Mongabay and The Gecko Project win award for Indonesia coverage

Tom Johnson accepts the Fetisov Journalism Award on behalf of The Gecko Project and Mongabay.

Mongabay and its “Indonesia for Sale” series partner The Gecko Project were honored with a Fetisov Journalism Award last month for an investigative report produced in collaboration with Indonesia’s Tempo magazine and Malaysiakini.

The secret deal to destroy paradise” is the third installment of the in-depth series on the opaque deals underpinning Indonesia’s deforestation and land rights crisis. The report was the second prize winner in the “Excellence in Environmental Journalism” category and details a plan to create the world’s largest oil palm plantation on the island of New Guinea.

A previous report in the series, “Ghosts in the Machine,” was also recognized by a prize jury: the Society of Environmental Journalists noted it in 2019 for outstanding in-depth reporting, as part of its annual awards for environmental journalism.

The Gecko Project is a UK-based investigative journalism initiative, and their director, Tom Johnson, accepted the award at the January 22 ceremony in Lucerne, Switzerland, on behalf of the winners. The event was attended by experts in the field of journalism, finalists of the competition, prominent public figures, and the founders of the award, the Fetisov family.

Banner image: The Gecko Project’s Tom Johnson collects the award from Barbara Trionfi, Executive Director of the International Press Institute, and a member of the jury.