In this episode, hosted by Megan Calcote, Katherine Fitzgerald and Eddie Keller interview Robin McDowell and Martha Mendoza of the Associated Press about their 2015 Barlett and Steele Gold award-winning investigation “Fish Slavery.” McDowell and Mendoza explain what sparked this investigation, some of the decisions they had to make to protect their sources before publication, and what it took to conduct award-winning work.
Transcript
[Intro music]
Megan Calcote: How to Cover Money: Inside the Barlett and Steele Gold award-winning investigation, “Fish Slavery.”
Martha Mendoza: We went to our editors and said, “You know, we can either not show these people and not use their names, or we can show them and then they have to be in a safe place before we publish.” And the editors were like, “Okay, yeah. Do that. Get them rescued.” Then they all got off the phone, it’s like this conference call, and they all get off the phone, and then it was me and Margie and Robin like, “Okay. Get them rescued.”
Calcote: Hello and welcome to the Reynolds Center podcast. We are coming to you from the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism based at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. I’m Megan Calcote, host of the How to Cover Money podcast. Today we share tips from Robin McDowell and Martha Mendoza, two of the Associated Press journalists behind the 2015 Barlett and Steele Gold award-winning investigation “Fish Slavery.” Over the course of their investigation, they discovered an island of captive Burmese slaves on a remote Indonesian island. The fish caught by these slaves entered a supply chain that serves markets all over the world, including the United States. As a direct result of their reporting, thousands of slaves were freed and the largest seafood company in Thailand fired several suppliers. Robin and Martha sat down with Katherine Fitzgerald and Eddie Keller from the Reynolds Center to discuss their award-winning project.
Katherine Fitzgerald: What was it like, from an emotional standpoint, hearing all those stories from the people on the island? So how was it just being a witness to all of that?
Robin McDowell: It was really one of the saddest things I have ever encountered, just because they were so desperate, and really thought that everyone that they knew believed they were dead and that they were never going to get off this island. And the people who were abusing them were right there. You know, they were, when we left, they were still going to be there. So, you know, on the one hand we had all these amazing stories and that we really thought that the power of the stories would have a strong enough impact to help them eventually. We didn’t know what would happen in the meantime.
Eddie Keller: Let’s talk about sort of like the safety of the sources and what went into protecting them. I know, just reading the background that I read, you guys waited a certain amount of time to make sure that they were able to get off the island into protective custody. Let’s just talk a little bit further about what that looks like in the, you know, wanting to get a story out, but they want to make sure that everybody’s safe in the process.
Mendoza: So we talked to people who had covered human trafficking before, and they told us that one mistake that had happened in their journalism was that their faces of their victims had been depicted, and then those people’s lives are at risk. And so we were really told again and again not to do that. And so we went to our editors and said, “You know, we can either not show these people and not use their names, or we can show them and then they have to be in a safe place before we publish.” And the editors were like, “Okay, yeah. Do that. Get them rescued.” Then they all got off the phone. It’s like this conference call. They all get off the phone, and then it was me and Margie and Robin, like, “Okay, get them rescued.” But Margie knew, had a pretty good relationship and Robin with the International Organization for Migration, and their people were really, they know how to do this. They know how to rescue people who are being trafficked. And Margie and Robin had documented it enough that they were able to get to Benjina and rescue them. And it happened very quickly. And we needed that time anyways, because when you get to the end of an investigation, that’s when you need to take the information of here’s what we have found to every company and individual named, we want to give them all an opportunity to respond. So while they were being rescued, we were going ahead and giving everyone an opportunity to respond.
Calcote: Once the Associated Press team discovered this island of slaves. It took a lot of legwork to discover where all the fish was going.
Fitzgerald: Can you just tell us a little more about how you used all this data to see where stuff was maybe going in the U.S.? I know there wasn’t like a clear cut.
Mendoza: No, there is a clear cut path. There is. Large boats have to have satellite beacons on them. And so these guys watched the enslaved men’s fish being loaded onto a major refrigerated cargo ship, and then we followed that refrigerated cargo ship’s satellite beacon on a map into port. And when it got into port, Margie and Robin met that boat and surreptitiously followed trucks unloading that fish to different factories in this town, in about an hour south of Bangkok. And then those companies, they got their names of those companies shipped to the United States. Or shipped to somebody else who ships to the United States. And there’s U.S. Customs bills of records that show this company with this brand shipped to the United States. Then you can see Stavis Seafood in Boston, or Santa Monica Seafood in Santa Monica. And then you can go to these companies and say, “Where does your seafood end up?” And particularly, we were being very species specific, like, “What species are they seeing? Okay, where do your grouper or your snapper end up? Oh, they go to Cisco. Oh, they go to Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons.” We’re never, again, at the end of the day saying that this fish ended up at Albertsons. What we’re saying is “This fish entered a supply chain that can track directly to Albertsons.”
Keller: So while you guys were following these trucks and like trying to figure out where they’re going, was there any sense of like danger, caution that you have to exercise during that you don’t want to get caught following these people?
McDowell: Well, yeah, because this was really the crucial time for us. I mean, we knew about these men on the island. We knew how they got there, but if we couldn’t figure out what companies were taking this fish that were exporting companies, then the whole impact of the story would have been greatly reduced, and we would have been really depressed if we found out that all this fish was going to domestic markets only. We still would have been able to help those particular men. But the goal really was to put enough pressure on the industry so that this practice stops. There’s tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of men on the sea. They’re in the similar situation, stuck on trawlers catching fish that end up in America. So it’s this particular port town, Samux, is run by basically fish mafia and a huge crime syndicate that runs all the way from the police to some of the highest authorities in that town. And we were told repeatedly, that this is really dangerous. That people get shot if look like they are messing in this big, multi-billion dollar exporting industry. So we had a truck with tinted windows, and Margie especially was really good at being vigilant and keeping me in line, because I was a little less cautious than she was. We just went after as many trucks as we could. Lost several trucks because turns out we’re not as great at this. It’s not like a movie set when we’re out there. And these are, you know, they’re going through windy little streets, and sometimes it felt like it was getting too dangerous. And, you know, the truck stops, “On they saw us, keep going. Keep going past them.” Llike, okay, then we pass them, and then the truck would be gone, or whatever, whatever it was. We had four nights, basically, to make those connections. And
we really, for quite a while, thought we didn’t have them.
Fitzgerald: So there was, like, so much work and risk going into this. What it means to see the impact of the story afterwards.
Mendoza: I mean, 2000 people being freed is pretty wonderful, but those 2000 jobs have been filled by 2000 more slaves. And so yes, there’s been arrests. There’s been congressional hearings. There’s been new laws are being written, but you probably tell from our expressions, it’s still a massive problem, so we really just started to work hard on this.
Calcote: We’d like to say a big thank you and congratulations to the entire investigative team from the Associated Press, Robin McDowell, Margie Mason, Martha Mendoza and Esther Tucson, for your excellent reporting. And thank you especially to Robin and Martha for taking the time to sit down and talk about this project. If you’d like to read this multi-part investigation, we’ll include links to their stories in the show notes for this episode. Visit businessjournalism.org to find them. The winners for the latest round of the Barlett and Steele Awards were recently announced. Visit businessjournalism.org to see the three business investigations that received recognition this year. If you are in need of more business journalism training, the Reynolds Center can help. Visit businessjournalism.org to find articles and self-guided training, download our free eBook: Guide to Business Beat Basics, register for our free email course on Covering Financials, or sign up for our weekly newsletter. The newsletter will keep you up to date on training opportunities from the Reynolds Center year round. If you enjoy the How to Cover Money podcast, make sure to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, or SoundCloud, and while you’re there, please leave us a rating or a review to help make the podcast more visible to other business journalists. Support for the How to Cover Money podcast comes from the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. Join us next time for tips on how to use census data in your business stories from Brandon Quester and Evan Wyloge.
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