Medialab Prado

Sinopsis of the talk, by Mar Cabra

With no freedom of information law and very few authorities providing public access to data beyond statistics, is it possible to do data journalism in Spain? The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) latest investigation analyzed for several months the amount of public money the Spanish fishing industry got and how it was spent. The investigation revealed that more than 5.8 billion euros fueled the Spanish industry since the year 2000 –the largest receiver of such funds in the European Union-, in a time when many subsidies are being highly criticized for having helped maintain a fleet too big for the currently scarce existing fishing stocks. Mar Cabra will explain where they got the data and how they reached this amount, which seems to be unknown to authorities in Spain and the EU. She will also explore other possible data sources and what could be done with them.

The original story on fishing subsidies in Spain could be read here: http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/10/02/6733/nearly-6-billion-subsidies-fuel-spain-s-ravenous-fleet

The investigation was published in half a dozen countries, such as the U.S., the United Kingdom or Spain. The article in El Mundo that cited it can be accessed here: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2011/10/04/natura/1317751327.html

The methodology on how ICIJ got the subsidy figure is in: http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/10/02/6742/subsidy-methodology

The article is part of a bigger series called “Looting the Seas,” an ongoing investigation into the forces that are rapidly depleting ocean resources. The second part of the series -on the Spanish fishing industry- can be read in full in: http://www.iwatchnews.org/world/looting-seas/looting-seas-ii