The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) – Bias and Credibility

OCCRP - Left Center Bias - Liberal - Democrat - CredibleFactual Reporting: Mostly Factual - Mostly Credible and Reliable


LEFT-CENTER BIAS

These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias.  They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes) to favor liberal causes.  These sources are generally trustworthy for information but may require further investigation. See all Left-Center sources.

  • Overall, we rate OCCRP Left-Center Biased based on editorial positions, funding, and advocacy for political causes that moderately align with the left. We also rate them as Mostly Factual in reporting rather than High due to poorly sourcing some information.

Detailed Report

Bias Rating: LEFT-CENTER
Factual Reporting: MOSTLY FACTUAL
Country: USA
Press Freedom Rating: MOSTLY FREE
Media Type: Organization/Foundation
Traffic/Popularity: Medium Traffic

MBFC Credibility Rating: HIGH CREDIBILITY

History

Established in 2005, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a non-profit investigative news organization that describes itself as “an investigative reporting platform for a worldwide network of independent media centers and journalists” The founders are Drew Sullivan and Paul Radu—located in Washington, DC. The Journalism Development Network (JDN) operates OCCRP.

Read our profile on the United States media and government.

Funded by / Ownership

The Journalism Development Network (JDN), a non-profit (501(c)(3), operates the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). ProPublica lists their financial data, and according to the European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption And State-Building (ERCAS), The Open Society Foundations, the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), and The Skoll Foundation fund the OCCRP. Here is the complete list of donors.

Analysis / Bias

OCCRP publishes articles sourced with quotes such as “Russian Asset Tracker” a quote from the article reads, “A representative of Usmanov told OCCRP that he has never benefited from the Russian government nor from the privatization of state assets and that his capital was obtained solely through transparent investment and asset management.” This article does not contain any hyperlinks and does not name the representative, making it impossible to determine if it is credible.

Some articles, such as Sanctioning an Oligarch Is Not So Easy: Why the Money Trail of Alisher Usmanov, One of Russia’s Wealthiest Men, Is Difficult to Follow hyperlinks to credible sources such as Forbes, treasury.gov, BBC, and Reuters



Editorially, they frequently report negatively on the former Trump administration, such as this ‘Have a Nice Life’: Trump Exits With Pardons for Cronies, Money Launderers. On the other hand, they report favorably on the Biden administration like this The U.S. Puts Global Anti-Corruption Efforts at Center of Foreign Policy. Finally, OCCRP is currently focused on investigations and reporting on Russian corruption and crimes, such as this Kremlin-Linked Group Arranged Payments to European Politicians to Support Russia’s Annexation of Crimea.

In general, the OCCRP holds a left-leaning editorial and advocacy bias. While the information appears fact-based, they sometimes do not use hyperlinks or name the source, which results in a Mostly Factual rating.

Failed Fact Checks

  • None in the Last 5 years. They are used as a resource for IFCN fact-checkers.

Overall, we rate OCCRP Left-Center Biased based on editorial positions, funding, and advocacy for political causes that moderately align with the left. We also rate them as Mostly Factual in reporting rather than High due to poorly sourcing some information. (M. Huitsing 02/28/2023)

Source: https://www.occrp.org/

Last Updated on July 1, 2023 by Media Bias Fact Check


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