European farm subsidy site wins Freedom of Information award
Posted by
Martin Stabe
on 27 March 2007 at 15:55
Tags: Awards, Computer-Assisted Reporting, Washington Post, data
Nils Mulvad, Brigitte Alfter and Jack Thurston of Farmsubsidy.org have won a Freedom of Information award from the US-based group Investigative Reporters and Editors.
The web site, run by a pan-European group of journalists and researchers, reveals the subsidies large landowners receive under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). It has been one of the best examples of international cooporation among journalists as well as the potential for using various countries’ Freedom of Information legislation to obtain data, and as an example of how journalists can use searchable databases to better illustrate complex stories.
Mulvad, a Danish journalist, is one of Europe’s leading figures in computer-assisted reporting. He is one-half of the CAR consultancy Kaas & Mulvad, which grew out of the now-defunct Danish International Centre for Analytical Reporting (DICAR).
He was one of the first European journalists to probe the recipients of common agricultural policy cash by using the Danish FOI law to obtain the CAP data for his country. Journalists from other countries, including the UK, later joined forces to make similar FOI requests and establish the site, which provides CAP disclosures from across the EU into a searchable database.
The site was modeled on a similar effort in the United States, where the Environmental Working Group has maintained a searchable database of Federal farm subsidies since the Washington Post first forced their disclosure through an FOI case in 1996.
Tags: Awards, Computer-Assisted Reporting, Washington Post, data
