We are nominated! #MaltaFiles nominated for European Press Prize investigative reporting award

MaltaToday was part of EIC.Network’s project investigating Malta’s taxation system and how it helped multinationals avoid tax back home

Illustration: Sorina Vazelina
Illustration: Sorina Vazelina

When the Malta Files broke in May 2017, right in the middle of a snap election and toxic campaign, MaltaToday struck out yet again on the subject of tax justice.

The Malta Files revealed how Malta works as a base for tax avoidance inside the EU, helping wealthy foreign businessmen and Europe’s biggest companies, gambling firms, politicians and even mafia figures, hide assets, evade taxes and operate without scrutiny.

As a revered industry in Malta, the backlash was inevitable: MaltaToday was criticised by elites, and the invested supporters of both the Labour and Nationalist Party, for shedding yet more light on the way the island siphons off tax revenue on profits generated in other countries.

Government supporters who worship at the altar of the ‘A’ credit ratings accused the newspaper of working against the country’s economic interests; Opposition figures surmised on social media that the Malta Files was a ‘ruse’ to allow Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to shore up support for the national economy during an election campaign.

This is what independent journalism is made of.

Today the Malta Files has been nominated for the European Press Prize’s investigative reporting award of 2018. And we are honoured to have formed part of the EIC Network’s project.

In total, Malta Files produced nearly a hundred stories, and brought together 13 media and 49 journalists in 16 countries and 12 languages.

Published by European Investigative Collaborations (EIC. Network) and initiated by Craig Shaw and Zeynep Şentek (TheBlackSea.eu) and Rafael Buschmann (Der Spiegel), the Malta Files also shone a light on Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s family’s shipping business and the tax avoidance scheme designed for Russian fast loans billionaire Oleg Boyko.

The team that formed part of the EIC Network’s Malta Files project are:

Alain Jennotte, Alain Lallemand, Joël Matriche (Le Soir); Jürgen Dahlkamp, Christoph Henrichs, Gunther Latsch, Christoph Pauly, Jörg Schmitt (Der Spiegel); Yann Philippin (Mediapart); Michael Bird, Zeynep Sentek, Craig Shaw, Vlad Odobescu, Catalin Prisacariu, Stefan Candea (RCIJ/TBS); Milorad Ivanovic, Blaž Zgaga (Nacional); Hanneke Chin, Merijn Rengers, Esther Rosenberg (NRC); Paula Guisado, Hugo Garrido, José F. Leal (El Mundo); Kristoffer Orstadius (Dagens Nyheter); Micael Pereira, Miguel Prado (Expresso); Vittorio Malagutti, Gloria Riva, Giovanni Tizian, Stefano Vergine (L’Espresso); Matthew Vella (MaltaToday); Ruben Berta, Anna Carolina Cardoso, Andrew Fishman, Ana Freitas (The Intercept); Lúcio de Castro, Raquel Cordeiro (The Intercept/Agência Sportlight)

READ MORE Every year Malta wipes out €2 billion in foreign tax by giving shareholders 85% rebates on their tax