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The Pangolin Reports: CC Journalism About the World’s Most Trafficked Mammal

Open Journalism

Earlier this year, we met Patrick Böhler, a journalist and executive editor of SWI swissinfo.ch, the international news service of Switzerland’s public broadcaster. In our conversation, we discussed the ways that various media companies and journalistic projects have used Creative Commons licensing to increase public access to their stories.

We were excited when Patrick circled back recently to tell us about his latest project, The Pangolin Reports, which launches today in newspapers and online media in several countries. The result of a nine-month investigation by more than 30 journalists around the world, The Pangolin Reports is a series of investigative reports that document the poaching and smuggling of pangolins, the scaly anteaters that are known to be the most illegally traded mammals in the world.

Photo by Yu Chih-Wei, CC BY-NC-ND

Böhler and an international team of journalists known as the Global Environment Reporting Collective worked in 14 newsrooms across Asia, Africa, and Europe to produce The Pangolin Reports. The series, released under Creative Commons’ BY-NC-ND license, builds on local reporters’ expertise in order to generate worldwide awareness about the multi-million-dollar black market for pangolins—and the criminal network behind the supply chain.

The Pangolin Reports is designed to spark a larger conversation about animal trafficking and to inspire a global campaign to help save the pangolin. To learn more about the project (including information about its CC license), visit https://globalstory.pangolinreports.com. If you’re interested in joining and/or supporting the Global Environment Reporting Collective, write to contact@pangolinreports.com.

Posted 25 September 2019

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