Shining a Light in the Shadows: Training Journalists to Expose Illicit Financial Flows
- International Lawyers Project
- 15 hours ago
- 4 min read
By Mary Ongore, Legal Manager, Sustainable Finance; and Carter Cheng, Legal Fellow
Illicit financial flows (IFFs) drain over $88.6 billion from Africa each year, deepening inequality and depriving citizens of essential services. Investigative journalists who expose these flows often face harassment, surveillance, and legal intimidation. Despite the risks, they persist in uncovering truths that others would rather conceal.
To support this vital work, International Lawyers Project (ILP) and Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA) delivered a two-part training designed to equip journalists with legal knowledge, risk mitigation strategies, and access to support networks when reporting on IFFs. Covering topics ranging from Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and data laws to digital security and ethical reporting, the training aimed to build a safer, more resilient environment for journalists committed to exposing corruption and defending the public interest.
Illustrating the Scale of Illicit Financial Flows in Africa
IFFs result from a global financial system that has, over time, been deliberately engineered to favour secrecy, reduce oversight, and protect wealth—often at the expense of the public interest. Nowhere is this more devastatingly evident than in Africa, where an estimated $88.6 billion quietly disappears from national economies each year.
These outflows exacerbate inequality and leave governments struggling to fund even the most basic public services. While international agencies continue to debate beneficial ownership registers and tax transparency, the burden of uncovering how these flows occur and who benefits from them has fallen, time and again, on investigative journalists.
These journalists trace money trails across borders, scrutinise public procurement deals, and expose politically connected elites. However, too often, they do so with minimal institutional support and under legal regimes that are structured to punish rather than protect them.
To address this challenge, ILP and TJNA delivered a two-part training programme for investigative journalists in Africa who report on IFFs.
Understanding the Challenge: The Risks Investigative Journalists Face
To understand why this training matters, one must first understand the system within which these journalists operate. The roots of corruption are rarely local. While bribery scandals in Accra or Nairobi may dominate headlines, the true enablers of IFFs often reside in London, New York, and Dubai. It is not African bank clerks who create the legal loopholes that enable capital flight—it is usually lawyers, practitioners leveraging regulatory differences, and corporate secrecy structures protected by the Global North’s financial infrastructure. However, when journalists in Ghana, Angola, Kenya, or Tanzania attempt to follow the money, they face a wide array of risks—from surveillance and censorship to arbitrary arrest and assassination.
There are numerous examples of these risks. In Ghana, Ahmed Hussein-Suale, a journalist working with Tiger Eye P.I., was gunned down in 2019 after helping expose international football corruption. In Tanzania, Erick Kabendera was jailed on spurious charges after investigating state corruption. In Angola, Rafael Marques de Morais has been repeatedly sued for reporting on diamond sector corruption. In South Africa, the AmaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism has faced legal threats for uncovering the vast web of state capture during Jacob Zuma’s presidency.
All this takes place in contexts where legal institutions are often underfunded, politically compromised, or beholden to elite interests. The result is a dual injustice: journalists are punished while the true perpetrators of financial crime operate with impunity.
The Law as a Shield—and a Sword
Given the legal - and extra-legal - risks journalists face when reporting on IFFs, ILP’s Mary Ongore led a session on legal pitfalls to avoid and the support available. The session unpacked key risks, including defamation laws, anti-money laundering regulations, cybercrime statutes, and SLAPPs, among others.
Participants learned how laws that appear legitimate on the surface are often weaponised to silence dissent. For example, criminal defamation laws are used to jail journalists for exposing wrongdoing; privacy and anti-cybercrime laws block the publication of leaked financial documents; and national security laws are misapplied to accuse journalists of espionage simply for investigating state-linked financial scandals. As one participant noted, “You can’t tell the truth if you don’t know the rules of the game—and how the game is rigged.”
The training thus covered human rights frameworks that protect freedom of the press, beginning with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees the right to “seek, receive and impart information.” This right is echoed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. When paired with legal defence and advocacy, these instruments can serve as powerful shields.
In addition, when protections fail, help is still available. From the Legal Network for Journalists at Risk (LNJAR) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), to Media Defence and the Rory Peck Trust, a wide network of organisations offers emergency legal aid, relocation assistance, cybersecurity support, and funding to journalists under threat. The training ensured participants were aware of these lifelines.
Participants also received guidance on ethical reporting and best practices, learning how good faith, factual accuracy, and responsible sourcing are not just ethical imperatives—but legal defences. Just as critically, the journalists left the training with new allies and a sense of solidarity.
Final Thoughts: Standing with the Truth-Tellers
Investigative journalists need systems that uphold the rule of law to effectively expose grand corruption and illicit financial flows. This includes the effective use of legal protections, support networks, and advocacy mechanisms that defend their work.
The ILP training underscored a fundamental truth: journalists must be equipped to navigate legal minefields if they are to hold power to account. However, more than that, they need a system that works for the many and not the few. Investigative journalism doesn’t just expose corruption—it pushes society to live up to its ideals: openness, fairness, and democracy. This training thus aimed to build the capacity of investigative journalists and to uphold the rule of law.
