How to Rob Africa ~ AlJaz's P&P Investigation...

AlJazeera's People & Power shares How to Rob Africa, an expose investigation asking...

"Why does the Western world feed Africa with one hand while taking from it with the other? [...] International money laundering regulations are supposed to stop the proceeds of corruption being moved around the world in this way, but it seems the developed world's financial system is far more tempted by the prospect of large cash injections than it should be. Indeed the West even provides the getaway vehicles for this theft, in the shape of anonymous off-shore companies and investment entities, whose disguised ownership makes it too easy for the corrupt and dishonest to squirrel away stolen funds in bank accounts overseas. This makes them nigh on impossible for investigators to trace, let alone recover. [...] The continent is rich is natural resources that are being exploited for big profits, but the money is rarely used for the benefit of the people. Instead it goes to line the pockets of corrupt officials who then often smuggle it out to be deposited in secret offshore bank accounts in the developed world. So who facilitates these transactions? And how and why does the developed world make it so easy to launder this dirty cash? In this revealing investigation for People & Power, [Zimbabwean journalist Stanley] Kwenda and the Ghanaian undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, set off to find out."

Chocolate's Child Slaves ~ CNN Farming Expose

CNN Freedom Project's David McKenzie investigates unsavory labor practices in Chocolate's Child Slaves...

"UNICEF estimates that nearly a half-million children work on farms across Ivory Coast, which produces nearly 40% of the world’s supply of cocoa. The agency says hundreds of thousands of children, many of them trafficked across borders, are engaged in the worst forms of child labor."

Fishy Business ~ Globe Seafood Fraud Expose...

Great Globe journalism spots rampant fraud in the seafood sector. In their cover-story expose piece on this seriously Fishy Business, Jenn Abelson, Beth Daley, and Scott LaPierre reveal it's On the menu, but not on your plate...

"...among the findings of a five-month Globe investigation into the mislabeling of fish [were] that Massachusetts consumers routinely and unwittingly overpay for less desirable, sometimes undesirable, species -- or buy seafood that is simply not what it is advertised to be. In many cases, the fish was caught thousands of miles away and frozen, not hauled in by local fishermen, as the menu claimed. It may be perfectly palatable -- just not what the customer ordered. But sometimes mislabeled seafood can cause allergic reactions, violate dietary restrictions, or contain chemicals banned in the United States. The Globe collected fish from 134 restaurants, grocery stores, and seafood markets from Leominster to Provincetown, and hired a laboratory in Canada to conduct DNA testing on the samples. Analyses by the DNA lab and other scientists showed that 87 of 183 were sold with the wrong species name -- 48 percent."

Thanks to Ian Lamont for emphasizing this great example of a strong and vibrant Fourth Estate in action.