to deepening democracy. CIPER considers that democracy has as one of its fundamental pillars the right of citizens to scrutinize public and private powers in order to verify that they comply with the law and live up to the expectations that they have explicitly planted in citizens. CIPER believes that one of the duties of investigative journalism is to carry out this scrutiny, contributing to the transparency of the public sphere. Investigative journalism, in CIPER's opinion, does not undermine power but, paradoxically, contributes to its legitimacy by helping it satisfy the standards that are typical of a democratic society. These standards indicate that those who possess power, state or from outside the State, or aspire to have it, must rigorously comply with the law, respect the fundamental rights of citizens and live up to the expectations that they have generated in public opinion as the basis of their reputation. CIPER has carried out various investigations that have shaken the country, among which is the Hermosilla Case, which opened various avenues and even caused a crisis in the Judiciary, or the revelation that the Ministry of Health reported to the WHO a figure of deaths higher than that reported in Chile during the pandemic. In addition, the medium has been part of various international collaborative investigations, such as Pandora Papers, Panama Papers and Bahamas Leaks. Since 2019, CIPER has been financed mainly through its readers, through a membership system that is possible thanks to the trust that citizens have in the medium. Currently more than 80% of its income comes this way.