Cross-border investigative journalism from Japan

Dear all,

This is Manami Takahashi from Tansa.

Thank you for walking with Tansa this year. We are happy to end this year with good news.

“Uploaded and Re-Uploaded" has won the X Award (Grand Prize) at the 4th Annual Journalism X Awards!

The X Award is organized by the Citizens Fund for the Support of Journalism. The concept is that citizens support journalism for the creation of a free and fair society. This is the third time Tansa has won the grand prize, following the first and third awards.

Here is a message from Tansa reporter, Mariko Tsuji.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of our donors for their support of our news coverage. In addition to monthly support, 266 people donated to a campaign to raise money for this news coverage. Thanks to your support, in addition to my daily coverage, I could go abroad twice, to Korea and Singapore. Thank you so much.

The coverage has resulted in the disbanding of one perpetrator group and Google's and Apple’s withdrawal of the app.

But even now, I still feel that we are only at the threshold of our work to uncover deep-rooted problems.

 Just before I published the first article, I received a message from the victim's family. They were concerned that the news coverage would escalate the assault. However, many perpetrators "enjoyed" trading illegal images, taking advantage of the fact that the victims could not speak up. I told them this and promised to do everything in my power to prevent the damage.

The family responded immediately. They wrote of their exhaustion from monitoring the Internet every day for several years after they noticed the damage, looking for images, and of their despair that I would not understand the true horror of the situation unless I had experienced the victimization of my relatives.

I was frivolous at the time. Now that I have done more interviews, I can imagine the depth of that despair. Digital sexual violence has no end. Even in the last few days, I have seen an increase in illegal transactions using apps.

I’m encouraged by this award and will continue telling this story. We still need to cover the costs of the research and interview. Again, I ask for your continued support.

We wish you all the best in the new year!

Links:

• Read "Uploaded and Re-Uploaded"
• Visit us on a web