Forbidden Stories organization | Because no story is prohibited

Her name was Viktoria Roshchyna. Consequently, but her friends called her Vika, a name as short as the Ukrainian journalist was small. Furthermore, Small, therefore, but with courage inversely large. For example, It was one of the only ones to cover the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia.

You have understood that I am talking about it in. Furthermore, the past because Viktoria Roshchyna is no longer. Meanwhile, She disappeared in July 2023 as she was investigating secret prisons in which Russia arbitrarily imprisoned thousands of Ukrainian. Nevertheless, civilians since the start of her invasion of the country.

In these centers, without faith or law, we practice the torture of a thousand and one ways. In addition, With an electric chair. Moreover, In during the ceiling people. In addition, By simulating drowning. Consequently, By forcing them to serve as human furniture for the cruel pleasure of their jailers.

It is these horrifying facts that “Vika” Roshchyna wanted to exhibit when she was kidnapped. Moreover, herself became a victim of these secret prisons in which a war crime does not wait for the other. Nevertheless, The Russian occupier wanted to camouflage the facts by silencing it. Furthermore, Rather, he did the opposite.

After the disappearance of the independent reporter. However, the announcement of her death, journalists of 13 media worked for six months to finish her investigation. Behind this immense collective effort, the Forbidden Stories organization, established in forbidden stories organization | because Paris.

The idea behind this consortium is simply shiny.

When a journalist is muzzled. killed or imprisoned because he works on an explosive subject, Forbidden Stories and his media partners take over the investigation where she was interrupted and burst the truth in the open.

The whole is published through the planet. Information thus becomes a deterrent weapon directed against the enemies of journalism.

The reports on the Russian secret prisons appeared in particular in the Guardianthe Washington Post et The world. “The project had a major global impact,” notes the founder of Forbidden Stories, Laurent Richard. The investigation has demonstrated the existence of a Russian guantánamo. »»

Dozens of former detainees have testified, former employees of the Russian state too. The forbidden stories organization | because facts revealed are added to the long list of crimes of the Russian state. which are the subject of procedures before international courts of justice.

This large common survey, called the “Viktoriia project”, is one of many other orchestrated by Forbidden Stories. Last week, the organization and its collaborators highlighted arms trafficking in Paraguay, where 19 journalists were killed in 30 years.

In early July also appeared a series of articles on corruption in Haiti by finishing the investigation launched by Haitian journalist Gary Tesse. murdered in 2022, and going so far as to appoint the main suspect of this sordid murder, a prosecutor.

The organization also coordinated two investigation phases on targeting Palestinian journalists. media infrastructure by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.

About fifty journalists have forbidden stories organization | because gotten their hands on the dough. honoring the memory of some 170 journalists who died since October 7, 2023 suddenly.

In 2021, it was a survey on Pegasus, ultra-invasive cybersurveillance software sold by an Israeli company, which had put the organization on my radar.

It was learned that 180 journalists. in addition to human rights defenders and opposition figures, were among the targets of this software, sold to governments. The Forbidden Stories team. including its founder, the forbidden stories organization | because French journalist Laurent Richard, has also received several prestigious journalism awards for this investigation.

Before launching Forbidden Stories, Laurent Richard had accumulated more than two decades of experience in investigation journalism. The tense work and the pressure, he knows. However, two events encouraged him to transform his work into a combat for press freedom.

First, a meeting with a journalist Azerbaijani, Khadija Ismayilova, who was threatened by the government who wanted to silence her. Instead of being silent, the latter made the threats it received public.

“This meeting, as well as the attacks of Charlie Hebdoprompted me to create the organization. I was a neighboring Charlie Hebdo And I arrived less than two minutes after the terrorists left the building. ”says Richard, joined in Paris.

He then decided to give a journalistic response to the threats that hover over the heads of journalists. Inspired by an American initiative from 1976. during which 38 journalists had made a common front to finish the investigation of their colleague Don Bolles, died following a bomb car attack, Laurent Richard spent a year at the University of Michigan to develop his own project.

Today, Forbidden Stories has more than 25 employees and forbidden stories organization | because works with more than 110 partner media.

The organization also allows threatened journalists to shelter the contents of their investigations in a safe box. announcing by the very fact to their torments that “killing the messenger will not kill the message”, to use the organization’s formula.

The effect is sometimes immediate.

“It was the case notably of Alfredo Guachiré, from Paraguay. As soon as he made public that there is a safeguard of his work, harassment has decreased, “notes Laurent Richard.

If he notes an increase in journalistic solidarity, Laurent Richard is not optimistic about press freedom in the world.

“There has been an absolute degradation of press freedom in the past five years. It is linked to the accession to power of forbidden stories organization | because far -right populists. leaders as much as to the incredible and uncontrolled power of technology giants, which do nothing in particular to counter online violence and confusion in the public between information and opinion. More than ever, the fight for press freedom must be waged overall. When a journalist is threatened by conducting a dangerous investigation, we have to go to a group, he said. To defend democracy, we need journalists alive ”.